NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Mondo Macabro Blu-ray (June 2021): Mondo Macabro have transferred Paul Naschy's Howl of the Devil to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "Brand new 4k transfer from film negative, digitally restored". It looks mighty impressive even not taking into account the poor bootleg or non-existent home-theatre versions of the film to date. The image is clean, tight, has consistently rich textures and true colors with depth. It is in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate and Naschy fans should swoon at the stellar HD presentation - its world premiere on video! 

NOTE: We have added 70 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Mondo Macabro use a DTS-HD Master 2.0 channel track (16-bit) in the original Spanish language (and one section with French?). There are hollow, monster-related, effects and supportive score by Fernando García Morcillo (The Mistresses of Dr. Jekyll), carrying some weight. Mondo Macabro offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Mondo Macabro Blu-ray offers a new commentary by The Naschycast (Troy Guinn & Rod Barnett.) They are the experts in everything 'Naschy' and add a lot with discussions revolving the production, cast - they cite comments from Troy Howarth's Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy and Nicholas G. Schlegel's Sex, Sadism, Spain, and Cinema: The Spanish Horror Film. There are details on Naschy's career, a lot on Caroline Munro, Howard Vernon, and young Sergio Molina. It was well-prepared and extremely thorough. There is also a 27-minute 'Making of Featurette' prefaced with this caveat; "The following short film on the "Making of The Howl of the Devil was shot during production of the film with a follow-up interview with Paul Naschy done some time later. Unfortunately we were unable to find a first generation copy of the film. All that was available to us was this version taken from a rare VHS copy. We apologize for the very poor picture quality but are sure you will find this short documentary to be a fascinating and worthwhile addition to this first ever video release of The Howl of the Devil. We would like to thank Pim Lopez Fernindez, Sergio Molina and Manuel finchez-Fraguas for helping us make this happen." Lastly is a 36-minute interview with actor Sergio Molina, the son of Paul Naschy and Elvira Primavera - now in his mid-40s. There are the delightful Mondo Macabro previews for almost 1/4 hour and the package has new sleeve art from Rick Melton.   

Paul Naschy seems to have pushed the envelope with Howl of the Devil. It's easily his most misogynist film and there is some gruesomeness that is beyond the predictable. Like, with a lot of his work, there are underlying cohesive themes about family relationships and his frequent homage to the Universal horror films he adored even offering a dedication to Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney, and make-up artist pioneer Jack Pierce. Although in this later effort Naschy is not filling the credits with the best Spanish babes, the addition of green-eyed Caroline Munro more than makes up for it. I seem to get more out of Paul Naschy's oeuvre the more I view it. Many in this cult-Euro niche space will be thrilled to have the Mondo Macabro Blu-ray with commentary, interview and documentary all adding more value to the stellar a/v presentation. Certainly recommended!

Gary Tooze