The Beast Must Die (1974)

One of these eight people will turn into a werewolf. Can you guess who it is when we stop the film for the WEREWOLF BREAK? See it ... solve it ... but don't tell!

The Beast Must Die

I shit the bed.  When the "werewolf break" came I couldn't correctly guess who the werewolf was.  Well, I shouldn't be too hard on myself because I was partly right, but still, I failed.  I hang my head in shame.

So The Beast Must Die is sort of like a murder mystery but instead of just figuring out who the murderer is, the viewer must figure out who the werewolf is.  It's like a combination of a Hammer horror movie, Clue: The Movie and The Most Dangerous Game with some blaxploitation thrown in for good measure.

An eccentric black guy (Calvin Lockhart) has too much money and an obsession with hunting.  He has tired of killing mundane creatures and now wishes to hunt the most dangerous game of all...  the werewolf!  He hires a security expert and has video cameras and microphones placed all over his estate and then hosts a dinner party.  To this party, he invites a bunch of white people.  One is an expert on lycanthropy (and is skillfully played by Peter Cushing), one is a convicted cannibal, and the others are just people who have been implicated in horrific murders over the years.  Any one of them could be the werewolf.

The black guy forces them all to stay at his estate until the rising of the full moon will force the werewolf to transform into the beast that it is.  At this point he will be able to hunt it down and put its head on his wall, I guess. It's never really explained what he will do with the trophy once he shoots it.  Anyway, the werewolf is crafty and things don't go as planned.  Innocents are killed, the surveillance equipment is destroyed and still nobody knows who the werewolf is.  That's when the "werewolf break" comes.  The viewer gets 30 seconds to try to figure out who the beast is before the climax of the film.

I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I liked this movie.  There are no boobies, very little blood and it's not at all scary.  In fact, the "werewolf" is played by a medium-sized German Shepherd.  This is one of the few movies I've reviewed that is probably suitable for kids, but I don't care.  I still recommend it.

Violence Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Booby Rating: 1 out of 5

"Does he look like a bitch?"

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