The Blood Beast Terror

The Blood Beast Terror

CAST

Inspector Quennell...............................................................PETER CUSHING

Professor Mallinger..............................................................ROBERT FLEMYING

Clare...................................................................................WANDA VENTHAM

Meg....................................................................................VANESSA HOWARD

William................................................................................DAVID GRIFFIN

Sargeant Allan.....................................................................GLYNN EDWARDS

Brightwell............................................................................WILLIAM WILDE

Grainger..............................................................................KEVIN STONEY

Warringer............................................................................JOHN PAUL

Land Lord...........................................................................RUSSELL NAPIER

Morgue Attendant...............................................................ROY HUDD

Coachman..........................................................................LESLIE ANDERSON

CREDITS

Director.............................................................................VERNON SEWELL

Executive Producer............................................................TONY TENSER

Producer............................................................................ARNOLD MILLER

STORY

Deep in the wilderness a canoe navigates through the rivers of a tropical jungle. The explorer (WILLIAM WILDE) leaves the canoe once reaching shore and finds a number of extremely large cocoons which he removes to take back with him to civilization.

Back in England a horrifying scream is heard by a carriage driver who stops to investigate. Deep in the woods he finds the bloodied body of a man. A strange flapping noise is heard before he too is attacked.

At Professor Mallinger's (ROBERT FLEMYING) house an entomology lecture is taking place in which he is instructing his university students on insects. Inspector Quennell (PETER CUSHING) arrives at the professor's house as part of his investigation of one of Mallinger's students who was murdered. The two men seem to be confrontational before news arrives at the house that another victim has been found. Mallinger attends to the man who dies before getting a chance to disclose any information.

The carriage driver had also been found and was brought to the police station. Quennell questions the man who raves on about a huge creature that attacked him and flew away. The inspector concludes the driver must be quite insane. With no leads to go on, Quennell travels to the crime scene where he finds some large scales scattered about. He also pays a visit to the morgue where the morgue attendant (ROY HUDD) explains that all the bodies have been completely drained of blood.

The explorer Brightwell visits the professor with some more specimens and meets the professor's beautiful daughter Clare (WANDA VENTHAM). After being questioned by Brightwell, the professor confides in him that he is trying to make larger specimens from the ones he already has in a special incubator.

At a party that same night, Clare seduces Brightwell and leads him outside into the woods. Once in the woods Clare runs off telling Brightwell to follow her. Before he gets the chance however, he is attacked by a monstrous creature. Quennell comes to the scene and Brightwell murmurs "Death's Head" before dying. As the victims begin piling up, the determined Quennell investigates further into the case of the mysterious killer who drains the blood of men.

REVIEW

"The Blood Beast Terror" is one of the few films in which Peter Cushing must carry the entire cast and script in order to make a passable film. Certainly the idea of a giant killer moth-woman does not ring a bell as a sure-fire hit for a film. The make-up is rather feeble and actually hurts the film when the creature is eventually shown. There is not much suspense either as the viewer knows from the beginning of the film that Professor Mallinger is the obviously guilty culprit. Therefore why make this film? Perhaps the producers saw a quick buck to be made with Cushing, who by 1967 was a big marquee name.

It's a shame that the film was not a better product as Cushing excels as inspector Quennell. He is featured throughout practically the whole film which helps it as he lends a credibility to the otherwise weak script and effects. It is well known that Cushing would make various changes in his script and even rewrite many of his own lines which I strongly suspect was done for this film. The rest of the characters are one dimensional and hardly interesting while inspector Quennell always draws attention with his actions and confrontations during his relentless pursuit of the killer.

Interestingly enough, the morgue attendant played by Roy Hudd, was a role which Cushing would play very similarly in Tyburn's "Legend of the Werewolf". Both Hudd and Cushing played the morgue attendant as a character who is crude and does not take his job as seriously as one would expect. Both Hudd and Cushing enjoy a full lunch while examining the various corpses in their morgues.

Robert Flemying, who also appeared in the Italian horror classic "The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock" with Barbara Steele, here seems to be just collecting a paycheck as he looks bored in most of scenes. Any good film should have a villain as interesting and strong as the hero. In "The Blood Beast Terror" Cushing outshines Flemying and the result is a one-sided show. Cushing almost reminds me of "Columbo" in this film - the viewer senses that Quennell knows all along that the professor is the real culprit and he is just gathering enough evidence to bag his man.

This film also reminds me of Hammer's "The Gorgon". In both films a beautiful woman becomes a horrid beast by the light of the full moon. In both cases the men who care for the women are actually harboring the awful secret and meet an awful end because of their involvement. Was "The Blood Beast Terror" taking a page out of Hammer's book? - I tend to think so.