Redundant and unnecessary.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

THE BEAST MUST DIE is based on a short story called "There Shall Be No Darkness", written by James Blish.The plot is as follows - a big game hunter who owns a massive country estate invites a group of people to his house for the weekend. He believes that one of them is a werewolf but doesn't know which. They all have skeletons in their closets that fascinate the guy a lot. The hunter has had a state-of-the-art security system recently installed, with cameras and microphones all over the place, plus tracking devices. He's confident the werewolf won't be able to escape as he intends to hunt it down as his "biggest game of all".This film has everything going for it - interesting characters, great acting, an air of mystery, a fast pace, chase scenes, suspense, tension, memorable lines of dialogue... you name it. And the producers don't mess it up either.The casting of Calvin Lockhart may have been intended as a gimmick to try cashing in on the "Blaxploitation" craze sweeping across America in the early 1970s. But the truth is that Lockhart makes the role of the hunter his own. He is very believable in the part and compelling to watch. I know that Robert Quarry was originally intended for the role and, good as Quarry might have been (probably playing the role with a more sinister edge to fit his style), Lockhart was the better choice. What makes the film work is that you root for Lockhart to succeed even though the character isn't exactly the nicest man in the world. And at the same time, you're never sure whether he will or not. The film keeps you guessing. It owes a lot to a great script.Peter Cushing plays a familiar yet different character in the shape of Christopher Lundgren, a German doctor. His German accent is pretty good in my opinion and he never ceases to hold our attention. Cushing is the man who could read a phone book and keep you listening, as someone else on IMDb mentioned previously.It's great to see Michael Gambon in an early role and the rest of the cast do a great job too. I particularly like Ciaran Madden as Davina. I don't know why; I just do. Something about her makes her interesting to watch. Charles Gray isn't given enough to do in the film, though, and that's really the only minor gripe I have with it.The chase scenes are exciting and not drawn out or boring as some suggest. They move along fast and the camera-work is excellent.The film is brimming with atmosphere in all scenes set at night. You're never sure what may spring out at any moment. It's a film that really keeps you guessing as previously mentioned. There are some great moments of suspense and tension, particularly in a key sequence about halfway through the film. I won't say anything about it because it would give too much away. But you'll know what I mean when you see it.And finally, while some may not like the infamous "werewolf break", I love it!For me, THE BEAST MUST DIE is probably the best werewolf film of all time. It's certainly the best one I've seen to date. Very different in style to films such as THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF or the Paul Naschy films for example, it has a style all of its own, with a very 1970s vibe to it. And it's by far and away the best non-anthology film Amicus produced.

This movie seems like a decent made for TV flick but apparently it wasn't made for TV.Which makes it a below average regular movie.The first thing I noticed is that it's impossible to figure out what country they are in.The cars have the steering wheels on the right side and a few people seem to have British accents so maybe it's England?But they are deep in a forest and the lead guy(who has an accent I can't figure out) keeps saying it's miles to "the village" so then I think it's not England.Oh well.Anyway, it's a very slow moving story and you know from the start that you are supposed to figure out who the werewolf is.All this movie succeeded at was making me even more confused about werewolves.I was going to give it two stars but the narrator from The Rocky Horror Picture Show is in it so I gave it an extra star.

Some people may have very fond memories of this film and you can perhaps see why . This is the film that's famous - or infamous depending on how you look at it - for "the werewolf break" where the audience are allowed to discuss who they think is the werewolf . First of all can you imagine watching this at the cinema in 1974 and some smart arse shouting out "I saw this last week and it's (Insert character name here ) . Secondly you have to care who the werewolf might be and on first showing I couldn't have cared less . In effect THE BEAST MUST DIE is a whodunit and like every story in that genre there's only any real value in watching this type of story once and that's where this film fails!!!! SUGGESTIVE SPOILERS !!!!! In fact the whole is constructed in to constantly pulling the rug out from under the audience . Take the opening scene where Tom Newcliffe is on the run through some remote forest . Played by Calvin Lockhart Tom is black his pursuers are white and being a 1970s film that can mean only one thing - a modern day lynching but don't jump to conclusions because Tom is a multimillionaire playboy big game hunter type and he's invited a group of people who he believes one is a werewolf . Who is it ? You decide at the werewolf break Another problem is you really don't care about these characters . Lockhart himself is a fairly lousy actor and gives the impression he's playing the role as Peter Wyngarde would while stoned . Peter Cushing sleeps walk through the entire film , Michael Gambon looks like a German porn star and acts accordingly while Tom Chadbon looks like a Swedish gay porn star and acts accordingly while Ciaran Madden doesn't do any acting accordingly or other wise unless it involves screaming . In fact the nest performance comes from the German Shepard dog whose name is probably called Fido and even he can't give a very good performance as a werewolf . Yes that's right the werewolf is actually played bog which is as every bit as unconvincing as the day for night scenes . Who is the werewolf ? Who cares !

Tom Newcliffe is a rich hunter who has invited specific people to his big estate. He believes one of them is a werewolf, and has set up a vast network of security system. He intends to find out who it is, and hunt it down.The movie invites audience participation to guess which character is a werewolf. There is a Werewolf Break near the end for the audience to decide.This is definitely a slightly different movie experience. Sure the audience usually makes these deductions anyways, but rarely would a movie demand it so forthrightly. It concentrates the mind, but on the other hand, it highlights it's artificialness.I wish the writing and acting wouldn't be so cheesy. Peter Cushing is probably the most recognizable name. Even he couldn't deliver these over written lines with complete effect. The worst has to be Calvin Lockhart who delivers his lines trying desperately the accentuate the horror. All it does is to sound like a bad count Dracula.