BA_Harrison She Beast was directed by Michael Reeves, who would go on to helm historical horror Witchfinder General, although at times it's hard to believe that the two films could have come from the same man. Witchfinder General was a truly chilling study of the evil in man, a genuine classic of the genre with a brilliant central performance from Vincent Price; She Beast, on the other hand, is an embarrassingly bad tongue-in cheek horror with a risible plot, stilted dialogue, weak comedy, and dreadful turns from its stars, Ian Ogilvy and Barbara Steele.Ogilvy and Steele play honeymooners Philip and Veronica, who are travelling through Transylvania when they crash their car into a lake where, centuries earlier, butt-ugly witch Vardella (Joe 'Flash' Riley) met her fate at the hands of an angry mob. Possessing Veronica, Vardella proceeds to make good on her dying words, a curse on the descendants of those responsible for her death.Cruddy low-lights of Reeve's lamentable feature-length debut include Philip and Veronica's dull-as-ditch-water stay at a hotel where the perverted owner, Ladislav Groper (Mel Welles), likes to peep on his guests, and a terrible car chase scene that sees Philip and local witch expert Count von Helsing (John Karlsen) pursued by three bumbling policemen, the action sped up for comic effect (with the cars inexplicably passing the same motorcyclist several times).Thankfully, Reeves got much better at his job before dying from an accidental overdose at the age of 25, meaning that horror fans can remember him for his one great movie and forget all about this hopeless mess.

Wizard-8 Horror fans who think they are in for a treat seeing that this Barbara Steele-starring movie is another Italian production - just like the acclaimed "Black Sunday" - will be in for a big disappointment. Steele is hardly in the movie, for one thing. But even if she were in more of the movie, it probably wouldn't have helped much. This is a real sluggish affair. It's slow-moving, and there is precious little that could be considered "horror". What little horror there is happens to be really badly directed, so much so that I'm sure even audiences in 1966 weren't spooked. It doesn't help that the horror is complimented by a surprising amount of comic relief material, which isn't the least bit funny. Even at a mere 78 minutes in length, this movie is quite tough to sit through.

Darkling_Zeist Michael Reeve's first and youthful foray into genre film-making, while admittedly hamstrung by the obvious constraints of a penurious budget and inexperience, still yields up considerable entertainment. 'The She Beast' is a zesty, vengeful yarn of bedeviled witchery that goes beyond it being merely the tentative opening salvo from the talented auteur of the soon- to-be-legendary 'Witchfinder General'. Unlike many creaky horrors from the mid-sixties 'The She Beast' merits a re-visit not only for the other- worldly beauty of, Barbara Steele, but the almost pubescent, Reeves still manages to construct some luridly effective shock moments and generates a palpable Gothic sensibility which remains timeless. Yes, one can easily to point out the obvious faults; but it's far more amusing to kick back and enjoy all the frantic retributions of our lunatic, musili-faced witch. I will always have a soft spot for 'The She Beast' and it's edifying to notice that it has generated a considerable cult of personality all of its own.

Chase_Witherspoon Star billed, Barbara Steele supports Ian Ogilvy as a pair of newlyweds travelling in Romania when approaching darkness forces them to take overnight accommodation in a less than ideal pensione run by local creep, aptly named Groper (Welles). After leaving the seedy establishment early the next day following an altercation with Groper the night before, they crash into a lake leaving Steele reincarnated as a centuries-dead witch that terrorises the descendants of those who persecuted her to death. Only Count Von Helsing (Karlsen) and Ogilvy can keep the witch alive long enough to re-enact the ancient ritual that will hopefully return Steele from the dead.There's some obvious flair in director Reeves' imaginative tale, but it's outdone by the offbeat humour that was apparently more the result of second unit director Charles B.Griffith (a name that will be familiar to some). Aside from AIP regular Griffith, Mel Welles turns in a wonderfully hammed-up performance as the grubby local booze-hound and peeping tom, while Lucretia Love has a cameo as his smoking-hot niece for whom things turn ugly really quickly, much like the film's title character."She Beast" is camp and quirky with a bizarre "Keystone Cops" homage at the film's climax, where a man on a scooter seems to appear in every shot, from every direction, during a car pursuit. It's quite amusing, though difficult to relate to the film's narrative. Overall, if you're comfortable with Euro-horror, and certainly more comic-horror than serious suspense, then "She Beast" might be your cult companion.