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Feb 9, 2010, 10:27pm

Mutant Reviewers From Hell :: General :: Reader Reviews :: penguinslovedw does "The Beast Must Die"

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Topic: penguinslovedw does "The Beast Must Die" (Read 262 times)

penguinslovedw
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penguinslovedw does "The Beast Must Die"
« Thread Started on Mar 17, 2009, 10:35pm »

Summary: Basically Clue™ meets Shaft meets a werewolf.
I know, it’s a great title, isn’t it? One that speaks of horror and gore galore. Unfortunately, it’s probably the essential drive-in cheesiness of the title that keeps this little gem from becoming a classic.

Tom Newcliffe (Calvin Lockhart) is a man compelled to win at any cost. However, he has yet to catch what he believes to be the ultimate predator: The Werewolf. Once you’ve swallowed this, the movie falls into place quite nicely.

He has invited 5 guests, all with suspicious pasts, to his über-teched out house for the weekend. He then informs them that among the other usual garden-party activities, croquet and high tea etc., he will find whichever one of them is the werewolf, hunt that person down and destroy them like the beast they are. This casts a slight pall over the whole affair.

All of the guests have a reason for coming to Newcliffe’s oh-so-flattering attentions. Jan (Michael Gambon) a concert pianist and his girlfriend Davina (Ciaran Madden) both have connections to many mysterious and gruesome deaths; as does Bennington (Charles Gray) a diplomat-turned-TV host. Paul (Tom Chadbon) is a former medical student kicked out of school for somewhat unethical practices. Rounding off the quintet is Dr. Lundgren (Peter Cushing), an archaeologist who knows more about lycanthropy than can be considered possible without firsthand experience.
Newcliffe’s wife Caroline (Marlene Clark) also comes under suspicion, mostly because she has the audacity to complain when her husband has the audacity to threaten her guests with execution.
Watching all of this in his control tower is Pavel (Anton Diffring), Newcliffe’s head of security who perhaps takes too much enjoyment of watching the guests when they think they’re alone.

All of the performances are much better than the genre prescribes. All of the characters have a slight sinister air to them, so you can’t dismiss any right off the bat. However (despite knowing that one of them is a monster) you can’t help but feel sorry for all of them as they realize they are trapped with a heavily armed man who might be a few burritos short of a taco platter.Clark is especially engaging as Caroline, a woman recognizing that her husband’s hobby of killing things isn’t as cute as it used to be.
The really truly excellent performance that pulls the whole thing together though is Lockhart as Newcliffe. Calvin Lockhart was a character actor who brought his suave style to everything from the Royal Shakespeare Company (he was the first black artist-in-residence) to some classic 70’s blaxploitation flicks. What could have easily been campy and tongue in cheek is actually an intriguing turn as a man whose obsession with the hunt turns his cool arrogance into madness and eventually loses him everything.

The director Paul Annett also does a brilliant job. This was his movie debut, and he would go onto become a very well-respected director of TV mysteries. You can see some of that talent here. It’s a bit raw, yes, but definitely present. Annett makes clever use of the many security cameras Newcliffe has rigged his house and grounds with, and they give the movie a sort-of closed in and disturbingly voyeuristic feel.

This is a movie that is almost made to be argued over. While some of you will agree with me, I can guarantee that some will think it’s schlock, albeit well-made schlock. This is of course if you can even find it. It’s not available at any video store I can think of, and it’s currently in the Saved portion of Netflix. I only saw it when it was on at two in the morning on cable during one of my occasional insomniac streaks. But it might be available on YouTube, and I would definitely recommend trying to find it.

To be perfectly honest, I haven’t quite figured out how I should end a review. If you have any tips or suggestions, any and all comments would be truly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

« Last Edit: Mar 17, 2009, 10:35pm by penguinslovedw »

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Re: penguinslovedw does "The Beast Must Die"
« Reply #1 on Jun 18, 2009, 11:50am »

Sounds excellent. I'll see if I can get it. Good thing I checked for Reader Reviews I had missed.

Mar 17, 2009, 10:35pm, penguinslovedw wrote:

To be perfectly honest, I haven’t quite figured out how I should end a review. If you have any tips or suggestions, any and all comments would be truly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Well, that was perfect. So sorry it won't work again.

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