2020 October Horror Challenge #48: "The Beast Must Die"

 

This is a movie I've wanted to see since I was a kid. First, it has Peter Cushing in it, and any movie with him or Christopher Lee or both instantly moves to my "must watch" list, and second, this movie has a huge gimmicky ad campaign going about how it's a detective  movie where the viewer is the detective, because one of the characters in the movie is a werewolf, and the viewer has to figure out who is the werewolf before it's too late. That sounded like the coolest thing ever when I was a kid, but I never got a chance to see this movie back then, so I'm so excited to check it out today. 

The plot of the movie goes like this: a rich guy has invited a group of people to his isolated island (who would accept an invitation like that? It never works out well in these movies). Unfortunately for them, one of them is a werewolf, but they don't know who. They find out that the rich man intends to hunt the werewolf down and kill it, but who is the werewolf? The audience has to follow the clues and see if they can guess who the werewolf is before it's too late.

This isn't the only movie I've watched for this challenge where some rich guy hints people down like animals. It  would appear to be a popular pastime for rich people. That's really creepy. This particular rich guy is obsessed with hunting a werewolf someday. His guests all act kinda suspicious,  and each of them has been accused of murder in the past (well, one guy was arrested for eating human flesh...ew). Even the rich man's girlfriend is one of the guests, and she is sassy and sarcastic about the possibility that she might be the werewolf and he will have to kill her. Peter Cushing plays a doctor who is obsessed with werewolf lore, but who claims not to have ever met a real werewolf.

I definitely had my suspicions throughout the runtime of the movie, but everyone is so shady and suspicious that any of them could be the werewolf. There are even some suspenseful scenes when the werewolf is stalking a victim while rich guy tries to hunt the werewolf. One scene is better because I really felt bad for the victim, who happens to be the only actual likeable character in the movie. Once the movie reaches its climax, the filmmakers give you thirty seconds to decide who you think is the werewolf, but then there are still several twists left. The ending is pretty cool, too. I ended up really liking this movie, and I'm glad I finally got a chance to see it.