"This film is a Detective Story...in which you are the detective. The question is not who is the muderer...but, who is the werewolf?"
A deliciously new take on the old werewolf genre; "The Beast Must Die" (A.K.A. "Black Werewolf") is a sometimes-cheesy, conceptually intriguing piece of cinema from the people over at Amicus, the same production house that also gave the world the original "Tales from the Crypt" movie. The opening quotes sum up the premise nicely; the movie itself is, for lack of a better comparison, "Ten Little Indians" with werewolves. Needless to say I was more than a bit skeptical; it seemed like a good concept, but some concepts don't end up translating well into the final product, as with most films. Still, every film deserves at least one shot, and this film was no different.
"Beast" opens with a wide aerial shot of a lonely English countryside, ultimately focusing on a lone man dressed like a cat burglar as he ducks into the woods. A helicopter high above the forest keeps track of his position as armed men are brought in by the truckload to hunt him down; meanwhile, a shady figure tracks his every move from a rather nicely-furnished control room as he gives orders to the search party. Before long, the cat burglar arrives on the lawn of a secluded estate, where he is approached by the armed search party and shot in front of a group of wealthy socialites. They immediately come to his aid, only to find that the guns were loaded with blanks as the cat burglar sits up, unscathed, and laughs in their faces.
It is later revealed that the cat burglar is not a cat burglar at all; he is entrepreneur and big game hunter Tom Newcliffe (played, ironically, by Calvin Lockhart, better known for his role as ill-fated druglord "King Willie" in Predator 2), owner of the estate. Apparently, he set up the whole opening scenario in order to test a new security system, and the control room operator, Pavel (Anton Diffring), was the man Newcliffe hired to put it all together. Needless to say, he spared no expense; his entire estate is wired with closed-circuit cameras in the trees and vibration-sensing microphones staked in the ground, not to mention the pressure alarm that goes off whenever anything gets out--or in--100 feet of the house. Nothing can get within three miles of the mansion without Newcliffe knowing about it.
"All this expense...why?" Pavel asks. His guests, the socialites from the opening scene, are also curious as to why he set himself up to be shot, and why they were invited to the mansion in the first place. Tom proceeds to bring up some rather unsettling facts about each of his guests, before finally revealing the truth: One of them is a Werewolf, and he plans on mounting its head in his trophy room. Lucky for him, there will be a full moon over the next three nights, so whoever it is won't be able to resist the transformation.
From then on, the film turns into a creepy-yet-fun sort of "Whodunnit" (or rather, "Whoisit"), with plenty of twists, shadowy figures and no short supply of Red Herrings. One by one the guests die off, narrowing down the list of suspects until the final evening. Even when the film ticked down to the last half-hour, I still didn't have a good grip on who the Werewolf actually was. Granted, the film loses the majority of it's mystique after the first viewing, but it's still fun to show to friends to test their powers of deduction.
I will readily admit that I am not well-versed in British Horror, however the cast is rounded out with a few notable names: Peter Cushing gets top billing (naturally), followed by Charles Gray (one of the three Blofelds from James Bond, as well as "The Criminologist" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show), and Marlene Clark (Ganja & Hess), who plays Mrs. Newcliffe. The acting is somewhat wooden, and there were times when I felt I was watching a play rather than a movie. However, it does add the "mystery novel" aspect to the experience. Cushing ends up stealing the show as a "werewolf expert" of sorts, but Lockhart is not to be outdone, though he tends to over-act a little.
Special effects were few and far between, the most notable one being the visible transformation sequence near the end. The main gripe I have with this film is the lighting; the nighttime sequences were obviously shot during the day, darkened considerably to give the illusion of moonlight rather than daylight. Aside from that, the atmosphere and the mood were perfect; the director and the crew went out of their way to make the audience feel like something's out to get them.
All in all, "The Beast Must Die" is a good movie to sit down and watch with friends on a dull Friday night, and even though it loses most of its flavor after the first watch, it's still good to pop in once in a while when boredom sets in.
A must-rent at the very least, though good luck finding it.
"The Beast Must Die" is a Grade-B Cut: Cheesy Effects, sub-par acting, but a wonderfully creepy concept with an equally-creepy atmosphere.
A deliciously new take on the old werewolf genre; "The Beast Must Die" (A.K.A. "Black Werewolf") is a sometimes-cheesy, conceptually intriguing piece of cinema from the people over at Amicus, the same production house that also gave the world the original "Tales from the Crypt" movie. The opening quotes sum up the premise nicely; the movie itself is, for lack of a better comparison, "Ten Little Indians" with werewolves. Needless to say I was more than a bit skeptical; it seemed like a good concept, but some concepts don't end up translating well into the final product, as with most films. Still, every film deserves at least one shot, and this film was no different.
"Beast" opens with a wide aerial shot of a lonely English countryside, ultimately focusing on a lone man dressed like a cat burglar as he ducks into the woods. A helicopter high above the forest keeps track of his position as armed men are brought in by the truckload to hunt him down; meanwhile, a shady figure tracks his every move from a rather nicely-furnished control room as he gives orders to the search party. Before long, the cat burglar arrives on the lawn of a secluded estate, where he is approached by the armed search party and shot in front of a group of wealthy socialites. They immediately come to his aid, only to find that the guns were loaded with blanks as the cat burglar sits up, unscathed, and laughs in their faces.
It is later revealed that the cat burglar is not a cat burglar at all; he is entrepreneur and big game hunter Tom Newcliffe (played, ironically, by Calvin Lockhart, better known for his role as ill-fated druglord "King Willie" in Predator 2), owner of the estate. Apparently, he set up the whole opening scenario in order to test a new security system, and the control room operator, Pavel (Anton Diffring), was the man Newcliffe hired to put it all together. Needless to say, he spared no expense; his entire estate is wired with closed-circuit cameras in the trees and vibration-sensing microphones staked in the ground, not to mention the pressure alarm that goes off whenever anything gets out--or in--100 feet of the house. Nothing can get within three miles of the mansion without Newcliffe knowing about it.
"All this expense...why?" Pavel asks. His guests, the socialites from the opening scene, are also curious as to why he set himself up to be shot, and why they were invited to the mansion in the first place. Tom proceeds to bring up some rather unsettling facts about each of his guests, before finally revealing the truth: One of them is a Werewolf, and he plans on mounting its head in his trophy room. Lucky for him, there will be a full moon over the next three nights, so whoever it is won't be able to resist the transformation.
From then on, the film turns into a creepy-yet-fun sort of "Whodunnit" (or rather, "Whoisit"), with plenty of twists, shadowy figures and no short supply of Red Herrings. One by one the guests die off, narrowing down the list of suspects until the final evening. Even when the film ticked down to the last half-hour, I still didn't have a good grip on who the Werewolf actually was. Granted, the film loses the majority of it's mystique after the first viewing, but it's still fun to show to friends to test their powers of deduction.
I will readily admit that I am not well-versed in British Horror, however the cast is rounded out with a few notable names: Peter Cushing gets top billing (naturally), followed by Charles Gray (one of the three Blofelds from James Bond, as well as "The Criminologist" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show), and Marlene Clark (Ganja & Hess), who plays Mrs. Newcliffe. The acting is somewhat wooden, and there were times when I felt I was watching a play rather than a movie. However, it does add the "mystery novel" aspect to the experience. Cushing ends up stealing the show as a "werewolf expert" of sorts, but Lockhart is not to be outdone, though he tends to over-act a little.
Special effects were few and far between, the most notable one being the visible transformation sequence near the end. The main gripe I have with this film is the lighting; the nighttime sequences were obviously shot during the day, darkened considerably to give the illusion of moonlight rather than daylight. Aside from that, the atmosphere and the mood were perfect; the director and the crew went out of their way to make the audience feel like something's out to get them.
All in all, "The Beast Must Die" is a good movie to sit down and watch with friends on a dull Friday night, and even though it loses most of its flavor after the first watch, it's still good to pop in once in a while when boredom sets in.
A must-rent at the very least, though good luck finding it.
"The Beast Must Die" is a Grade-B Cut: Cheesy Effects, sub-par acting, but a wonderfully creepy concept with an equally-creepy atmosphere.
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