hwg1957-102-265704 A Tigon production (as in an imitation of Hammer Films) that concerns a series of mysterious deaths in a small town. Men are being attacked but by what. An eagle? The eventual answer that emerges is a bit risible but the film directed by veteran Vernon Sewell is not bad but not that good either. The low budget shows though Stanley A. Long's cinematography is crisp and colourful. The monster make-up is ordinary.Robert Flemyng is suitably intense as Dr. Mallinger, Glynn Edwards as the police sergeant is solid as usual and Roy Hudd gives a hilarious cameo as a mortuary attendant. It also does have Peter Cushing as Inspector Quennell and as always he gives a good performance, even with such thin material to work with and it also has the beautiful Wanda Ventham as Clare, who does charming and strict both equally well. Who would not fall for her? Wanda Ventham never got enough lead roles which was a shame.There is an amateur play within the film which has a sort of Frankenstein type plot which must have amused Mr. Cushing and I'm afraid to say the play-in-the-film was just as entertaining as the film-around-the-play.

JoeytheBrit This Hammer wannabe manages to capture the look of that studio's output, but fails miserably to match it in the storyline and effects departments, leaving us with a pale imitation that only occasionally manages to grab the viewer's attention.Robert Flemyng plays Dr Carl Mallinger, a borderline-mad scientist with two problems on his hands: people keep entering his lab without knocking which annoys him no end, and his daughter (Wanda Ventham) keeps turning into a giant moth and draining the blood of the neighbourhood's strapping young bucks. These killings attract the attention of Detective Inspector Helsing, er, Quennell (Peter Cushing) who quickly suspects the doctor of foul deeds.The film opens with a shot of a young explorer type in darkest Africa collecting samples of a giant moth. The scenes of darkest Africa look not unlike scenes of deepest Hertfordshire on a not-very-warm day, spliced with shots of exotic jungle creatures basking in sunlight. Immediately, a sense of disquiet fell over me – not because I feared for the safety of our intrepid explorer but because I had already begun to suspect that once again I had stumbled upon yet another stinker.How right I was. What we have here is a kind of tepid cocktail of the main ingredients of the horror genre: vampirism, the creation of a mutant life-form, shape-changing, etc. Unfortunately the ingredients are cold and nobody involved in the film knew how to warm them up. The film's brief running time is padded out with such riveting moments as Cushing brushing cobwebs from his jacket after discovering a cellar full of human skeletons, then taking the jacket off to give it a jolly good shake before putting it back on. Incredibly, director Vernon Sewell devotes more time to this moment than he does to the eventual destruction of the creature. This destruction is especially lame, although – in the absence of any giant Rentokil strips – is entirely logical and predictable.Cushing and Flemyng try their best but are defeated by the shabbiness of the screenplay, while Wanda Ventham makes a rather dull femme fatale and Vanessa Howard proves to be an intensely irritating damsel in distress. At one point we see her chatting to Ventham's character and in the very next scene she is unconscious in the nearly-mad doc's lab having her blood drained. How did she get there? Your guess is as good as mine – the film doesn't bother to tell us.

hellpepper OK, not one of the better offerings of British horror, that's true. But it does have Peter Cushing who is always fun to watch and I have to give credit for the writers to try to bring a somewhat more original monster to the screen than just another rehash in the Vampire or Frankenstein vein. Well, come to think of it aside from making the monster a moth ,this really is just another rehashed Vampire story with a few elements from the Frankenstein storyline thrown in for good measure. I cannot help but wonder if the monster was inspired by the legend of the Mothman, the legendary beastie from West Virginia. The resemblance is pretty close. A man sized moth creature with red glowing eyes.Shame more people have not seen this though, it's not as bad as its reputation. I find it pretty enjoyable.

jamesraeburn2003 Inspector Quennell of Scotland Yard is called in to solve the mystery behind the brutal killings of two young men, whose bodies were completely drained of blood. The press favor the theory that they were the victims of a giant bird of prey. Quennell (Peter Cushing) discovers that both men were students of the distinguished entomologist Dr Mallinger (Robert Flemyng), but he seems unable to help the inspector with his inquiries. Meanwhile, a young entomologist called Britewell (William Wilde) arrives at Dr Mallinger's home from Africa with some specimens. It soon transpires that Mallinger during the course of his research, turned his daughter Clare (Wanda Ventham) into a creature that can turn herself into a giant Death's Head moth, which thrives on human blood. After she seduces and kills Britewell, Quennell learns from the local police station that Britewell was a colleague of Mallinger's as the village constable gave him directions to his mansion. However, when Quennell approaches Mallinger with these facts, he denies ever meeting him. Quennell is now suspicious but Mallinger and Clare flee to another remote district of the English countryside. Quennell makes a discrete search of Mallinger's deserted house and finds the body of his butler as well as the skeletons of other victims hidden in Clare's underground lair. In the guise of a banker called Thompson, Quennell takes his daughter Meg (Vanessa Howard) to the village where Mallinger has fled having tracked him down because one of his former servants overheard where he was taking his daughter. Having successfully arrived in the village incognito, Meg befriends William (David Griffin), a young man who catches butterflies and moths to study them under his microscope. They go out on a hunt together and accidentally stumble upon Mallinger and Clare's hiding place and narrowly become victims themselves. Quennell realises that he must act quickly and apprehend Mallinger and his fearsome creation before the death toll reaches a horrifying level. In addition, Dr Mallinger is working on a mate for Clare...The Blood Beast Terror (US title: The Vampire Beast Craves Blood) was originally to have featured Peter Cushing as Inspector Quennell with Basil Rathbone playing Dr Mallinger. Unfortunately, Rathbone died just weeks before filming was due to commence at the Goldhawk studios in Shephards Bush London. Both Cushing and Rathbone had enjoyed acclaim as Sherlock Holmes as well as being cast in numerous horror films. It would of been interesting to see what sort of chemistry they would have created between them on the screen. Alas, it wasn't to be.Nevertheless, the film has many fun moments such as British comedian Roy Hudd's comedy relief role as a mortuary attendant whose always scoffing pickled onions. In addition there's an amusing sequence in which Dr Mallinger's students stage a Frankenstein like play in the former's living room complete with hammy acting and lousy home made special effects. It's practically an in joke at theatrical mishaps like when one of the students goes to pull the curtain across the stage "Oops the curtain's stuck." he cackles.As a horror film, it emerges as enjoyable on the cheesier side of British horror. For instance, it was clearly made on a shoestring (even cheaper looking than Hammer's films of the period) and Clare's transformation scenes into the creature aren't very satisfactory. Yet Peter Cushing and Robert Flemyng play their parts with a certain authority that makes the picture a lot better than you'd expect and director Vernon Sewell (a true veteran of the British film industry) keeps things moving at a good pace so the film never outstays its welcome. It is made all the more entertaining as it light heartedly sends up the genre with its in jokes about theatrical mishaps and cheesy effects. Wanda Ventham is excellent as the evil Clare portraying the character with a genuine sense of malice and evil. In summary, it is the distinguished cast and director who put this film a lot higher than it deserved. With lesser talents it would have been a complete disaster.