The Beast Must Die (1974) – Episode 120 – Decades of Horror 1970s

"One of our guests is a werewolf, I know it.” Maybe they need a “werewolf break” to figure it out? Join your faithful Grue Crew - Doc Rotten, Chad Hunt, Bill Mulligan, and Jeff Mohr - as they play “werewolf, werewolf, who can the werewolf be?” in The Beast Must Die (1974).

Decades of Horror 1970s
Episode 120 – The Beast Must Die (1974)

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Eight people have been invited to an island estate for the weekend. One of them is a werewolf. Can you guess which one?

IMDb

 

• Director: Paul Annett
• Writer: Michael Winder (based on a short story by James Blish)
• Music: Douglas Gamley
• Cast:
  • Calvin Lockhart as Tom Newcliffe
  • Peter Cushing as Dr. Christopher Lundgren
  • Marlene Clark as Caroline Newcliffe
  • Charles Gray as Bennington
  • Anton Diffring as Pavel
  • Ciaran Madden as Davina
  • Tom Chadbon as Paul Foote
  • Michael Gambon as Jan

The Beast Must Die, the last horror film produced by Amicus Productions, is famous for it’s “werewolf break,” a gimmick in which the film is paused just prior to the werewolf reveal, giving the audience time to guess which character is the werewolf. 

Chad has fun trying to find clues that aren’t there and is thankful for the 10-second advance button on Amazon Prime to help get him through the car chase. Jeff again notices the prevalence of a 1970s, detective-series, funk score and admits The Beast Must Die is kind of a fun movie. The TV-movie feel of The Beast Must Die is a little much for Bill, signaling the beginning of the end for Amicus. Doc points out the pedigree of the actors appearing in the film (and of course, Peter Cushing} and bemoans the complete lack of clues to the identity of the werewolf. 

Though the 70s Grue-Crew admits this isn’t one of the best Amicus films, they still have fun with it. As of this posting, The Beast Must Die is available on Blu-ray from Severin and can be streamed on Amazon Prime.

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror 1970s is part of the Decades of Horror 2-week rotation with The Classic Era and the 1980s. In two weeks, the next episode in their very flexible schedule will be House (1977), aka Hausu (original title).

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