Classic Horrors Club

Joseph Langdon (John Ashley) is the Barnabas Collins of the Philippines. He’s reluctant as The Beast of the Yellow Night (1971), regretting the deal he made with the devil many years ago. In “small town in Southeast Asia” in 1946, the murderer, rapist, and thief who’s on the run in the hills stops for a snack of poisonous berries. As he’s dying, Langdon hears a voice and begs for his life…

I’ll do anything; just don’t kill me.

The voice asks what he has to offer and if he will serve him the rest of his life. Then out of yellow smoke, a snake transforms into Satan, offering him “fresh meat.” He pours human remains out of a bag and tells Langdon to eat. Boy, does he.

Over the coming years, Langdon does Satan’s bidding by inhabiting the bodies of other people in order to bring out their latent evil. For this particular movie, we land in “last month,” which I suppose would be 25 years later, and Langdon lands in the body of a comatose Philip Rogers. When Rogers unexpectedly springs to life and the bandages are removed from his head, his wife, Julia (Mary Charlotte Wilcox) is as surprised by his appearance as she is by his change of attitude.

The interesting twist is that Philip Rogers was a metaphorical monster who treated his wife badly, while Joseph Langdon is a literal monster who treats her with compassion. Technically, he’s not a literal monster yet. That’s an additional curse Satan places upon him when Langdon/Rogers tells him he wants out of his deal.

So, on the “yellow night” or nights, or when he has sexy time with Julia, Rogers transforms into a green monster with a face like that of a dime store Incredible Hulk mask at Halloween. From a distance, he looks like a skinny Lou Ferrigno with a big head and wild hair. Close-up, he looks like the love child of the Incredible Hulk and the “Shock Monster” you see in magazines and on t-shirts, just not quite as cool.

We don’t see the monster often, though. Believe it or not, the movie’s focus is on the drama and the relationship between Rogers and his wife. She sees through his facade while navigating the sins of his past and decides she loves the man he’s become. It’s not such a different concept from Heaven Can Wait (1978), in which Betty Logan (Julie Christie) realizes Joe Pendleton (Warren Beatty) has mysteriously changed for the better.

The Beast of the Yellow Night is a monster movie, though, and while the monster may not look convincingly or consistently beastly, he’s savage and does some bloody damage with the wild swing of his arm. Protected by Satan’s touch, he’s also invincible, giving us momentary pause to wonder how the situation will be resolved.

This is not a great movie, but I’m someone drawn to the films of Eddie Romero that he made in the Philippines with producer/actor John Ashley. None are “good” by any sense of the word, but they are fun in their own quirky way. If you enjoyed Brides of Blood (1968) or The Twilight People (1972), like I did, there’s no reason you shouldn’t enjoy this.