Paul Naschy (born Jacinto Molina) was Spain's most famous horror star, best known for the role of the lycanthropic Waldemar Daninsky, whom he played a total of 12 times in movies released between 1968 and 2004. Along the way, Naschy - who died of pancreatic cancer last year - acted in a couple of non-werewolf movies, including "El carnaval de las bestias" (alternately called "The Beasts' Carnival" and "The Human Beasts" in English). This one concerns a man (Naschy) who gets shot by some Japanese gangsters whom he betrayed and gets taken in by a mysterious doctor and his daughters...and later discovers that they have a gross passion.I guess that I didn't like this one as much as Paul Naschy's other flicks, partially due to the rather vague plot, and also just because I prefer watching Naschy grow fur and fangs. But even so, it was an OK movie. Just see if you want to eat meat after watching it.I wonder what the result would have been had Paul Naschy ever worked with Pedro Almodóvar.

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!

Paul Naschy is Bruno, who double crosses his girlfriend Mieko (Eiko Nagashima) and an Asian gang to steal some diamonds. They are hot on his trail while he holes up with a kind doctor (Lautaro Murúa).Of course, the doctor has two beautiful daughters (Silvia Aguilar & Azucena Hernández) and a hot maid (Roxana Dupre). It remains to be seen who ends up with Bruno.Meanwhile, there are some very strange and gruesome things going on in the house. including an apparition (Julia Saly).But, the real goings on don't come until the end. One suspects something, but you are not sure until the end.A good Naschy film.

Human Beasts (1980) BOMB (out of 4) Bruno Rivera (Paul Naschy) is a hit-man working for the Yakuza. He sets up a major robbery but after stealing the jewels he decides to keep them. After being wounded he is discovered by a kind doctor and his daughters but soon he realizes this isn't a good thing.I said "soon he realizes..." but let me change that. In the final seconds of the movie he realizes that they aren't what they seemed. When NIGHT OF THE WEREWOLF bombed at the box office, horror star Naschy had to travel to Japan for financing and that resulted in two movies. This one here and THE BEAST AND THE MAGIC SWORD would follow. I'm really not sure what they were trying to do with HUMAN BEASTS but there's no question that it's the worst film in Naschy's career and a truly torturous thing to try and get through.What's so shocking about HUMAN BEASTS is how it really doesn't fit into any genre. It's partially horror but not really. It's partially a Yakuza movie but not really. It has some mystery elements but it's not really a mystery. This is a film that really doesn't belong to any genre and for the life of me I can't see what made anyone want to give money to this picture. I mean, if Naschy as a werewolf had just bombed were there really going to be anyone wanting to watch this thing? I've read reviews from people calling this an unsettling nightmare and a creepy picture but I don't see it. In fact, the movie is downright boring right from the start and it just drags to the point where you wish you were the one being targeted. The performances aren't the worst that you'll ever see but they're still not great enough to keep you into the picture. The gore is minimum and in reality there's just nothing here. It's a flat, boring and drawn-out picture that just doesn't work at all.