Buy She Beast Movie. Watch online or Download
Genres: Hor
Starring: Barbara Steele, Mel Welles, Ian Ogilvy, John Karlsen, Jay Riley, Richard Watson, Edward B. Randolph
Director(s): Michael Reeves
Country: UK, Italy
Year: 1966
Available Quality: DivX, iPod
IMDB Rating: 4.2 out of 10 (394 votes)
A young woman is driving alongside a lake. She has an accident and the car plunges into the water. Her body is then possessed by the spirit of an 18th-century witch who was killed by local villagers, and is bent on avenging herself on them.
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She Beast (iPod) | Resolution: 480x240 px | Total Size: 240 Mb |
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She Beast (DivX) | Resolution: 720x364 px | Total Size: 805 Mb |
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We have taken some photos of "She Beast". They represent actual movie quality.
Visitors Review
Jens Kofoed-Pihl (20 May 2012)
Ghoulish, campy anti-commie horror classic!
The director of "Witchfinder General/Conquering Worm" first effort is aminor classic. Barbara ("Black Sunday") Steele is quite captivating as theyoung wife who's corpse get possessed by a 200 year-old buttugly witch. Butit's Mel ("Little Shop Of Horrors") Wells who steals the show playing asupersleazy, alcoholic commie hotelowner. The lurid performance equals thatof Donald Pleasure in the nasty "Mania/Fiends And The Flesh". And look forthat infamous death-by-hammer-and-sickle scene...ghoulish fun to themax!Thrillseekin' horroraddicts should be able to get their jaded kicks withthis low budget (the monster make up is a bit tacky) cheerful and wickedgem. Why waste your time with pathetic 90's hollywood horror when filmslikethis exist. By the way, Vincent Price once said that Reeves was the bestdirector he ever worked with!
(19 May 2012)
Stinks Like A Barrel O' Fish
According to Internet Movie Data Base, the producers of the 1966 SHE BEAST has access to Barbara Steele, star of the film, for exactly one day of shooting. This certainly explains a storyline that causes Steele to vanish from the screen for about half the film's run time. It may also explain why SHE BEAST is such a bad film: you simply can't put together a respectable movie under such conditions.Not that SHE BEAST even has pretensions of being a respectable movie. The story is pure hokum. Apparently Transylvannia not only has vampires and werewolfs, it is also home to an evil witch that was killed by the locals in a nearby lake some two hundred years ago. Along come nice young couple Philip and Vernonica (Ian Ogilvy and Steele), and after a few misadventures at the hotel they have an auto accident and their car runs into the lake. On the 200th anniversary of the witch's death.Next thing you know, Veronica (now clearly played by a strong limbed man in really bad costume and make up) has turned into the witch, and she starts running around killing off desendants of those who put her to death in the first place. Fortunately, Count Von Helsing (John Karlsen) is on hand to straighten everything out.The major attraction of the film, of course, is cult-star Barbara Steele; co-star Ian Ogilvy isn't bad either, and Karlsen is okay. But the rest of the cast stinks like a barrel o' fish and the entire movie looks like it was filmed for about a buck and a quarter. And it is S...L...O...W... Everyone talks, what they say isn't interesting, then they talk some more. When they finally get around to actually doing something, what they do isn't interesting either, and they usually stop doing it to talk some more.The transfer is awful, by the way: cropped and chopped, riddled with artifacts, and bad color balance. The sound isn't any better. No matter the price, this Steele is no steal. Steer clear.GFT, Amazon Reviewer
(17 May 2012)
at last on april 28th!!
throw out your old dvd or vhs copy of this michael reeves cult classic on april 28th and get THE legitimate,restored and remastered version on dark sky video!!for years all there have been are terrible copies of this movie floating around but now this is the chance to see this on dvd the way it was meant to.the late michael reeves(1943-1969)made only a handful of movies in his short life and career but each one is unique and should be seen by fans of horror movies.the story takes place in 1960s era communist europe with a couple traveling on their honeymoon and the wife(barbara steele)supposedly drowns in a car crash and when a truck driver tries to save her,up comes the most horrifying movie witches you will ever see.the characters in this movie are different to say the least and while unfortunately barbara steele is really only seen for a brief few minutes--it is a unique and fascinating movie that only a genius like michael reeves could have made(and don't miss mel welles,famous for playing gravis mushnik in the original "little house of horrors")as the sleazy motel innkeeper!!thank you dark sky video.
MARIO GAUCI (17 May 2012)
SHE BEAST (Michael Reeves, 1966) **
Michael Reeves' official directorial debut  after his stint as anassistant director on CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD (1964; his modestcontribution here is, erroneously, sometimes exaggerated by hiscultists)  is, likewise, an Italian production of the Horror variety.Filmed under the title of REVENGE OF THE BLOOD BEAST and officiallyreleased in Italy as SISTER OF Satan (although, LAKE OF Satan, isapparently yet another name attributed to it over there!), the film'sbest-known moniker is SHE BEAST  which is how it has been released onDVD, first by the budget outfit Alpha and, more recently, by the morerespectable label Dark Sky Films.Even though Reeves' entire cinematic output consists of merely fourtitles, he managed the enviable feat of working with one genre iconapiece: Christopher Lee in CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD, Barbara Steele inSHE BEAST, Boris Karloff in THE SORCERERS (1967) and Vincent Price inWITCHFINDER GENERAL (1968), his last (and, undoubtedly, best) work.Actually, the contribution of Barbara Steele  the then-reigning'Scream Queen' of Italian horror movies, ever since her breakthroughdual roles in (yet another legendary genre director) Mario Bava's BLACKSunday (1960)  to the film under review amounted to just one 22-hourday of the 18-day shooting schedule; her agent at the time, David NivenJr., only alerted her of this clause on the day before she came on theset and, although she was a trouper, Steele had a major falling-outwith producer Paul Maslansky although, judging by the cordial andlively Audio Commentary on the Dark Sky DVD, any animosity between thetwo has long since faded away! Joined in this discussion is the film'snominal lead and veritable Michael Reeves mascot, Ian Ogilvy; they hadbeen schoolmates in their teenage years and Ogilvy would go on to starin all of Reeves' directorial output.The film opens with a witch-hunting sequence that anticipates the morenotorious ones in WITCHFINDER GENERAL; the victim of the 'trial bywater' (or, more exactly, stake through the heart!) has to be one ofthe ugliest female monsters to appear on celluloid and, in fact, wasactually portrayed by a colored dancer sporting heavy  and highlyeffective  make-up with hideous tooth-work and shriek-laden voice tomatch! Incidentally, one of the actor's winding down activities on theset (according to Ogilvy) was trying to hitch rides from passing carsin full "She Beast" get-up obviously, to the stopping drivers' eternalchagrin! The cast also includes three other moderately familiar namesof the period: John Karlsen (as the modern-day eccentric witch-hunterCount Von Helsing {sic}!), Mel Welles (as a boozing lecher of aninn-keeper) and Lucretia Love (appearing  in one of two surprisinglyracy scenes in the film  as an innocent villager assaulted by Welles,just before he gets his own comeuppance from the rampaging titularcreature); curiously enough, the other brief spot of nudity is providedby La Steele herself, during a night-time lovemaking scene with husbandOgilvy, that is witnessed by 'peeping tom' Welles  who is subsequentlybeaten up within an inch of his life by the understandably incensedguest! Apart from Welles, the American side of the production is representedby producer Maslansky and second-unit director/uncreditedco-screenwriter Charles B. Griffith; film connoisseurs will immediatelyassociate the first with the POLICE ACADEMY franchise and the second(like Welles himself) with the earlier days of the Roger Corman stable.Despite both Maslansky and Griffith having worked on some intriguingfantasy stuff (CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD itself, 1972's DEATH LINE,1975's RACE WITH THE DEVIL and 1977's DAMNATION ALLEY, as well as two1957 Corman productions, NOT OF THIS EARTH and THE UNDEADrespectively), unfortunately, it is their comedic vein which comes tothe fore here in a truly misjudged and overstretched climactic"Keystone Kops"-type slapstick car chase (seemingly needed to pad outthe running time to feature-length)! This not only involves anuncredited Maslansky himself  as one of three bumbling local cops,anticipating the similarly inept pursuing duo in Wes Craven's LASTHOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972)!  in a couple of mildly amusing pratfalls,but also the faintly surrealistic and completely illogical presence ofan unknown motorcyclist that insistently reappears throughout thissequence!
Chuck Straub (16 May 2012)
Plenty of things to shake your head about.
After watching 'She Beast' for an agonizing 82 torturous minutes I wasleft sitting in my chair wondering what is it that anyone sees worthviewing about this movie? The DVD version that I saw was of very poorquality. It was grainy, color faded and had poor sound. It's a lowbudget film with poor acting, poor film quality and a poor plot that isfilled with holes. The dialogue is childish and much of the acting ispoorly over dramatic. Plenty of things to shake your head about in thismovie. Not the least of which is trying to follow the camera, whichshakes noticeably. I'm still wondering what exactly did I just witness.It wasn't funny enough to be a comedy or serious enough to be a goodhorror movie. It's not bad enough to be one of those 'it's so bad it'sgood' movies. It's just plain bad. Perhaps its best to just let thismovie fade into the background. Don't waste your time on this one likeI did.
(15 May 2012)
Barbara Steele Yes this movie NO
This review is from: The She-Beast (DVD) I will admit, I have just recently started enjoying Barbara Steele movies, and for the most part, they are all awesome and she delivers the goods, but this movie, ugh, what a missfire. Although not an original storyline or plot, the movie did have a lot of potential, but was direceted or steered in the wrong direction. First, Barbara Steele was hardly seen in this movie, what a shame that is, then the intertwining of the Dracula tale with the character of Van Helsing showed the movie was riding the coat tails of another horror movie which made it not be able to stand on its own. Worst of all the ending was just horrible, predicatable and lame, the acting was subpar, and then throw in the Commuinst Keystone Cops, and the chase scene...ugh again. What was appealing to my sense of horror was the make up of the witch, it was done expertly and for movies who did not have the advantages of sophisticated special effects, it was grand. Even for a low budget movie, this one should be labeled comedy instead of horror, you will laugh more than you are scared thanks to the director. All in all, not one of Ms. Steeles classic works and should be left on the shelf.
Kaya Ozkaracalar (14 May 2012)
Awful Horror/Comedy Hybrid; The Worst Barbara Steele Movie
British director Michael Reeves has become a legend after he died atthe age of 25 (no spelling error: twenty-five) in 1968, after therelease of his third movie, the highly successful and controversial TheWitchfinding General. This is his directorial debut from two years ago,shot in Italy and financed to a large degree by his own money as anaspiring filmmaker. Reeves was given the chance to have one single dayof shooting with horror star Barbara Steele included among thethree-week production schedule. He bungled it and the resulting movieis an unbearable horror/comedy hybrid (mercifully at a short durationof 79 minutes, of which Steele is on screen for less than 20 minutes).The plot is about a witch who comes back to life. To give credit whereit is due, the sparse horror scenes are not bad, largely due to thehighly impressive makeup job which presents a truly hideous hag as thewitch. And yet, an infantile humor dominates the movie as a whole. Thelow budget can not be blamed. This is not a case of so-bad-so-good,unintentional fun. They wanted it to be a funny movie, but failedmiserably as their sense of humor was not up to sustaining it. In thisvein, it should be added that the movie is as arrogant as the mainprotagonist, a British tourist against whom no critical stance ishinted at. The humor amounts to wallowing in a British sense ofsuperiority against Easterners. If the setting was not a Communistcountry, the implicit racism could be more evident.
TimothyFarrell (14 May 2012)
Bizarre but lousy Spaghetti Gothic horror flick
Man, was I ever disappointed by "The She-Beast"! I mean, acollaboration between Barbara Steele (still the most gorgeous screamqueen ever) and the genius director Michael Reeves (who died tragicallyyoung but left us with the masterpiece "Witchfinder General") soundslike pure dynamite, or at least an entertaining horror flick.Unfortunately, the film is neither and ends up being rather lousy. Itcompletely wastes Steele, who is given an uninteresting role despitetop billing, and has a total screen time of about fifteen minutes. Shelooks beautiful, but displays none of the charisma that was present in"Black Sunday" or "Castle of Blood". Also, this was Reeves' first film,so I doubt he had much creative control over the project.Even past those wasted aspects, the film is still pretty bad. There's alot of badly misplaced slapstick comedy that comes across as beingbizarre as opposed to amusing (theres a cop chase thats straight out ofthe old Keystone Kops silents). While he was very good in "WitchfinderGeneral", here Ian Oglivy couldn't possibly be a more wooden leadingman. Still, what matters most in these films is how entertaining theyare. Despite a few fun goofy moments (the witch dunking in particular),"The She-Beast" is rather devoid of enjoyably schlocky moments.Overall, its a rather dull affair. (3/10)
classicsoncall (06 May 2012)
"Get that filthy thing autopsied, and buried as quickly as possible."
Well so far I'm batting 0 for 2 today, with an early viewing of apretentious Belgian film "La Moustache", and even though I like to varymy genres for the sake of a well rounded viewing experience, this onealso failed to deliver big time. I was drawn to the title because ofBarbara Steele's name at the top of the credits, but she's really notin this very much at all, unless you want to consider that might be herunder all the hideous make-up of the title character, but we knowthat's not the case. I really don't feel I need to go into the detailsof the flick because other reviewers here do that well enough, and I'vealready invested enough time into this travesty. High points would bethat head scratching hammer and sickle scene, and Von Helsing askingPhilip if he noticed anything unusual after the car crash. Low pointswould be, well, everything else. Take Philip's advice when at one pointhe says to Von Helsing - "I haven't time for your nonsense".P.S. - My summary line - they were talking about the movie.
(06 May 2012)
Slight edit
This review is from: The She-Beast (DVD) Whilst I agree with all the previous reviews of 'She Beast'both as a film and the print quality there is one minor disappointment.When I first saw this movie many years ago at the cinema it had a 'tacked on'ending with Steele & Ogilvy in bed back in their London flat. Whilst making love Steele suddenly turns back into the witch !This brief scene was always missing from the odd TV showings & is also missing here. Yes I know Ian Ogilvy does not recall it in his commentary on the disc but it was definitely filmed but seems to have been lost.
(29 April 2012)
Unwatchable Transfer Looks Like MUD!!
I wonder why any movie with BARBARA STEELE on DVD (with the exception of SYNAPSE'S stunning CASTLE OF BLOOD) has to look like crap? I mean this one takes the cake...of course it is only $, but I found it unwatchable.And the truly bad pan and scanning treats you over and over to BARBARA STEELE'S amazing talking nose. I guess they did not think in anyway about the framing. Also the sound is hideous, the print is completely faded to the point of almost black and white at parts. And it looks like swamp mud, what can I say. It really is not worth the bucks...wait until someone puts out a decent copy.A lot of ALPHA'S releases are fine but this one is just really horrendous. The print quality is much scarier than the witch in the movie.
(29 April 2012)
Horrid transfer!
To this date April 23rd, 2008 my great wish is still that one day someone will release She Beast, The Ghost, Castle of the Living Dead AKA Crypt of Terror, The Sorcerers and The Long Hair of Death in their correct aspect ratios and with a decent crisp transfer with audible sound. This is in reference to the Alpha DVD release. The Movie gets 3 to 4 stars from me personally.
Chris. (28 April 2012)
Honeymoon horror
Star billed, Barbara Steele supports Ian Ogilvy as a pair of newlywedstravelling in Romania when approaching darkness forces them to takeovernight accommodation in a less than ideal pensione run by localcreep, aptly named Groper (Welles). After leaving the seedyestablishment early the next day following an altercation with Groperthe night before, they crash into a lake leaving Steele reincarnated asa centuries-dead witch that terrorises the descendants of those whopersecuted her to death. Only Count Von Helsing (Karlsen) and Ogilvycan keep the witch alive long enough to re-enact the ancient ritualthat will hopefully return Steele from the dead.There's some obvious flair in director Reeves' imaginative tale, butit's outdone by the offbeat humour that was apparently more the resultof second unit director Charles B.Griffith (a name that will befamiliar to some). Aside from AIP regular Griffith, Mel Welles turns ina wonderfully hammed-up performance as the grubby local booze-hound andpeeping tom, while Lucretia Love has a cameo as his smoking-hot niecefor whom things turn ugly really quickly, much like the film's titlecharacter."She Beast" is camp and quirky with a bizarre "Keystone Cops" homage atthe film's climax, where a man on a scooter seems to appear in everyshot, from every direction, during a car pursuit. It's quite amusing,though difficult to relate to the film's narrative. Overall, if you'recomfortable with Euro-horror, and certainly more comic-horror thanserious suspense, then "She Beast" might be your cult companion.
Woodyanders (27 April 2012)
Enjoyable low-budget horror film
An evil and hideously unsightly snaggle-toothed old hag witchterrorizes a small Translyvanian town. The villagers drown the horriblecrone in a lake, but not before she vows to get revenge. Two hundredyears later the witch possesses the body of lovely young Veronica (thealways excellent Barbara Steele) in order to keep her promise. It's upto Veronica's husband Philip (likable Ian Ogilvy) and eccentricaristocrat Count van Helsing (an amusing performance by John Karlsen)to stop the nasty old bag. Writer/director Michael Reeves, who laterwent on to direct the outstanding "The Witchfinder General," does apretty solid job with his debut feature; Reeves makes nice use of thedesolate locations, stages several shocking scenes of violence withreal skill and gusto (the opening drowning of the witch set piece isespecially harsh and upsetting), effectively captures a generallyserious tone of pervasiveness bleakness, and further spices things upwith a sharp sense of wickedly witty cynical humor. Mel Welles deliversa marvelously boorish and disgusting turn as vile, drunken, andlecherous innkeeper Ladislav Groper. Both Ralph Ferraro's robustshivery score and Giocchino Gengarelli's crisp widescreen scopecinematography are up to par. Unfortunately, 60's Italian Gothic horrorgoddess Steele's role is basically an extended cameo; she disappearsafter the first fifteen minutes and isn't seen again until the veryend. Moreover, the bumbling comic antics concerning a bunch of ineptlocal cops is way too broad and silly, with a ridiculous protractedlast reel slapstick car chase in particular coming across as painfullyout of place with the rest of the movie. Despite these glaring flaws,this flick still boasts its fair share of creepy moments (Groper'sdeath at the hands of the repulsive witch is truly jolting) and overallrates as a fun fright feature.
TheOneHundredthAlias (24 April 2012)
Possibly the greatest garbage I have ever dug out of the trash and bathed in...
It's the most wonderful time of the year.A chance to break with traditions, The year of good fellowship and highspirits, of cheer and the chance to regain a sense of magic that wefeel we have lost since childhood in our jaded adult lives, to engagein activities that would be frowned on at any other time.Of course I'm talking about Halloween.It is Ocotber 1st, after all. What you thought I was talking aboutJeebus-mas? Nope, October is the magic month for me. It is anespecially good time this year because this year, come the 17th, Idepart for Romania on a little vacation I've been planning for a year.I'm not going because I believe in the supernatural, but it's a heck ofan excuse to make up for missing the office Halloween party by sayingyou've been taking pictures of Dracula's castle.And while most normal IMDb reviewers would review a horror movie inhonor of this month, me, since I review horror movies all the time, Ithought I'd get in the mood for my trip by watching films set inRomania; so of course, I review the first horror movie set in Draculacountry I can think of....'The She-Beast', a truly awful stain on the career of everyone involvedabout a woman who gets possessed by a leprous hag after falling into alake in a car accident after the witch was almost fired into a lake bya catapult years ago.What? You thought I was going to review a vampire movie or somethinglike anyone else would when reviewing horror films set in Transylvania?Hey, I said in the beginning of my second sentence that it 'tis theseason of breaking with tradition.It's poorly shot, the direction is(largely)uninspired, the actingranges from large servings of ham to unflavored tofu, the story isridiculous, and it's awfulness gives plenty of assholes's aquasi-justification(in their opinion) for dismissing the talented youngdirector Michael Reeves as a hack who wouldn't have been famous had henot made 'Witchfinder General' and died so young.So why do I love this piece of sheer awfulness? Simple, it's hilarious.I really hate how young people go around mocking any older film theycan get their mitts on by calling it 'So bad it's good', butoccasionally they are right; and 'So bad it's good' is an aptdescription for a film of this caliber if I've ever heard one.For one thing, the film has the distinction of actually being a comedy,so at least we can rest assured the filmmakers were hip to it'sawfulness. It certainly isn't very funny in the spots it was supposedto be, but one thing it isn't is boring, the pace is very brisk, evenif some scenes go on a bit too long, there are even a few good momentsof suspense here and there, which justifies sitting through it. It evenhas a few genuinely atmospheric moments and scenes of brutal violenceand thrilling chase sequences that typify the other films inReeve's(admittedly short)career and would likely have been histrademark. John Karlsen also gives a decent performance as Count VONHelsing, a descendant of VAN Helsing from 'Dracula'(So I guess there isa vampire connection after all.)and top-billed Barbara Steele does whatshe can in her little screen time. The Hag(the awesomely named 'Vardella')is laughably unconvincing but afairly cool design even if her face bears more than a passingresemblance to a turd. The presence of a decaying zombie hag, fastpacing, weird cut-to sequences and slapstick humor(Including a sightgag with a Hammer & Sickle that must be seen to be believed) make mewonder if the film was an influence on Sam Raimi's 'Evil Dead' trilogyin some way. It also has an evil rapist communist innkeeper namedGroper(I kid you not) played by Gravis Mushnick himself; Mel Welles.It's not a masterpiece, not a minor classic, not a hidden gem, not evenreally much of a cult movie either, But where else are you gonna seeturd-faced Hags, witch catapults, ridiculously overlong chase sequencesand Communist innkeeper perverts named Groper? They don't make 'em like this anymore....unless they're very, verydrunk.~
(23 April 2012)
Excellent!
Michael Reeves made only 3 1/2 films before his tragic death in the late 60's. This was his first feature film and what a film it is. It has moments of high camp and a few moment of light relief, however the horror in this film are some of the strongest for the early 1960's. Who can forget the Witch, played here by a man! Then theres the scene where a poor guy gets hacked to death by Vardella the witch. Superb!Dark Sky's print is superb. I saw a clip on their website and it is miles ahead of the old Alpha DVD! Buy this one...
t-birkhead (21 April 2012)
Probably best avoided
I try and be positive in my reviews, and see the best side of moviescause I don't like feeling disappointed after I've watched something.Having said that, I was unimpressed by this. Although the plot andsetting were OK, par for a mid sixties British horror film but I likethem so it was good, there was far too much weird and infantile anticommunist japery and too few actual interesting events. The amateurishoddball atmosphere kept me interested for about half the movie, butthen I just began to disengage, as I realised that it probably wouldn'trepay close attention. The humour gets old pretty quickly too and justturns weird and irritating. By the end, I was pleased that it was allover, but full of questions, mostly along the lines of: what the devilwas the director actually aiming for, cuz unless it was a strange anddated mess, he missed. I wouldn't recommend this one.
Benjamin Gauss (20 April 2012)
Too Little Screen time For The Great Barbara Steele
Barbara Steele is my all-time favorite actress, and I also have utmostrespect for director Michael Reeves for his directing the brilliant1968 horror classic "Witchfinder General" with the matchless VincentPrice, my favorite actor of all-time, in the lead. Reeves' "La SorellaDi Satana" aka. "The She-Beast", however, was quite disappointing.Steele's performance partially saved the movie, of course, but she hadfar too little screen time and therefore she couldn't save the entirefilm. One aspect, which is both annoying and kind of funny about thisfilm is the fact that it is a typical product of the cold war. In onescene, for example, a hammer is dropped and falls on a sickle, formingthe communist symbol. In 17th century Romania, a murderous witch is captured and brutallylynched by local villagers. 300 years later English newlyweds Veronica(Barbara Steele) and Philip (Ian Ogilvy) are spending their honeymoonin Romania, near the lake where the witch was executed. When having atea, the couple get to know the elderly Count Van Helsing, a descendantof the famous Van Helsing family, and learn that the haunted lake isstill a dangerous place...I am a huge fan of Barbara Steele and of horror in general, and "TheShe-Beast" is certainly the weakest film with Steele I have seen sofar. However, the movie is in some parts unintentionally funny, andeven though it is not very suspenseful, a film featuring Barbara Steeleis never a complete waste of time. Ian Ogilvy's performance is not tooconvincing in this one, fortunately he did a way better job starring in"Witchfinder General" two years later, a film for which I will alwaysrespect director Michael Reeves, who was certainly a promising andgreat talent for the Horror genre, a talent which was sadly wasted byhis early death in 1969. "The She-Beast", however is certainly notReeve's highlight, but a rather dull movie, which can be fun to watchat times, but doesn't deliver the suspense or eeriness a horror flickshould. It is certainly no must-see, but if you want to watch it anywayI recommend to watch a few other films with the great Barbara Steele(such as "The Pit And The Pendulum", "Black Sunday", or "Castle ofBlood") as well as Michael Reeves' "Witchfinder General" first. Allthings considered, "The She-Beast" is a bit disappointing, butwatchable (if only for Steele), and worth the time if your're a fan.5/10
The_Void (17 April 2012)
No good Gothic horror
On the face of it, this film would seem to have a lot going for it.First up we've got a role for the great Barbara Steele, and second ofall the director is Michael Reeves; the same man behind the horrorclassic Witchfinder General. However, The She-Beast can only bedescribed as a colossal failure. Naturally, this movie is pure cheese;but it's not enjoyable cheese as the film isn't merely crap - it'spainfully crap. The story is sadly boring, the special effects areterrible; the acting is rubbish, the direction is rubbish and there isvery little in the way of redeeming elements. Not even Barbara Steelecan save this film, as she only appears for a few minutes and MichaelReeves doesn't make the best use of her during this time.Interestingly, Reeves used a big horror star in every one of his fourfilms; Witchfinder General has Vincent Price, The Sorcerers featuredBoris Karloff and Castle of the Living Dead has Christopher Lee; butunfortunately, the female horror icon has been sold short as TheShe-Beast is absolute garbage, and I seriously see no good reason towaste your time with it. Not recommended.
(17 April 2012)
Good DVD.....Good film?
This review is from: The She-Beast (DVD) The She-Beast has been released as a special-edition DVD by Dark Sky Films. Dark Sky is a company committed to making high-class DVD's of rare and unusual horror product. Their version of The She-Beast is no exception.The print looks about as good as this film will look, and it is anamorphic 2:35 widescreen. The DVD also includes a commentary with stars Barbara Steele, Ian Ogilvy, and producer Paul Maslansky. For Barbara Steele fans, this commentary may be the main reason for purchase, since Steele has made very few interveiws. This film was the official directorial debut for cult director Michael Reeves. Reeves is most famous for Witchfinder General, which The She-Beast has some elements of. Unfortunately this film has some problems plot-wise. The ending of the film is ruined by a Mack Sennet-style chase which is at odds with the rest of the film. There are some creepy scenes, but the film's low budget and its inconsistent tone make it more cult than classic. However, this DVD is highly recommened to Barbara Steele and Michael Reeves fans.
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