Holy cow this one's awful. The Beast of the Yellow Night (1971) opens in Southeast Asia, 1948, near a small jungle village inhabited by folks clearly Filipino so more Mexican looking than Southeast Asian, & just as clearly Catholic. Soldiers scour the countryside, & an American, Langdon (John Ashley), is hiding in the jungle starving to death.

Langdon's not a good guy so his distress attracts some sort of evil spirit, possibly Satan himself (Vic Diaz). A disembodied voice offers to help him in exchange for lifelong loyalty, the hoary old "Deal with the Devil" motif. As soon as Langdon agrees, a half-naked fat native materializes with a grocery bag of human cold-cuts.

All this before the opening credits.

The story picks up in the modern era, with Langdon still around, never having aged because he keeps possessing fresh bodies, & his task is to corrupt humanity.

By the time he finds himself in the body of a man who has quite a pleasant wife (Charlotte Wilcox), he rebels against the jungle spirit, & as punishment is periodically changed into a terrible creature.

The nights aren't yellow & the transformations don't happen only at night. The film is so badly edited from such an awful script that much of the time it's hard to know what's supposed to be happening, or why, & it's even harder to care.

It's essentially a werewolf plot though the make-up or mask design is not as specific as a wolf & it has nothing to do with the moon. The cops just think they're after a hideously disfigured man of enormous strength.

Apart from the blind man (Andres Centenera) who assists Langdon for no conceivable reason, & the tubby evil spirit who continues to show up in a couple different guises, there are no actors of merit, & not much of a script in which actors could even attempt to be good. With one sex scene & a bit of gore, it fills the exploitation bill for its era, & is watchable if you're already a fan of schlock.

copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl