''The Beast Must Die'' is a 1974 British

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

directed by Paul Annett. The screenplay was written by Michael Winder, based on the short story "

There Shall Be No Darkness "There Shall Be No Darkness" is a horror story by the American writer James Blish that was published in 1950. It concerns a group of people on a remote country manor who discover that one of their number is a ravenous werewolf. The story was adapte ...

" by

James Blish James Benjamin Blish () was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is best known for his '' Cities in Flight'' novels and his series of ''Star Trek'' novelizations written with his wife, J. A. Lawrence. His novel '' A Case of Conscie ...

, which was originally published in ''

Thrilling Wonder Stories ''Wonder Stories'' was an early American science fiction magazine which was published under several titles from 1929 to 1955. It was founded by Hugo Gernsback in 1929 after he had lost control of his first science fiction magazine, ''Amazing Stor ...

''. The film stars Calvin Lockhart,

Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage, and radio roles. He achieved recognition ...

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, Charles Gray,

Anton Diffring Anton Diffring (born Alfred Pollack, 20 October 1916 – 19 May 1989) was a German-born character actor who had an extensive career in the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1980s, latterly appearing in international films. He appeared in ove ...

Ciaran Madden Ciaran Anne Magdalene Madden (born 27 December 1942) is a retired English stage, film, and television actress, who was professionally active from the late 1960s through the late 1990s. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RAD ...

Tom Chadbon Tom Chadbon (born 27 February 1946, in Luton) is an English actor who has spent much of his career appearing on British television. Although principally a character actor, he has occasionally had leading or recurring roles. Chadbon starred in a ...

, and Michael Gambon.Ed. Allan Bryce, ''Amicus: The Studio That Dripped Blood'', Stray Cat Publishing, 2000 p 138-143 A millionaire big game hunter gathers six people at his remote English mansion, announcing that he suspects one of them is a werewolf. The viewer is invited to unfold the mystery along with the characters. Near the end, there is a 30-second pause called the "werewolf break", where the audience is asked to guess the werewolf's identity, based on clues from the movie. An alternative version of the film was released under the title ''Black Werewolf''. This cut omits the "werewolf break" near the climax.

Plot summary

Millionaire Tom Newcliffe ( Calvin Lockhart) invites a group of people, along with his wife Caroline (

), to spend some time in his rural English mansion, where he reveals that one of them is a

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...

and therefore must be killed. The group is composed of disgraced diplomat Arthur Bennington ( Charles Gray); Jan and Davina Gilmore ( Michael Gambon and

), a pianist and his ex-student, now his wife; Paul Foote (

), an artist recently released from prison; and Professor Lundgren (

), an archaeologist and a lycanthropy enthusiast. They all stay in the mansion where they are submitted to various tests to detect whether they might be a werewolf. The entire house is under surveillance by CCTV cameras, as well as motion sensors in the grounds around the mansion set up and overseen by Tom's associate Pavel (

), who does not believe in werewolves. The only way to determine the identity of the werewolf is for a certain combination of elements to occur all at once, including a full moon and the presence of wolfsbane pollen in the air. When this fails to produce any lycanthropic reactions, Tom makes each of the potential werewolves grab silver objects to provoke allergic reactions, but this too proves unsuccessful. Later that same night, Pavel is killed by the werewolf, which makes Tom even more obsessive in his hunt, to his wife's increasing annoyance. Tom gradually focuses his suspicions on Paul Foote, who was reportedly arrested after eating human flesh. Foote denies being the werewolf as the creature continues killing, with the helicopter pilot, diplomat Arthur Bennington, and Caroline's dog all falling victim. Tom subjects the remaining group to one final test: placing a silver bullet in their mouth. As Caroline submits to the test, her hairy, clawed hand is shown before she immediately transforms into the werewolf. She (fully transformed) attacks Tom, and he kills her by shooting her with a silver bullet, leaving him very distraught and confused because Caroline was alongside him when the werewolf killed her dog. Prof. Lundgren deduces that Caroline must have contracted the werewolf disease while taking care of her dog's wounds due to an open cut on her hand she sustained from a broken wineglass at dinner. Tom becomes enraged, convinced that Foote is the werewolf. When he attempts to confront him, however, he finds that Foote has also been killed. To avenge his wife, he enters the woods surrounding the mansion to hunt the werewolf. He finds the beast and finally shoots and kills it. Once dead, the werewolf reverts to its human form, and it is revealed to be Jan, the pianist. Tom returns to Prof. Lundgren and Davina, and he realizes that he was bitten by the werewolf during the scuffle, thus condemning him to inherit the creature's curse. Not wanting to be a monster, Tom locks himself in the mansion and shoots himself in the head with a silver bullet, ending the werewolf's bloodline.

Cast

* Calvin Lockhart as Tom Newcliffe *

as Professor Christopher Lundgren *

as Caroline Newcliffe * Charles Gray as Arthur Bennington *

as Pavel *

as Davina *

as Paul Foote * Michael Gambon as Jan Jarmokowski *Sam Mansaray as Butler *Andrew Lodge as Pilot *Carl Bohun as 1st Hunter *Eric Carte as 2nd Hunter *

Valentine Dyall Valentine Dyall (7 May 1908 – 24 June 1985) was an English character actor. He worked regularly as a voice actor, and was known for many years as "The Man in Black", the narrator of the BBC Radio horror series '' Appointment with Fear'' ...

as Werewolf Break Narrator (voice, uncredited) *

Annie Ross Annabelle McCauley Allan Short (25 July 193021 July 2020), known professionally as Annie Ross, was a British-American singer and actress, best known as a member of the jazz vocal trio Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Early life Ross was born in Surr ...

as Caroline Newcliffe (voice, uncredited)

Critical reception

In the audio commentary with director Annett on the home video release, Annett says he hated the addition of the werewolf break: "What can I say about it? I hated it. It stopped the film stone dead and I thought it was completely artificial and unnecessary". It was not in Annett's version of the film; he attributes the idea to producer Milton Subotsky. He does admit that some, including critic Leonard Maltin, liked it.

Allmovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...

wrote, "The non-anthology output of Amicus Productions tended to be hit-and-miss, but ''The Beast Must Die'' is an interesting if lightweight horror-mystery hybrid from the studio."

DVD release

The film was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

as part of the Umbrella Entertainment box set ''Amicus: The Studio That Dripped Blood''. This edition includes the following special features: commentary by director Paul Annett, a "Directing The Beast" featurette, and Amicus Collection trailers. It is also included in a coffin-shaped Amicus box set released by Anchor Bay UK. The film was released separately on DVD on 25 July 2006 by Dark Sky Films. The special features included in this release are commentary by director Paul Annett, the "Directing The Beast" featurette, Paul Annett's tribute to Peter Cushing, cast and crew bios, liner notes, trailers, and a still gallery. The film has subsequently been released on blu-ray by Severin Films in the US and Powerhouse Indicator in the UK.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Beast Must Die, The 1974 films 1974 directorial debut films 1974 horror films 1970s monster movies 1970s mystery films Amicus Productions films British independent films British supernatural horror films 1970s English-language films Films based on short fiction Films scored by Douglas Gamley Films set in country houses Mystery horror films British werewolf films 1970s British films