THE SHE-BEAST

Watched this on Alpha dvd yesterday (I have so many dvds that I have had for a long time but haven't gotten around to watching, it's frustrating sometimes) and what an odd movie! First off, even though Barbara Steele is billed as the star, she's really only in about 20 minutes of the film, if that! The She-Beast is a hideous "witch" that comes to life in modern(1966) Transylvania by "borrowing" Babs' soul when she and her hubby crash into the lake she's been lying in for 200 years. Now sounds fairly staright forward for a B euro horror flick, but it's bizaare. Transylvania(actually Romania) was, of course, under Soviet rule at the time this movie was made, so there is a non-stop parade of gags directed at communism. These are actually all quite funny, but really at odds with the horror plot line. The She-Beast herself is a rather poorly designed non-descript creature. She runs around screaming and viciously killing anyone she finds by beating them with whatever is handy. You'd think she'd use witchcraft or something. This makes one funny commie gag as she kills one guy with a sickle, she throws it away when she's done and it lands across a discarded hammer making the famous Soviet hammer and sickle symbol. Some local police get involved and chase the hero(Barbara Steele(remember her?)'s husband) and a descendant of Professor Van Helsing around the countryside like the Keystone Cops for awhile before they run into the she beast and get killed then the heros perform the needed exorcism on the witch ,which (hehe) brings Barbara Steele floating back out of the lake and everyone drives off happy. Except Barbara who looks into the camera with her trademark evil stare and tells her husband that she'll come back to the village someday! Didn't see that coming! This was a really bizaare film, but i still liked it. It was directed by Mike Reeves who directed WITCHFINDER GENERAL with Vincent Price, a film which i honestly don't like. I think he was going for a tongue in cheek approach to the whole thing here, but it's hard to tell as the horror scenes are done in to straight forward a manner. Mel Welles is on hand as a lecherous alcoholic innkeeper to liven things up as well! Aside from the false advertising of having Barbara Steele as the star, I'd still recomend the film. Alpha's print is decent, it's full screen and probably an old TV screener. The colors are still bright, but it has that old film stock look where the colors are kind of off. Now, i'm not saying that as a complaint, i kind of like that now and then. As much as i love seeing these great old films restored and widescreen, i still love seeing them as they used to be shown on TV back when TV was worth watching.