Severin Films resurrects THE BEAST MUST DIE on Blu-ray from a new 4K restoration.

Self-made Trinidad millionaire Tom Newcliffe (Calvin Lockhart, WILD AT HEART) has decided to take on the "most dangerous game" which is not man but werewolf. He has invited five guests with strange pasts to his isolated English country house for the weekend including lycanthropy expert Dr. Lundgren (Peter Cushing, AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS), pianist Jan (Michael Gambon, THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE, AND HER LOVER), disgraced medical student Paul (Tom Chadbon), former diplomat-turned-TV-host Bennington (Charles Gray, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW), and Davina (Ciaran Madden, who later co-starred with Gambon in the UK TV series version of the Maigret detective stories), a friend of Newcliffe's wife Caroline (Marlene Clark, GANJA AND HESS). With the help of security expert Pavel (Anton Diffring, SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE), Newcliffe has rigged his estate with microphones, cameras, motion detectors, and armed guards for his werewolf hunt. Can you deduce the identity of the werewolf or will the werewolf whittle down the cast before "The Werewolf Break."

THE BEAST MUST DIE takes its title from a Nicholas Blake novel earlier adapted by Claude Chabrol and titled in English THIS MAN MUST DIE rather than James Blish's source novella "There Shall Be No Darkness". While Blish's novella identified the werewolf in the first paragraph, Amicus has turned their adaptation into a TEN LITTLE INDIANS-style whodunit and – like the 1965 adaptation of the aforementioned Agatha Christie novel – THE BEAST MUST DIE stops for sixty seconds to offer the audience the opportunity to guess the identity of the werewolf before it is revealed. The problem with this approach is that characterization is once again so functionary that the revelation of the original werewolf matters little. Although not really exciting or suspenseful, THE BEAST MUST DIE features a fine cast – including a game Gray, the always professional Cushing, and the underrated Clark – a funky score by Gamley, a laughable werewolf, and feels strangely non-British despite the Shepperton Studios interiors (the studio having been built up around a real country house whose interiors will be immediately familiar to viewers).

Released theatrically by Cinerama Releasing, THE BEAST MUST DIE was available consistently throughout the video age, from an early eighties VHS by Media Home Entertainment sublabel Nostalgia Merchant to Prism Entertainment's easier-to-find clamshell edition and a Starmaker sell-through LP VHS edition. Image Entertainment released the film in a non-anamorphic letterboxed DVD as part of their Euroshock Collection line followed by an HD-remastered DVD from MPI's Dark Sky Films that ported over extras from the Anchor Bay UK Amicus box set (which itself featured an old fullscreen master of the film). In 2017, THE BEAST MUST DIE was the sole box set-exclusive title in Severin's AMICUS COLLECTION which featured remastered transfers of AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS and ASYLUM. For THE BEAST MUST DIE, Severin had to recycle an existing HD master of the film's TV version patched up with 16mm inserts, looking overall weaker than the other transfers. Earlier this year, Studio Canal provided a new 4K restoration to British label Powerhouse Films for their Indicator line, and Severin Films licensed the master for a limited edition as part of their July mid-year sale as well as a standard edition. The new 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen transfer reveals slivers of more information on all four sides of the frame, the image is sharper, and the colors appear more natural where the skintones once ranged from pink to orange. The day-for-night bits are also cleaner, as are the optical shots, while the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track also sounds a bit more full-bodied in rendering Douglas Gamley's funky score while some post-sync is also more evident in the dialogue. English SDH subtitles are also provided.

Severin has ported over the extras from their 2017 edition starting with the audio commentary by director Paul Annett moderated by Jonathan Sothcott from the Anchor Bay UK and Dark Sky DVDs. The late Annett discusses the film as his feature debut after some television and documentary work, revealing that he had been offered DRACULA A.D. 1972 but Carreras was not impressed with his clip reel. He is uncertain as to whether Milton Subotsky actually thought him suited to THE BEAST MUST DIE but he admits to rewriting the film extensively without the producer's interference. He did not have access to the original source story during the rewrite but read it later and would have liked to have included some elements from it in his version. Sothcott reveals that Subotsky originally optioned the property for a TV movie but then may have decided to try to use it to cash in on the Blaxploitation genre. He recalls desiring to cast singer Shirley Bassey in the role that would be played by Clark, although he also reveals that he was unaware the lead would be a black actor and was under the impression the role would be played by Robert Quarry (COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE). He speaks highly of the cast – including having to fight the producers for the then-unknown Gambon – as well as the contributions of his crew, including cinematographer Jack Hildyard (MODESTY BLAISE) and art director John Stoll (THE COLLECTOR), as well as Cushing's explicit descriptions of how he wanted to be made up and dressed for the part.

"And Then There Were Werewolves" (18:35) is an audio essay by horror historian Troy Howarth in which he discusses the film in the context of Agatha Christie's AND THEN THERE WERE NONE which influenced the decision to script THE BEAST MUST DIE as a body count whodunit – spending enough time on the many film adaptations from the Rene Clair version to the recent BBC miniseries that one wonders if the featurette was actually meant to accompany a Blu-ray release of one of the Christie films like Scorpion Releasing's TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1975) – before getting to the Amicus film but largely focusing on the dearth of werewolf films produced in Britain, from the werewolf segment of Amicus' DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS and the unsuccessful Tyburn production LEGEND OF THE WEREWOLF to Hammer's psychological approach with DEMONS OF THE MIND and their later "Children of the Full Moon" for the HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR series for ITV.