..but it really isn’t. That honor must go to the 1977 obscure 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?
The Capsule Critic 