'Very bloody, very bloody.'
Welcome back to my Dark Corner of this Sick World.
'Why do we have to come to this wretched place?'
The Blood Beast Terror is a Hammer horror wannabe starring the great Peter Cushing
'I didn't expect to see you here.'
Who apparently considered it his worst film, and I think I can demonstrate why in one line...
'I believe Professor Malanger, by accident or design, has created a huge death's head moth that lives on human flesh'
That's getting well ahead of ourselves but I think it's best to get it out the way now because,
although a giant killer moth stretches credibility...
'They'll never believe this at the yard‘
I don't think that's the reason the film fails.
'Wait and see. You'll be very surprised'
We don't need to spend long on the plot; bodies are turning up,
'Virtually drained of blood'
Inspector Peter Cushing is on the case.
And the description he's got of the killer isn't that helpful.
'It was a horrible creature with huge staring eyes sir'
Following up a lead in a country village, he goes undercover.
'I'll take my daughter with as if we're on a fishing holiday.
'That seems sufficient justification for putting my daughter in horrendous danger,
and I'm sure she'll be fine.
Will Cushing save his daughter before she's drained of blood?
'We must stop'
Cos, you know; reasons.
'And you will return at the same time tomorrow'.
We'll kill you then, I'm not in the mood right now.
She's in danger again, will Cushing save her from the raging inferno...
'Help me'
of a barely burning carpet.
Having forced an artificial jeopardy by having Cushing bring his daughter along for no good reason,
the movie then pisses it away.
'Something's gone wrong hasn't it?'
And that's really the issue; it's not that the plotline is ridiculous,
it's that it's very badly handled.
The first half stops so we can watch some dreadful am-dram production,
'Oh God'
for six minutes.
'We waste our time'
The only purpose of which is to give mad Professor Malanger the idea of using electricity in his experiments
'Galvanism. It's an idea. there might be something in it.'
but...
'Galvanism doesn't work'
so it actually served no purpose at all.
'You're sure of this?'
The addition of a young man to the story seems to provide a love interest for Cushing's daughter, Meg
'Oh... girls'
Luckily for her, it doesn't.
Worst of all is how the whole giant moth thing is handled.
'I warn you, it's not a pleasant sight'
'Don't suppose it is'
This isn't exactly a giant killer moth, it's more like a were-moth,
into which the professor's daughter can transform at will to feed on...
'Human blood'
A situation that, I would say requires some backstory.
'Wasn't it I who created you'
I already got that.
'And now I was insane enough to create another.'
That does seem insane, why would you do that?
'But now I realise what I have created'
Up to this point it was all going swimmingly was it?
And that's that. I don't why he did this. I know how he did this. I don't know why he was doing it again.
I don't even know if he did the experiment on an existing daughter
or if he created this were-moth and just pretended it was his daughter.
I have a lot of questions.
'Them that asks silly questions must get silly answers'
I would take a silly answer over no answer, but now my only hope of getting one is them capturing the were-moth alive.
Like a moth to a flame.
'I don't like fires'
I get it. But it's a bit of an anticlimax that all they have to do is light a fire.
'Did you see it fly off?' '
Finally, and I don't like to kick a movie when it's down,
but that shot of it falling to earth in flames is the only time we see the creature in the air, the rest of the time...
-Flapping sounds-
I understand there are budget constraints, but when you decide to do a movie about a giant killer moth,
maybe the first question should have been; can we make i t fly?
'Well that brings me to the end of my lecture'
Thanks for watching, this film was selected for us by Patreon Shadow Christie Bryden.
Peter Cushing ranked the Blood Beast Terror as his worst film,
simple question, is it? Let us know in the comments below.
'Get out of this house!'