Even though among the lesser-known films of the great late Spanish Horror/Cult icon Paul Naschy, "El Carnaval De Las Bestias" aka. "Human Beasts" (1980) is an outrageously entertaining slice of European Exploitation cinema and a film that none of my fellow Naschy-fans can afford to miss. The multi-talented Paul Naschy scripted many of the film he starred in, and also directed some - in the case of this film, he served as writer, director and leading man. A Spanish/Japanese co-production, the film starts out as a hard-boiled crime flick only to transform into surreal Horror in the second half.
Naschy plays Bruno Rivera, a hit-man, who gets hired by a Japanese criminal organization (the sister of the organization's head being in love with Bruno) in order to carry out a spectacular diamond heist. After murdering a few people during the heist, Bruno betrays his associates including his girlfriend Mieko (Eiko Nagashima) and flees with all the diamonds. After getting wounded by his double-crossed partners, Bruno gets rescued by a family (a doctor who lives with his two sexy daughters and a sexy black maid) and is taken care of in their beautiful and eerie mansion. Of course, both of the hot daughters immediately have a crush on Bruno. However, the house of the good doctor and his daughters seems to bear a secret or two, and may not be the safest hideout in the world after all...
Admittedly, the film is not the most logical thing ever, and bears a few inconsistencies (a crime organization that is against unnecessary violence?... come on!), and the flashbacks into Bruno's and Meiko's past are cheesy as hell... but these tiny complaints do in no way lessen the film's incredible entertainment factor. The film is gory, very macabre, and politically incorrect as hell (the political incorrectness culminates in a scene in which the African maid moans with pleasure while having her behind whipped by her 'master', the doctor), so it should appeal to all lovers of sleazy Euro-Exploitation. There is a lot of sleaze, but, for Naschy-flick standards, there is actually quite little nudity from the gorgeous female cast. Some of the gore-scenes are pretty intense, including a scene in which a poor fellow is devoured by pigs while still alive, several brutal stabbings, and a female gangster being blown up with a grenade. "Human Beasts" includes exploitative gore, lots of action, creepy Horror, as well as silly but funny humor and corny fart-jokes. Naschy is, of course, great as always; the man truly was an icon and his presence alone made any film worth watching, in my opinion. While most of his films can hardly be considered masterpieces, they all have a specific inimitable charm that can only be found in Naschy flicks; in my humble opinion, cinema does not get more entertaining than it is the case with many of the films starring the Spanish Horror deity who passed away last year. Hombre Lobo, you truly were an icon and will always live on through your films!
Naschy plays Bruno Rivera, a hit-man, who gets hired by a Japanese criminal organization (the sister of the organization's head being in love with Bruno) in order to carry out a spectacular diamond heist. After murdering a few people during the heist, Bruno betrays his associates including his girlfriend Mieko (Eiko Nagashima) and flees with all the diamonds. After getting wounded by his double-crossed partners, Bruno gets rescued by a family (a doctor who lives with his two sexy daughters and a sexy black maid) and is taken care of in their beautiful and eerie mansion. Of course, both of the hot daughters immediately have a crush on Bruno. However, the house of the good doctor and his daughters seems to bear a secret or two, and may not be the safest hideout in the world after all...
Admittedly, the film is not the most logical thing ever, and bears a few inconsistencies (a crime organization that is against unnecessary violence?... come on!), and the flashbacks into Bruno's and Meiko's past are cheesy as hell... but these tiny complaints do in no way lessen the film's incredible entertainment factor. The film is gory, very macabre, and politically incorrect as hell (the political incorrectness culminates in a scene in which the African maid moans with pleasure while having her behind whipped by her 'master', the doctor), so it should appeal to all lovers of sleazy Euro-Exploitation. There is a lot of sleaze, but, for Naschy-flick standards, there is actually quite little nudity from the gorgeous female cast. Some of the gore-scenes are pretty intense, including a scene in which a poor fellow is devoured by pigs while still alive, several brutal stabbings, and a female gangster being blown up with a grenade. "Human Beasts" includes exploitative gore, lots of action, creepy Horror, as well as silly but funny humor and corny fart-jokes. Naschy is, of course, great as always; the man truly was an icon and his presence alone made any film worth watching, in my opinion. While most of his films can hardly be considered masterpieces, they all have a specific inimitable charm that can only be found in Naschy flicks; in my humble opinion, cinema does not get more entertaining than it is the case with many of the films starring the Spanish Horror deity who passed away last year. Hombre Lobo, you truly were an icon and will always live on through your films!