Around one year after the death of Paul Naschy came so his last official, real (something he wrote and/or directed and starred in at the same time) movie. He died November 30th 2009 and my guess is that he didn't finish editing or color timing the movie, just because how the final result look. Empusa is hardly a brilliant movie. It’s hardly a good movie. No, it’s The Last Film of Paul Naschy, and that’s a definition as good as others.
After reading his autobiography, Memoirs of a Wolfman, I learned - something I guess before - that he was a sensitive man, with his emotions almost outside his skin. A macho man with a hidden softie inside. He never seemed happy with his career, and the text have a not so subtle tone of bitterness all the way through. The Spanish edition ended very dark and bitter, so it’s almost humorous how the added, updated chapter at the end of the US edition is even more bitter. But it seemed Naschy had a few good years up to his death anyway.
Before this one Naschy hadn’t stepped into a directing job since 1992’s The Night of the Executioner and the result is evident. Naschy had lost his storytelling talent, and should have focused only on acting, where he was excellent. But hey, I’m not gonna complain, because Empusa is in a special way the perfect example to see Naschy: as the star, director and writer - a boost for is already lovingly huge ego. In Empusa, old man Naschy always gets what he want.
Naschy is Abel and Antonio Mayans is Victor, two old farts spending the day nagging at each other like an old couple, while undressing sexy women with their bare eyes. One day they find an army on the beach. A chopped off of arm. Like everyone would do, they bring it home to investigate it. It holds some secret information and Abel writes this down and puts the arm in the fridge. Like a boss. The traces lead to a secret coven of vampire women, living at - what it seems - the bottom of the sea! When Victor bites the dust, Abel sets out to avenge him!
It’s a stunningly weird movie. It completely lack logic, the humor is VERY awkward, Naschy and Mayans, as the old flabby men they are, shows how sexy they are and gets all the women. No, not Mayans. Naschy makes every woman fall for him - just by wearing Sexy Long Hair-Wig (© Fred Andersson 2015) and showing off his grey chest hair. The script is confusing, the directing and editing even more so. It never knows if it’s a comedy, a horror film or sleaze - and have that hard-to-describe naive feeling of that they think they’re down with the modern horror fans with this movie. It’s also quite slow and uneventful and lacks gore and blood (well, it have some tiny bits of it). Doesn’t sound exciting? It is.
...because it’s a fantastic look at Naschy having a awesome time, playing around with his buddies, meeting beautiful people and trying to be funny and wise. This is his movie, his home video, his happiness - and damn, I would never refuse him that! It is a silly, boyish fantasy, a sexual adventure, a horror tale to tell the buddies. I don’t mind. It’s Naschy, a guy who seemed to be the sweetest person, a friend of the gay community, a fiend of everything evil, a great “egocentrician” who still cared about people around him. And maybe foremost, a horror fan - like everyone of us.
Empusa is not a good movie. But it’s a Naschy movie, and that’s better than many other things in this harsh world.
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