The Blood Beast Terror

The majestically named 'The Blood Beast Terror' was made by Tigon-British Film Productions as a deliberate attempt at Hammer's gothic horror audience.  It tells the story of the hunt for a vampiric were-moth that is killing young men on the moors and draining them of all their blood

The film stars Peter Cushing as Inspector Quennell, Vanessa Howard as his daughter Meg, Robert Flemyng as Dr. Mallinger and Wanda Ventham - now far more well known as the mother of both Benedict Cumberbatch and Sherlock - as the slightly mothy Clare Mallinger. 

Few of the actors come out of this experience well, Cushing (obviously), Howard (who only appears in the second half of the film) and British TV regular Glynn Edwards who plays Sgt. Allan being just about the only cast members who don't look like they're hamming it up in an off season end-of-the-pier pantomime.

'The Blood Beast Terror' has not aged particularly well and has been much maligned over the intervening years - Cushing thought it was one of his worst movies - and I'm certainly not going to try and redeem it but the ropey directing, the cack handed editing, the ham acting, the dumb script and the woeful effects all add up to making this movie a bit of a guilty pleasure for me.

Buy it here - The Blood Beast Terror [Blu-ray] [1968] - or watch it in all it's dubious glory below.



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The Innocents (1961)

Based on the Henry James novella 'The Turn of the Screw', The Innocents tells the story of Miss Giddens (Deborah Kerr) who becomes governess to two young children, Flora and Miles (played with aplomb by Pamela Franklin and the creepiest kid of the 1960s Martin Stephens) and becomes convinced that the children are possessed by the spirits of the previous governess (Clyte Jessop) and her abusive lover (Peter Wyngarde).

The Innocents is a masterclass of artful and restrained horror, a deliberate move away from the glorious schlock of the Hammer movies.  Scares are kept to a minimum and in their place is a mounting sense of terror realised through it's use of darkness, slow, languorous edits and astonishing, groundbreaking electronic sound from legendary BBC Radiophonic Workshop composer Daphne Oram.

Buy it here - UK / US


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If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain