The Beast Must Die (1974)

Tonight’s movie is the British Werewolf film “The Beast Must Die” from 1974. Directed by Paul Annett (Who usually sticks to directing for TV, but made a handful of films in his career too). The film stars Calvin Lockhart (Who you may recognise as “King Willie” from Predator 2), as millionaire and obsessed hunter “Tom Newcliffe”. This is an ensemble film though so he is supported by the likes of Peter Cushing, Charles Grey, Michael Gambon, Tom Chadbon, Anton Diffring and Marlene Clark.

October Review Challenge – Day 11

This movie isn’t just a Werewolf movie, it is also a “Strangers in a Room” movie and unfortunately a gimmick movie. The gimmick here is as the narrator tells you at the start that you have to pay close attention to all the clues and figure out who the Werewolf is. This is sort of pointless as you’d be doing that anyway, but this comes up again about twenty minutes before the end when there is a “Werewolf break” for you to debate and decide who the beast is. Honestly the movie could have done without that.

Anyway, the story effectively follows the rich and determined hunter Tom Newcliffe (Lockhart) as he pursues his greatest quarry, a Werewolf. To do this he has drawn together a small group of individuals which he suspect of possibly carrying the curse. He has done this on the eve of a Full Moon, with the plan to draw the beast out and take it down. The story then progresses over three nights of the full moon as Lockhart begins his pursuit, but the Wolf is no fool and the question remains who is hunting who? Meanwhile the guests all start to question if Lockhart is telling the truth and if one of them is the beast. Accusations fly, tempers flair but ultimately the Werewolf will be revealed

Funky Disco Wolf

One thing I think is worth pointing out is the music. While liked it in isolation, it didn’t fit even remotely with the film. Instead it makes the film seem like a spy action/thriller. The music features lots of horn stabs and wah peddle guitar playing, which is very 1970’s but not what you would expect to hear on a Horror film (even in the 70’s). To be fair some elements of the soundtrack such as the bass does work (and similar basslines can be heard in the great Goblin soundtracks of Dario Argento films), but the rest didn’t and while there are moments of more fitting music the tensions is constantly broken by the sexy action hero theme.

The Price of Knowledge

Between the music and the gimmick I can see why this has a low (though not abysmal) rating on IMDB. But if you can look past that there is actually a lot to like about the movie. The plot isn’t without holes, but it is serviceable and this is a good selection of actors, especially of course including horror legend Peter Cushing. Cushing’s character Dr. Christopher Lundgren doesn’t have a lot to do in the movie action wise but has a good portion of dialogue which is his strength anyway.

The films lead Calvin Lockhart plays the obsessed Tom Newcliffe well. The character is not at all concerned at how people see him or if they like him, he has a singular purpose to hunt and kill a Werewolf. Calvin does intense well (as those that remember him in Predator 2 will attest to). He is a little hampered by the outfits they get him to wear (Again very 70’s) but the performance shines through the costumes. The lengths he goes to track and hunt the werewolf allows the film to stand out from the crowd as a Werewolf film. It is an interesting approach, if not the most compelling.

Werewolf Mafia

The setup of “Find the werewolf” combined with the “Strangers in a room” format works well, but given that is basically the setup of the game “Werewolf” otherwise known as Mafia that is no surprise. It is one of the angles of Werewolf movies that while heavily done in the modern day was virtually untouched when this film was made. It’s not a case that these movies and games based on the “Mafia/Werewolf” premise wouldn’t exist without this movie. I would guess most of the creators of those projects never heard about it. It is however probably the first. So it gets points for that.

Conclusion

Ultimately this is much better than you would probably expect and a refreshingly different approach to the genre. It is hampered however by gimmickry and being unable to escape the sheer 70’s-ness of it’s production. Overall though I think I will be generous and give it a 6/10. I can see myself watching this again sometime (Even though a re-watch makes the “Guess the Werewolf” gimmick even more pointless).