She Beast - Die Rückkehr des Grauens

1965's "The She Beast" (La Sorella di Satana or Satan's Sister) arrived at the tail end of Barbara Steele's reign as Italy's Gothic queen, working with first time director Michael Reeves, who used $17,000 of his own money to finance the picture (total cost was $38,000). The 21 year old novice had made quite an impression on producer Paul Maslansky the previous year, doing second unit work on Christopher Lee's "The Castle of the Living Dead," earning his chance on a script conceived under the pseudonym 'Michael Byron,' with assistance from Roger Corman regulars Charles B. Griffith, Mel Welles, and F. Amos Powell, all appearing on screen in various roles (the shooting title was "Etruscan Ruins"). Modern day Transylvania was the setting (filming in both Italy and Yugoslavia), actor/dancer Jay 'Flash' Riley in impressively gruesome makeup as 18th century witch Vardella, not dispatched before placing a curse upon the descendants of her executioners; 200 years later the arrival of newlyweds Veronica (Steele) and Philip (Ian Ogilvy) spur her revival by taking possession of the bride after their car is directed toward a forbidding lake. The two stars share great chemistry, as relaxed and witty as they are believable, inquiring about the Draculas shortly before meeting the current Count Von Helsing (John Karlsen), who laments that the last Dracula is long gone, only remaining to keep a watchful eye out for the witch on the 200th anniversary of her demise. With her dark tresses parted in the middle, Barbara Steele proves as alluring in modern dress as in period Gothic, even displaying a bit of skin during her love scene with Ogilvy, with only Italy's "An Angel for Satan" and West Germany's "Young Torless" (as a prostitute) preceding her stepping away from the spotlight for a few years. She'd finish the decade with one British title, Boris Karloff's "The Crimson Cult," then an American TV movie shot in Spain, Janet Leigh's "Honeymoon With a Stranger," choosing a carefully selected array of cult items over the next several decades, achieving further acclaim as producer on two Dan Curtis miniseries, 1983's THE WINDS OF WAR and 1988's WAR AND REMEMBRANCE. Reeves would of course be best remembered for his final two features, Boris Karloff's "The Sorcerers" and Vincent Price's "Conqueror Worm," after which he suffered an accidental, fatal overdose combining barbiturates and alcohol in a lifelong struggle against depression (contrary to some reports, Gordon Hessler had already completed Price's "The Oblong Box" well before Reeves' untimely death). First time viewers may be disappointed at the preponderance of humor at the expense of horror, in particular the Keystone Kops-like chase for the finale (apparently put together with little input from Reeves, lacking the budget to make any changes), a rush to the lake to exorcise the revived witch. After working in Greece on Roger Corman's ATLAS, screenwriter Charles B. Griffith stayed behind for the odd film here and there, joined by fellow madman Mel Welles to punch up the Communist satire with one unsubtle, gruesome touch, the bloodied sickle tossed to the floor alongside the infamous Soviet hammer (one memorable exchange has the local police chief complaining that a corpse is obstructing justice by being dead!). The casting of boyhood pal Ian Ogilvy was a no brainer for Reeves, here making his feature debut as newlywed husband Philip opposite the ravishing Steele, available only for a single day which lasted an exhausting 18 hours. The US ads from Europix International compared the titular beast to both Dracula and Frankenstein, though her rampage only claims a single victim before spending most of the film in a harmless coma from Von Helsing's narcotic injections.

Notable actors: Barbara Steele! Ian Ogilvy! Mel Welles!

This is the least serious Barbara Steele sixties horror film you'll sit through, and I'll tell you right now that if you are a Barbara Steele fan be warned as she disappears halfway through the film. I thought I was getting some sort of deal where Babs was possessed by some undead witch, but the witch is played by someone else! I want my money back...I'd be saying if I'd actually paid to watch this.

Babs and her equally snidey, sarcastic husband are on holiday in Romania, clearly there just to make fun of the locals and the communist regime everyone is under (over and over again, throughout the film). They end up at some terrible hotel in the middle of nowhere and meet "Ex" Count Van Helsing, descendant of the famous vampire killer, who tells them the story of a witch who cursed the area before she was drowned in a lake. Not interested, the couple retire to bed for some filthy squeezy, only to find that the hotel owner is watching them. One serious assault later, the couple head off, crashing into the aforementioned witch/lake. A truck driver fishes the two out of the lake and drives back to the hotel, which had me guessing rightly that this must be a very low budget film. Turns out that the guy is okay, but Babs seems to have been replaced by that horrible witch we saw being killed at the start of the film. The rest of the film details the husband and Van Helsing's attempt to get rid of the witch's spirit and bring back Babs...and (sigh), this involves a lot of slapstick comedy.

That's the thing with this film. It whips from out and out horror, like the witch rather bloodily killing a guy with a sickle, to Keystone Cops type car chases and for me doesn't gel too well. It's almost got the same atmosphere as the Fearless Vampire Killers, which isn't a good thing in my book. I know Michael Reeves has got a cult following for The Witchfinder General (and for dying so young I guess), and as a first film a lot of it works, but the comedy seems too forced for me.

Nice Italian cinematography, mind you.

An English couple are vacationing in Communist Romania... don't ask me why. After a bad run-in with a local innkeeper appropriately named Groper, they run their car into the lake. The man (Ian Ogilvy) is saved, but pulled up with him is not his wife (Barbara Steele), but a 200-year old witch named Vardella.

Now, the first thing you might be asking is this: why would Dark Sky Films, distributor of some of the finest gems in horror and exploitation, release a film that has been in the public domain for years and not very widely praised? There's a very good answer to that: because Dark Sky, among their many other talents, takes one man's trash and turns it into another man's treasure. They somehow uncovered an original print, and have given us the film in beautiful widescreen with a very nice, crisp picture... and if that isn't enough, they tracked down Ogilvy and Steele for an exclusive audio commentary. (Also, if you're like me, you'll appreciate the subtitles.) Can you beat that?

Seriously, though, the film isn't even bad. The characters are interesting and the story has a smooth flow. Really, it's the characters that sell this film. VonHelsing is an interesting modern incarnation of his namesake. The Romanians have a great comedic value with their communist jokes. After one man is found dead, a policeman turns to another and asks, "Is he talking?" The other says, "No, he's dead." So the first one says, "That's obstruction of justice." And then shortly after we get a chase scene that some critics have frowned on for its silliness, but I wonder if they hadn't been paying attention -- the cops were hilarious throughout the film.

Writer/director Michael Reeves has to be given plenty of credit for this. In his early twenties when he made this (before moving on to his masterpiece, "Witchfinder General"), it's a good tale in the same vein as later Hammer Horror stories. The only real complaint I have is the top billing for Barbara Steele, who only appears in the film for maybe fifteen minutes. I understand her popularity at the time, and she's something of a horror icon, but it's a bit misleading to make her so prominent in the advertising.

Thank you, Dark Sky, for taking what was a film dead in the water and reviving it. Modern horror fans may find it a bit slow and bulky, but anyone who loves the classics will find this appealing with plenty of good scenes and grisly visuals -- eye gouging, impalement... witches beware! A truly enjoyable experience.

Barbara Steele is my all-time favorite actress, and I also have utmost respect for director Michael Reeves for his directing the brilliant 1968 horror classic "Witchfinder General" with the matchless Vincent Price, my favorite actor of all-time, in the lead. Reeves' "La Sorella Di Satana" aka. "The She-Beast", however, was quite disappointing. Steele's performance partially saved the movie, of course, but she had far too little screen time and therefore she couldn't save the entire film. One aspect, which is both annoying and kind of funny about this film is the fact that it is a typical product of the cold war. In one scene, for example, a hammer is dropped and falls on a sickle, forming the communist symbol.

In 17th century Romania, a murderous witch is captured and brutally lynched by local villagers. 300 years later English newlyweds Veronica (Barbara Steele) and Philip (Ian Ogilvy) are spending their honeymoon in Romania, near the lake where the witch was executed. When having a tea, the couple get to know the elderly Count Van Helsing, a descendant of the famous Van Helsing family, and learn that the haunted lake is still a dangerous place...

I am a huge fan of Barbara Steele and of horror in general, and "The She-Beast" is certainly the weakest film with Steele I have seen so far. However, the movie is in some parts unintentionally funny, and even though it is not very suspenseful, a film featuring Barbara Steele is never a complete waste of time. Ian Ogilvy's performance is not too convincing in this one, fortunately he did a way better job starring in "Witchfinder General" two years later, a film for which I will always respect director Michael Reeves, who was certainly a promising and great talent for the Horror genre, a talent which was sadly wasted by his early death in 1969. "The She-Beast", however is certainly not Reeve's highlight, but a rather dull movie, which can be fun to watch at times, but doesn't deliver the suspense or eeriness a horror flick should. It is certainly no must-see, but if you want to watch it anyway I recommend to watch a few other films with the great Barbara Steele (such as "The Pit And The Pendulum", "Black Sunday", or "Castle of Blood") as well as Michael Reeves' "Witchfinder General" first. All things considered, "The She-Beast" is a bit disappointing, but watchable (if only for Steele), and worth the time if your're a fan. 5/10

The director of "Witchfinder General/Conquering Worm" first effort is a minor classic. Barbara ("Black Sunday") Steele is quite captivating as the young wife who's corpse get possessed by a 200 year-old buttugly witch. But it's Mel ("Little Shop Of Horrors") Wells who steals the show playing a supersleazy, alcoholic commie hotelowner. The lurid performance equals that of Donald Pleasure in the nasty "Mania/Fiends And The Flesh". And look for that infamous death-by-hammer-and-sickle scene...ghoulish fun to the max! Thrillseekin' horroraddicts should be able to get their jaded kicks with this low budget (the monster make up is a bit tacky) cheerful and wicked gem. Why waste your time with pathetic 90's hollywood horror when films like this exist. By the way, Vincent Price once said that Reeves was the best director he ever worked with!