Beast of the Yellow Night is a 1971 Filipino-American horror film.
In 1946 Joseph Langdon, Army deserter and murderer, was fleeing pursuit in the jungles of Southeast Asia when a sardonic voice made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
In 1971, Phillip Rogers dies unexpectedly in the hospital. When his grieving wife is allowed to see him, all the onlookers are astonished to find the supposedly dead man blinking and moving around...
This film provides examples of:
- Agony Beam: The first time Langdon tries to assert himself, Satan causes him to double over in pain as a warning.
- Anti-Villain: Langdon was a murderer, rapist and thief in life, and spent 25 years doing the Devil's work, but he's grown weary of it, and tries to change.
- Back from the Dead: Phillip Rogers comes back to life after Langdon Body Surfs into him.
- Bittersweet Ending: Langdon and Old Nan die, but both have redeemed each other and Langdon is out of Satan's grip. Julia is traumatized by seeing the man she was falling in love with again transform into a monster before her eyes, but it's implied that Earl will help her overcome this and they may even end up together. The real loser in all this is Satan, who ends the movie angrily ranting in voice over about how he refuses to accept the notion of redemption and won't ever change.
- Blind Seer: It's unclear quite what Nan's deal is, but he demonstrates remarkable insight into Langdon's situation.
- Body Surf: Every time a body Langdon's in dies, Satan puts him into a new one.
- Brown Note: The shock of seeing Langdon-as-Rogers come back to life, with a perfect new face, kills his doctor on sight.
- Character Development: Langdon was a monster during and after WWII, but thanks to 25 (off-screen) years of tempting people into evil, he's become weary and apathetic, only wishing to die. After being coerced into one last body swap, he gradually changes due to the love of of his new body's wife, and despite refusing to believe that he can be redeemed, especially after Satan's been making him into a murderous knockoff werewolf, he ultimately overcomes the bestial instincts of his alternate form, prays to God and is allowed release.
- The Corrupter: Langdon's job for Satan is to hop from body to body and manipulate the people he comes into contact with into unleashing their latent evil impulses. After hopping into Rogers, he half-heartedly tries to manipulate Rogers' wife Julia into entering an adulterous affair with Rogers's brother Earl, but thanks to his own growing distaste for his job and developing feelings for Julia, he gives up on it.
- Deal with the Devil: Langdon makes one in 1946.
- Death Seeker: Langdon's tired of the life he's leading.
- Detect Evil: Langdon appears to have the ability to sense a person's sins, as he's able to tell Julia cheated on Rogers and that Earl coveted her.
- The Eeyore: In life, Rogers was apparently a deeply depressed person who didn't care about Julia or anything else.
- Even Evil Has Standards: 1940s!Langdon managed to find some like-mindedly monstrous contacts during the war who took him in after he was set free from Japanese prison, but eventually proved too twisted for even them to put up with and they kicked him out.
- Faux Affably Evil: Satan's all condescending charm and friendly encouragement...until you disagree with him.
- Face–Heel Turn: Langdon made his in World War II, when he collaborated and joined the Japanese in torturing his fellow POWs.
- Gone Horribly Right: Satan gives Langdon his old face back for the heck of it, and is extremely disappointed when Langdon starts reasserting himself as an individual person instead of the pure corrupting force Satan wants him to be. But really, what did he expect?
- Guns Are Worthless: Zigzagged. After getting shot with rifles to no effect several times, Langdon's beast form is done in by a single pistol shot.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Old Nan used to be a murderous bandit, but after thirty years in jail, he's old and weary, with the desire to redeem his violent past and help those even worse off than he is.
- Ultimately, with Nan's help Langdon prays and forsakes Satan, weakening his beast form enough to die from a gunshot.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Langdon's first bestial transformation is triggered when he tries to enter a church.
- Heroic BSoD: Julia slips into one after seeing Langdon/Rogers transform in front of her.
- I'm a Humanitarian: In the opening scene, Satan tells the starving Langdon that his accomplice died before she could bring him supplies...but she could still feed him. And then he pours out a bag full of meat. Langdon's first reaction is horror, but soon enough he's wolfing it down with gusto.
- Invisible to Normals: Satan and Langdon when he's between bodies.
- Loss of Identity: Satan wants Langdon to abandon all thoughts of individuality or personhood and see himself as a corrupting force instead.
- Love Redeems: Langdon's developing feelings for Julia are part of the impetus for rejecting Satan.
- Mercy Kill: Death was the only way out for Langdon.
- The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body: Getting his own face back causes Langdon to reassert his own personal identity...something Satan doesn't want.
- Morphic Resonance: Thanks to Satan's intervention, Rogers' face is transformed into Langdon's.
- Nightmare Face: Averted. Rogers' face was mangled in an industrial accident, but we never get to see what it looked like before as it's Langdon's face now. It's pretty scary to Rogers' doctor, though, giving the poor man a heart attack from shock.
- No-Sell: Someone runs up to Langdon in human form and stabs him in the gut several times, but the knife comes out clean and he doesn't have a scratch. He also ignores being shot several times in beast form, until his redemption.
- Ominous Fog: The jungle in which Langdon sells his soul is covered in the stuff. So are the credits.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: After trying to assert his own personality and rebel, Langdon is cursed by Satan to periodically transform into a savage beast and kill for him instead.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Averted. Langdon doesn't particularly try to act like Phillip Rogers, and people notice, but chalk his strange behavior up to the traumatic accident he'd recently suffered.
- Poison Mushroom: The opening scene, a desperate Langdon grabs some strange berries and devours them. Satan tells him that they were incredibly poisonous and Langdon would be dead by now if not for his intervention.
- Redemption Equals Death: Langdon (in beast form) prays for the dying Nan, finally renouncing Satan entirely, and then dies of a gunshot, proving Satan has no more power over him.
- Retired Monster: Wartime!Langdon was a homicidal rapist who turned on his countrymen and proved too much even for his fellow a-holes to put up with. However, after 25 years as a body-surfing spirit of malice, he's finally tired of it all. At the (very) end, he even makes a full face-turn.
- Rousing Speech: Satan points out that Langdon's heart doesn't really seem to be in his latest job, and says that he could be a saint of evil if only he'd give up that silly identity of his. Langdon isn't really moved.
- Stripperiffic: When Satan first appears, he's wearing a loincloth and headband and little else. Pot-bellied and balding isn't a very good look for the Great Tempter.
- Super-Strength: Langdon's beast form can bend iron bars with its bare hands.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: Rogers's doctor notes that there was no reason for him to die. (It's diabolic intervention.)
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Thanks to Rogers being emotionally and physically distant from his wife, Julia, one night she picked up a man from a bar and had a one-night stand. She deeply regrets the affair, and refuses to enter another one in spite of Langdon's badgering.
- Undying Loyalty: Even after the man she thinks is her dead husband undergoes a drastic personality change, becomes a murder suspect and clearly has some sort of supernatural thing going on, Julia stays loyally by his side. It comes off as more strange and co-dependent than sweet.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Langdon running around in a bloody shirt while there's a murderer on the loose elicits little more than mild curiosity from the people he runs into.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: The movie takes place somewhere in Southeast Asia.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: After his last body dies, all Langdon wants to do is lie in his grave and rest, but duty calls...
