The Beast Must Die (1970)
Que la bête meure
Director
Claude Chabrol
Writers
Nicholas Blake novel
Claude Chabrol
Paul Gégauff
Producer
André Génovès
Cast
Michel Duchaussoy - Charles Thenier
Caroline Cellier - Helene Lanson
Jean Yanne - Paul Decourt
Anouk Ferjac - Jeanne Decourt
Marc Di Napoli - Phillippe Decourt
Louise Chevalier - Madame Levenes
Guy Marly - Jacques Ferrand
Lorraine Rainer - Anna Ferrand
Dominique Zardi - Police inspector
Stéphane Di Napoli - Michel Thenier
Raymone - La mère de Paul
Michel Charrel - Le casseur
France Girard -
Bernard Papineau -
Robert Rondo - Le garagiste
Jacques Masson - Le fils du paysan
Georges Charrier - Le chauffeur de taxi
Maurice Pialat - Police Inspector
Jean-Louis Maury - Le paysan
Review by Sven Soetemans
Nice formula…but it ignores the ‘horror' a bit,
Amicus was a neat little production company that specialized itself in creating extremely enjoyable omnibus horror films. Especially in the early seventies, they satisfied a large thrill-seeking audience with terror-anthologies like `Asylum', `The Vault of Horror', From Beyond the Grave' and even the original `Tales from the Crypt' Also, you have to admit that they constantly tried to be imaginative and innovating…and The Beast Must Die is the perfect example to state this. It presents a rather original and new format that involves the viewer. At the beginning and near the end, this film specifically requests the public to join a search. Pretty clever, since this is only a simple method but it does demand the viewer's immediate attention! The particular search is a werewolf-hunt! Six persons – four males and two females – spend the weekend at a huge ranch. The moon is full, all the necessary scenery is present and at the end of the weekend, the werewolf has to be exposed! Personally, I rather enjoyed this formula…it's a nice change and very entertaining nonetheless. Unfortunately, The Beast Must Die lacks a bit of professionalism to be listed among the better horror titles. It's all pretty cheap and especially the make-up and creature effects disappoint. The werewolf isn't the least bit impressive and there are too few shock-sequences to make the film memorable. Actually, aside from the werewolf theme and the presence of horror-regular Cushing, The Beast Must Die has very little to do with horror! It merely is action/adventure with just a tint of mystery and horror. Regarding the cast, it is veteran Peter Cushing who impresses the most as the specialist-professor in the field of ‘Lycanthropes'. The rest of the cast is rather unknown with the exception of Anton Diffring, here in a delightful little role. If you like classic horror and you're not familiar with Anton Diffring, I advise you to run out to the nearest videostore and rent `Circus of Horrors'
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