Sometimes, I almost give movies a pass based on their oldness and/or their Britishness. I am easily charmed by late 60's/early 70's films in general, and when you add a dose of British accents in there it's usually a winning (enough) formula for me. And for most of the runtime I thought The Blood Beast Terror was headed in that direction - nothing special, but passable. But after the truly uninspired and anti-climactic finale, I sadly have to frown on it.
It's about police inspector Quennell (Peter Cushing!) in 19th century England, trying to solve the case of a string of recent murders. Several young men have turned up dead, drained of blood and with strange gashes on their face. The few survivors/witnesses have rambled on about seeing some sort of crazy bird or giant winged beast, but they are quickly written off as hysterical. Quennell enlists the help of Dr. Carl Mallinger, a respected professor and bug expert. Mallinger claims to know nothing, but Quennell's spider sense goes a-tingling. After another murder, Mallinger and his daughter skip town, and Quennell follows them, hoping to put an end to The Blood Beast Terror.
It turns out the titular blood beast is a giant man-moth - it's not exactly a mystery, especially if you check it out on Netflix (as the big picture that accompanies the synopsis is of said beast). It's really a pretty poor man-in-suit costume - it may have cut the mustard in an older black and white creature feature, but it's a little too corny for the faux-serious vibe they're going for here. The tone of the movie isn't campy enough for this sort of monster-costume to work.
They way the monster operates is a little unclear too. I can't really get into it without spoiling what little surprises this has to offer. But needless to say if you are looking for details on how/why any of this is going on, "because science" is probably the best answer you're going to get.
And overall the stakes aren't that high. You never really have any reason to care about the characters. I mean, you root for Inspector Quennell because he's Peter Cushing, but other than that no one does anything to make them particularly likable (or conversely, unlikable - even the mad scientist seems pretty reasonable). Every one is just kind of there - there is not a lot of pizzaz or energy to the proceedings.
There are still a couple of things to like though - you've got a decently entertaining wacky mortician, which has to be a relatively early example of the character. (I hope there is a supercut somewhere of all of these guys in horror/action movies - one trait they all seem to have is that they love eating meals next to a corpses.) And the most noteworthy (legitimately) creepy part is when we see our man-moth still encased in its cocoon-like thing. As crappy as the costume looks in action, it looks pretty good when it's covered in this weird semi-transparent webbing. And of course you've also got Peter Cushing, who is always enjoyable. His dry charm as the inspecting officer is the best thing the film has to offer, and it's almost enough.
But the end... oof. It's about as flat of an ending as you could have, and it's surprising to me that it even made the final cut. I suspect it's terrible due to budgetary restraints - there is fire and a flying beast involved, which had to be costly. So instead of spending money they just edit it so it makes no sense. And once you piece it together, the words "unacceptable" and "embarrassing" come to mind. Or "Wack" if you're kind of drunk and taking notes... even the Cushing Factor can't overcome that.
I could have gone either way with The Blood Beast Terror for most of the film. There's nothing that good, but aside from that final minute, nothing that bad either. Plus, you've got a 50 year old film that takes place 100+ years ago, so it's like getting two history lessons in one. But that ending - talk about leaving a bad taste in your mouth.
I would not recommend this film.
No comments:
Post a Comment