The Beast of the Yellow Night (1971)

The Beast of the Yellow Night: Directed by Eddie Romero. With John Ashley, Mary Charlotte Wilcox, Leopoldo Salcedo, Eddie Garcia. Satan saves a man from death on condition he become his disciple (and, as it turns out, a hairy murderous beast).

“Beast of the Yellow Night features a hideous man-monster that tears its victims to shreds, but the real horror is a semi-naked Vic Diaz. The rotund Filipino actor appears at the beginning of the film as Satan wearing nothing but a loincloth (my eyes!), promising dying army deserter Joseph Langdon (John Ashley) immortality if he agrees to become a servant of evil. Unperturbed by Vicu0026#39;s lack of clothing, Joseph agrees and is u0026#39;rebornu0026#39; in several bodies over the years, his mission to awaken the evil in the people that he meets. Langdonu0026#39;s latest guise is that of facially disfigured accident victim Philip Rogers, who, having been pronounced dead, amazes everyone by coming back to life with a brand new face (his doctor is so shocked that he promptly has a heart attack).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003ePhilu0026#39;s sexy blonde wife Julia (Mary Charlotte Wilcox) takes her hubby home but notices that he now behaves rather strangely. But itu0026#39;s not just his personality that has changed: from time to time, Phil/Langdon physically transforms into a horrible bloodthirsty creature with rubber claws and great big jaws.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe first of producer Roger Cormanu0026#39;s movies to be shot in the Philippines during the u0026#39;70s, this clunker from director Eddie Romero is frequently confusing (what Satan has to gain from turning his servant into a killer beast is never explained) and pretty dull for the most part, even when Ashley is in monster mode. There are a couple of brief gory moments (a disembowelment and some slashed faces), and Wilcox sheds her clothes (or her body double does–itu0026#39;s hard to tell), but for the most part the film is painfully slow, especially when the creature is given refuge by an old, blind bandit (an idea lifted from Frankenstein?). The ending sees the monster and the blind man trapped by the army in a burning field of grass, Phil/Langdon finally shot and killed even though he was bullet-proof only moments earlier.”