La Noche de Walpurgis

La Noche de Walpurgis (Walpurgis Night, released in the United States as The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman, in the UK as Shadow of the Werewolf [theatrical] and as Werewolf Shadow [dvd]), is a 1970 Spanish horror film starring Paul Naschy, the fifth in a series about the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky. This film was directed by León Klimovsky and written by Naschy, and is generally regarded to have kickstarted the Spanish horror film boom of the Seventies, due to its awesome box office success upon its release. The German distributors added the name Hans Munkel to the screenwriting credit in some versions to satisfy the terms of international co-production. Patty Shepard was so convincing as the vampiric Countess, it was thought at the time that she might replace actress Barbara Steele as Europe's reigning horror queen.

Plot
Following the events in The Fury of the Wolf Man, the deceased lycanthrope Waldemar Daninsky is revived to life when two doctors surgically remove two silver bullets from his heart while performing an autopsy on him. Waldemar transforms into a werewolf, kills the doctors and escapes from the morgue. Some time later, two students, Elvira and her friend Genevieve, go searching for the tomb of medieval murderess (and possible vampiress) Countess Wandessa de Nadasdy. They find a possible gravesite in the vicinity of Waldemar Daninsky's castle, and he invites the girls to stay for a few days.

When Waldemar leads them to the grave of the Countess Wandessa, Elvira accidentally revives her by bleeding onto the corpse. The vampire woman turns the girls into creatures of the night like herself, and they roam the forest at night, killing people in eerie slow motion. Daninsky later turns into the Wolf Man, is forced to battle and destroy the vampire woman at the end of the film, after which he is killed by Elvira, a woman who loves him enough to end his torment. (Note* - Naschy's real life wife of 40 years was named Elvira.)