Movie Review: Beast of the Yellow Night (1971) directed by Eddie Romero
The year is 1946, somewhere in Southeast Asia (most likely the Philippines as that’s where the movie was shot.) Army deserter, traitor, rapist and murderer Robert Langdon (John Ashley) is at last trapped on a mountain with no food. Near death from starvation and having eaten toxic berries, he is offered life by Satan (Vic Diaz), on the condition of becoming the obedient servant of the serpent. But first he must violate one last taboo.
A quarter-century later, Satan attends a funeral. It seems that he’s been setting Langdon up with a series of bodies to inhabit, each time bringing out the latent evil in those around him. Langdon’s getting tired of his service, and Satan’s a bit bored too, so the next body is something a little different. It’s businessman Philip Rogers, whose face was destroyed in an industrial accident and has just died after several operations. Philip’s wife Julia (Mary Wilcox) and brother Earl (Ken Metcalfe) are startled to see Philip alive, but with a different face, Langdon’s. The doctor is even more startled and has a heart attack.
Langdon tries to get Julia and Earl to commit adultery with each other, and is apparently taking Philip’s company in a more evil direction, but his heart isn’t really in it. Satan decides that if Langdon can’t get things done with subtlety, it’s time to inflict the fellow with a werewolf-like transformation into a bloodthirsty monster.
This puts Langdon in the path of Inspector de Santos (Leopoldo Salcedo), who saw Langdon apparently die the first time, and a blind man (Andres Centenera) who has secrets of his own.
I rather like this one. I note that some reviewers found it confusing, but with a little attention I was able to follow along just fine. It makes good use of a limited budget, and has the courage to leave native Filipinos untranslated.
On the other hand, seeing one of Langdon’s prior missions in detail might have sold the concept a bit better. We jump straight into “the time everything goes haywire” instead.
Content note: Gore, cannibalism, male and female nudity, onscreen sex (that doubles as rape by deception, no genitals.)
Worth a watch if you’re into Filipino horror.
