The Beast Must Die
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Movie Reviews of The Beast Must Die
Movie Review: Campy horror-fun!
Summary: 4 Stars
While this film won't win any legitimate production awards, it will be fondly remembered by those who recall the Hammer films and other similarly-low-budgeted British horror and thriller works. The "blackxploitation" style (translated into British) seems a bit off to American viewers, even those who loved "Shaft" and "Coffee" and "Blacula", but it's a wonderful spin on the "Ten Little Indians" theme. A group of quirky characters, each with secrets and obsessions, one of which is a werewolf. The interview with the director on the special features is informative. The dog wearing the huge mane is adorable, and the music is so campy and jazzy as to almost be worth the price by itself. It took far too long for this film to be released on DVD. Peter Cushing, as always, rocks!Movie Review: Entertaining with just the right cheese factor
Summary: 3 Stars
Amicus produced a whole bunch of horror films of varying quality during the 70's. When the quality of Hammer films fell Amicus pitched in with "Asylum", "The House That Dripped Blood" and "The Beast Must Die". Even the least of these is entertaining even when the cheese factor (such as in "Madhouse") is higher than the chill factor.
Based on a novel by science fiction writer James Blish "The Beast Must Die" mixes the plots from "Ten Little Indians" and "The Most Dangerous Game". Throw in a bit of 70's camp and you've got this minor gem. The plot has been pretty well described previously but I'll briefly recap it again. A wealthy man gathers together a group of people to his house. He believs that one of them is a werewolf and plans on killing the creature. The acting ranges from very good (Anton Diffring, Michael Gambon, Charles Gray) to the seriously bad (Calvin Lockhart)and inbetween (Peter Cushing does a fine job despite an overactive accent).
Unlike some of the other releases from Dark Sky this one doesn't look all that great. It's acceptable but the image is grainy and has a slightly greenish tint to it at times. What makes this edition shine are the extras. "Directing the Beast" features director Paul Annett discussing the making of the film. Annett also provides a fascinating commentary track moderated by Jonathan Sothcott. We also get a solid photo gallery which includes lobby cards and stills. Finally we get trailers for two other concurrent Dark Sky releases "And Now The Screaming Starts" and ambitious "Rebecca"-like effort directed by Roy Ward Baker ("Quatermass and the Pit", "A Night to Remember", "Asylum")that seems more like a Hammer effort with its lush production design and period setting and Baker's "Asylum". There's also a rememberance of actor Peter Cushing a talented actor who was often better than the material he appeared in.
"The Beast Must Die" is more interesting for its unusual mishmash of different storylines and mix of genres. While it isn't complete successful it's an enjoyable film highlighted by some time notch actors. A pity that the werewolf wasn't more convincing as if a bit more effort had been put into the film it might have been far more successful than it is.
Movie Review: Fuzzy Fun For Everyone...
Summary: 3 Stars
While certainly not the worst werewolf movie ever made, THE BEAST MUST DIE isn't all that exciting either. The idea of a group of people isolated in a remote mansion is tried and (usually) true. This time, the group is sequestered together so that a man can find out which one of them is the werewolf. Among them are Peter Cushing (THE SKULL, FLESH AND THE FIENDS, HORROR OF DRACULA, etc.), Anton Diffring (CIRCUS OF HORRORS, THE MAN WHO CHEATED DEATH), Charles Gray (ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, THE LEGACY), and Michael Gambon (SLEEPY HOLLOW, HARRY POTTER 3-7), sporting the world's largest sideburns. With this much talent involved, things could / should have turned out better. As it stands, BEAST is mildly entertaining and somewhat engaging. The "mystery" of the werewolf's identity is ok, but not all that shocking. The beast itself is rather more humorous than terrifying, like a big, sloppy dog forced to "jump" on the unsuspecting! Still, TBMD isn't bad on a dozy saturday afternoon...Movie Review: The Most Dangerous Game II : Werewolf Edition
Summary: 3 Stars
This film is closer much more of an "whodunit" mystery tale than a full-blown werewolf horror. The acting is pretty good for 70's British horror, though everyone seems rather calm as they sit around and wait to be killed by the "hunter" and/or the werewolf. This particular transfer is gorgeous in video and audio. Also note the groovy 70's soundtrack...
My only qualm with this movie is that even though Peter Cushing is featured on the DVD cover to sell the title, he is only a supporting character in the film.
If this sounds interesting to you, I suggest picking it up in the Amicus collection 3-pack for the best value and two more, much better films.
Movie Review: The Beast Must Die, but the Audience Will Snooze
Summary: 2 Stars
For a few decades during the latter half of the 20th century, both Amicus Productions and Hammer Film Productions were successful British movie-making companies that each earned reputations for the horror films they produced. But with the test of time, Hammer has come out as the favorite among the bulk of horror fans, and rightly so. With the possible exceptions of TALES FROM THE CRYPT (1972) and THE VAULT OF HORROR (1973), which were based on the American comic books published in the 1950s by EC Comics, Amicus rarely produced movies that equaled the literary and cinematic quality of those created by rival Hammer. A case in point is Amicus' werewolf flick THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974). The first cinematic effort from director Paul Annett, whose previous experience was limited to British independent television, THE BEAST MUST DIE is a slow-paced horror whodunit that actually feels less like a feature film and more like an overlong episode of a boring 1970s TV series.
Based loosely on a novelette by the venerated American SF writer James Blish, THE BEAST MUST DIE's rather cliche plot revolves around a character named Tom Newcliffe, a wealthy self-made businessman whose numerous hobbies include big-game hunting. Convinced that one member of his group of jet-set acquaintances is secretly a werewolf, Newcliffe invites them all to a weekend getaway at his huge estate with the hope that he can "out" the lycanthrope and eventually kill it. Unfortunately, the film's characters are as cliche and as uninteresting as the story itself, and it is therefore difficult to feel any sympathy for them as the werewolf predictably begins to off them one by one.
From a cinematic standpoint, the film has numerous flaws, but the most egregious among them are definitely the laughable special FX. Indeed, the titular werewolf itself is clearly nothing more than a large dog wearing a custom-made fur coat. Almost as awful as the FX is the William Castle-like "werewolf break" gimmick, a 30-second spot near the end of the film during which the audience is invited to guess which of the remaining characters is the werewolf. In addition, the hybrid jazz-and-rock score is ill suited for a horror film. Instead of contributing to any spooky ambiance, the music's shrill brass-based passages instead invoke the atmosphere of a car-chase scene in a TV cop show. And last but not least, the talents of the great actor Peter Cushing--who also appeared in countless Hammer horror films--are shamefully wasted on his cookie-cutter background role of a Van Helsing-like scholar of lycanthropy. Throughout the film, Cushing is required to do little more than shuffle around the set and occasionally spew out bits of werewolf lore.
Like the film itself, the DVD release of THE BEAST MUST DIE from Dark Sky Films also leaves a lot to be desired. The disc offers the film in an anamorphic widescreen version that is reportedly at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, but since the film was originally shot at a ratio of 1.66:1, Dark Sky's offering is actually slightly cropped. Visually, the digital transfer is fairly clean, though there are a few spots of noticeable mpeg artifacts and jitter. On the plus side, the disc does offer a couple of nice extras, one of which is an interesting feature commentary with the director.
In short, Amicus' THE BEAST MUST DIE is a drastically inferior horror film, especially when compared to the other major British example of lycanthropic cinema from that era, competitor Hammer's THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (1961). While Dark Sky's DVD release of THE BEAST MUST DIE might be of interest to die-hard horror fans and scholars of horror cinema, those who only make occasional sojourns into the horror genre should probably steer clear.