The Blood Beast Terror [Blu-ray]

Here we have a good old fashioned Horror movie the likes of which proliferated throughout the Forties and Fifties and because of its mixture of humor and bloodletting, it works marvelously. Director Vernon Sewell's 'THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR' aka 'THE VAMPIRE BEAST CRAVES BLOOD'-1967 resembles its distant British cousins; Director Sydney J. Furie's 'THE SNAKE WOMAN'- 1960 and Director John Gilling's 'THE REPTILE' -1965 with the daughters of prominent doctors having curses placed on them causing them to transform into snakes but here we have our doctor creating his daughter from a moth/human hybrid with the inevitable disastrous results (we must not forget another distant cousin in Director Roger Corman's 'THE WASP WOMAN'-1957 but the transformation results from bee hormones injected into cold cream ). The doctor role was to be played by Basil Rathbone but he succumbed to a heart attack two weeks before shooting started. Producer Tony Tenser had distributed Director Riccardo Freda's brilliant hommage to gothic horror, necrophilia and actress Barbara Steele 'L'ORRIBILE SEGRETO DEL DR. HICHCOCK' aka 'THE HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK' -1961 and was able to secure actor Robert Flemyng as our 'mad as a March hare' Dr. Mallinger (but he still is Dr. Hichcock in my book). Our femme fatale is the beautiful Wanda Ventham who plays our deaths head moth in erotic nympho style and steals the film from everyone involved. She would also slightly steal her way through Writer/Director Brian Clemens's underrated vampire western 'CAPTAIN KRONOS VAMPIRE HUNTER'-1971. We also have Peter Cushing as the Inspector who supposedly detested the script and decided to insert humor into the dialogue predating actor Thorley Walters blusterly policeman in Director Terence Fischer's masterpiece 'FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED' - 1969 but with less sarcasm but a memorable performance none the less. The film emerges as an entertaining hoot with the script by Peter Bryan borrowing from many past horrors. The photography is by future British Sex comedy auteur Stanley A. Long which in this Blu-Ray incarnation really enhances the proceedings. Director Sewell would go on to direct Boris Karloff's last British film 'CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR' aka 'THE CRIMSON CULT'-1970 with Christopher Lee and Barbara Steele wasting their talents and the frustrating 'BURKE AND HARE'- 1972 which is also released by Redemption in both DVD and Blu-Ray. Released over a decade ago on DVD by Image Entertainment in a slightly worn transfer, this Redemption disc is light years ahead of it with rich colors and tones presented in its original 1.66 theatrical aspect ratio in eye popping 1080P. Extras include an original British trailer for the film, other Redemption trailers and a still gallery. For all fans of sixties Horror, this is a real guilty pleasure and recommended.

I bought this DVD because it starred Peter Cushing and I thought the premise sounded intriguing. It takes place in 19th century England. A series of unsolved murders have occurred in the countryside near London. The victims were all men of a certain age. Their throats were torn open and they were drained of every ounce of blood. The only witness to see the killer was driven insane at the sight of it. “The eyes, the eyes!!!” Prompting Detective Inspector Quennell (Peter Cushing) to get involved. His investigation leads him to a mad scientist who is always angry at someone for something (he’s not above slapping a student for a harmless prank). It is soon evident that this scientist is not what he claims to be and neither is his so-called daughter (Wanda Ventham). What are they trying to hide?Not bad for its type (a pseudo-vampire flick). At least Peter Cushing was great as always. But the horror element could have been jazzed up a notch or two more than it was. Still, it was entertaining.

I love that Amazon has such great movies

The Picture Quality on this 2022 Blu-ray release is Absolutely Beautiful.This Movie is like looking at Antiques, the Sets are very Lavishly detailed.I thought the Movie itself was really good, just wish it had a little more Action and Creature Carnage.

...but it really isn't. That honor must go to the obscure 1977 Canadian anthology film THE UNCANNY. What Cushing probably meant was that this was the worst script he'd ever seen and it's bad but not THAT bad. Cushing and co-star Robert Flemyng (THE HORRIBLE DR HICHCOCK) liven up the proceedings by either injecting very dry humor into some of their line readings or keeping a complete poker face during others. This lends an aura of credibility to THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR (an OK title but it beats the alternate one which is THE VAMPIRE BEAST CRAVES BLOOD) that will either delight Anglophiles like me or have other horror fans reaching for the 2X button on their remotes. If you're a fan of Hammer Horror, then this ersatz version from Tony Tenser's Tigon Productions will have a lot more cache'. The director, Vernon Sewell, would later give us the bad but enjoyable CURSE OF THE CRIMSON ALTAR and the just plain bad BURKE & HARE after which he retired.BLOOD BEAST is basically a ripoff of Hammer's THE REPTILE which was made the year before. Victorian entymologist (Flemyng) has a daughter (Wanda Ventham - CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER) who turns into, not a snake woman, but a Death's Head Moth woman. The difference this time around is that the father does it to his daughter himself (rather like Hawthorne's RAPPACINI'S DAUGHTER) instead of it being done to her by outsiders. Cushing is a police inspector investigating a series of bloody murders which have been committed by an unknown assailant. The father is helpful at first but then tries to impede Cushing's progress. Everything builds quite nicely until it's time to fully unveil the monster. Unfortunately the make-up job makes Roger Corman's WASP WOMAN look really high tech and the ending is abrupt and unsatisfactory. This is another fine job from the folks at Redemption with a beautiful transfer of a quality print but most people's reaction will be, why bother?

Peter Cushing is a favorite actor of mine. This movie shows why.Peter did not care for this movie but it does not show in his performance in my opinion.He carries the day again by being above the material and giving us a wonderful performance.The story is trite and rather ridiculous at times . It comes across as a film that was rushed and not well planned. But Peter and company do their best to entertain you and in this they do just fine.Informative commentary is also worth having on while viewing.

Ha ha, I can see why Peter Cushing thought it was one of the worst films he ever made but to be honest it is so bad it is good, almost a cult classic. If you want a bit of old style horror (which in the day scared the pants off of us), watch this. A good old fashioned horror flick that is well worth the money.

A better than average horror thriller of its time. Cast is good.However the 5 stars is for the remastering. I don't believe I've seen a cleaner job. For an obscure film of its period, the quality is outstanding. I guess someone took good care of the negative!

I'm collecting old hammer films and this ine is a worth while addition to the collection at the write price deliverd before the date issued

excellent DVD Peter Cushing fills the screen unlike a lot of actors today although the fishing rod used in this periodic film did look like a 1960;s fibreglass rod:-)