The Blood Beast Terror is a 1967 British horror film directed by Vernon Sewell from a screenplay by Peter Bryan (The Plague of the Zombies, The Brides of Dracula). It was produced by Tigon and released in February 1968. In the United States it was released by Pacemaker Pictures on a double-bill with Italian import Slaughter of the Vampires as The Vampire-Beast Craves Blood.
In 19th century England, a series of grisly murders are taking place in the countryside near London. The victims are good-looking young men, between the ages of twenty and thirty, and all have had their throats torn open and their blood drained. The witness of the latest murder, a coachman named Joe Trigger (Leslie Anderson), is driven insane when he catches a glimpse of the mysterious killer.
Investigating the deaths are Detective Inspector Quennell (Peter Cushing) of Scotland Yard and his assistant, Sergeant Allan (Glynn Edwards, later in The Playbirds). Because Joe keeps ranting about a horrible winged creature with huge eyes (resulting him in being declared insane by the police doctor), Quennell hatches a theory that perhaps a homicidal eagle is on the loose. At the scene of the latest killing, several shiny scales are discovered.
The two latest victims happen to be students of renowned entomology professor Dr. Carl Mallinger (Robert Flemying), who lives nearby with his daughter Clare (Wanda Ventham), and their butler, Granger (Kevin Stoney). When Quennell brings the scales to Mallinger for identification, Mallinger behaves suspiciously and tries to take all of them (he only ends up with one). He also puts forth his theory about a killer eagle, only to have Mallinger dismiss the notion. Quennell is unaware that the entomologist does actually have a pet eagle, which is tormented by sadistic Granger.
In the meantime, explorer and naturalist Frederick Britewell (William Wilde) returns from Africa with some moth chrysalids for Dr. Mallinger, and the handsome young adventurer soon falls victim to the scientist’s daughter Clare, who is in fact the one responsible for all the murders: due to circumstances unknown, Clare is a “were-moth” and transforms at night to drink the blood of young men..
“The Blood Beast Terror isn’t particularly terrifying, there isn’t much blood, and the beast is unsurprisingly silly. Yet thanks to steady direction from Vernon Sewell and the dignity of star Peter Cushing this is a reasonable sub-Hammer production, lent a certain cuteness by the passing of time.” Daniel Etherington, Film 4
“Peter Cushing is great as usual, though he looks pretty perturbed during a few scenes which, given the quality of The Blood Beast Terror, isn’t surprising. There’s simply not enough happening to keep it going for eighty-six minutes, and the fact that they start over from scratch in many ways and introduce a whole slew of new characters halfway through is painful. Sewell’s film has decent production values and a hokey – in a good way – creature, but that’s nowhere near enough to hold anyone’s attention.” David Harley, Bloody-Disgusting.com
” … a dismally cheap affair even by the standards of the day, with scenes taking place around the same two buildings, and all external shots lensed tightly to disguise the fact that they seem to be different parts of the same building. In line with its cheapness is its dearth of imagination that gives every indication of being the result of Tigon producer Tony Tenser blurting out “Have we done a giant moth yet?” over a boozy lunch.” James Hoare, SciFiNow.co.uk
“In the end, this largely forgotten, atmospheric creature feature is a decently fun watch though the idea of a were-moth is laughably silly. Then again, it is a large part of the film’s charm, making it worth revisiting just for its failed attempt to transform the notion into something scary.” M. Enois Duarte, Hi-Def Digest
