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Rating:  - The Beast Must Die, but the Audience Will Snooze
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.
Rating:  - THIS FILM MUST DIE
THE BEST PART OF THIS FILM WAS...THE END, BECAUSE, THANKFULLY, THIS MINDLESS, UNIMAGINABLE EXCUSE FOR A FILM CAME TO A MUCH DESERVED...END. POOR PETER CUSHING, HOW HE GOT ROPED INTO APPEARING IN THIS FILM, EVEN IN A MINOR ROLE, IS BEYOND ME. THIS FILM WAS LIKE, McMILLIAN AND WIFE MEETS BLACULA MEETS GERALDO RIVERA AT THE WILLOWBROOK MENTAL INSTITUTION ON STATEN ISLAND, BAD!!!!!!!! IF YOU WANT TO TORTURE SOMEONE, MAKE THEM WATCH THIS FILM. LIFE IS WAY TOO SHORT TO WASTE YOUR TIME WITH LOUSY FLICKS LIKE THIS FILM. THIS IS LIKE ONE OF THOSE FILMS YOU SAW AT A DRIVE-IN THEATER, WHEN YOU SPENT MORE TIME IN THE BACK SEAT OF YOUR CAR WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND THAN IN THE FRONT SEAT WATCHING GARBAGE LIKE THIS. AMICUS FILMS STRUCK OUT LIKE A-ROD WITH THE BASES LOADED ON THIS ONE.
Rating:  - Peter Cushing
This is a great mystery. It will leave you wandering what happened until the very end.
Rating: - Pretty awful!
I'm a huge Peter Cushing fan but even HE couldn't pull this one out of the old excusado.
If you're going to make a campy, spoofy film like this one, you pretty much need to stick to the stereotypical expectations of the potential viewers. Here, the producers/director seized upon every bizarre element that they could latch on to.
I was looking for the macho, loud-mouthed Brit in khakis and an Aussie hat as the host and Big Game hunter -- nope. It turned out to be a cultured black guy, speaking the Queen's English, who generates the ambiance of Issac Hayes.
One of the folks at the estate is supposed to be a werewolf (a strange idea), and this "hunter" who looks and acts more like a high-end record producer, has sworn to take him or her out. He is assisted by the fact that there are about a million cameras and microphones (indoor mikes that would last until the first time it rained!) spread throughout the estate. It's coming up a full moon (which he says is good for generating werewolf morphs for 3 days) and our hero has an astute assistant who seems to monitor the million TV screens, etc., 24/7.
Yes, a werewolf appears but, even though they have the high-tech stuff, they can't seem to get a handle on who it is.... and it goes downhill from there.
The musical score ranges from a Starsky and Hutch-type theme to Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata". Pretty awful all-around.
So, I made it to the ending so that I might review it and I wish that I had not. I won't tell you how the end went down but I think that they just ran out of money to make the film and opted for the "quick-out."
There may be folks who like this film but I can't imagine why they would. It's really just a DISMAL production, even if you're a huge horror film fan.
Rating: - It's not over 'till ya pull that trigger boy
This is a landmark movie for a number of reasons;
1. It is the WORST werewolf movie of all time
2. It is the WORST Amicus movie of all time
3. Its is the WORST film Peter Cushing ever made- although he is still good in it.
Amicus have produced some great genre pictures throughout the 60's and 70's. The House the Dripped Blood and City of the Dead are two of my personal favorites. In their hayday Amicus made brilliant films under the direction of many of Englands finest genre directors such as John Moxely and Roy Ward Barker (a Hammer regular).
This film isn't fun, isn't entertaining, contains lackluster direction and a 'star' who hams it up and chews through his scenes like a galloping Elephant. Oh, and the 'wolf' is literally a dog with a wig. "That's allright i bet your thinking. The director was probably clever and shot it with inventive camera angles/clever lighting and edited the film carefully so that you never see too much." WRONG. It looks like a dog wearing a wig. DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THIS!!!! If you want to see a good english horror film then go watch City of the Dead, Circus of Fear, The Wicker Man, Scars of Dracula...infact pretty much anything!
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