200 years ago a witch named Vardella was impaled on a spike and drowned in a nearby lake. Before she died she cursed the town. One of the villagers tries to stop the killing saying that the Count Von Helsing needs to exorcise the witch or the curse will come to pass. The villagers do not listen. The only remaining relative today of the count is the current Count Von Helsing (John Karlsen). He lives in a cave near the village waiting for Vardella to return.
Phillip (Ian Ogilvy) and Veronica (Barbara Steele) are a newlywed couple traveling through the Carpathian Mountains on their honeymoon. They get lost and end up in the small town of Vaubrac. The only hotel in town belongs to a man named Groper (Mel Welles). The couple is forced to stay the night. While the couple is making love Groper peeps through the window. Phillip beats him up. Since it is too late to leave, and Groper is unconscious, the couple goes to sleep.
During the night Groper steals the carburetor from their car. In the morning Phillip finds it and they leave. On the way Phillip has trouble with the steering wheel. The car goes off the bank of the lake and crashes, sinking into the water. Phillip makes it out but passes out. A truck driver (Ennio Antonelli) dives into the water and pulls out his passenger. He brings Phillip and the dead passenger back to Groper’s hotel. The passenger turns out to be the dead witch.
When Von Helsing comes upon the situation he knows right away that Vardella has taken over the spirit of Veronica. He also knows that he only has a limited amount of time to exorcise the evil witch from Veronica’s body before the witch takes over completely and becomes Veronica. When Vardella comes to, she attacks Von Helsing and runs away. Von Helsing must convince Phillip that that the witch’s curse is real and must enlist his help to find Vardella before Veronica is lost forever.
“The She Beast” AKA “La sorella di Satana” AKA “Revenge of the Blood Beast” was released in 1966 and was directed by Michael Reeves. Reeves only directed three films before he died. The other two were “The Witchfinder General” 1968 and “The Sorcerers” 1967. “The She Beast” was his first film. The movie is a British and Italian horror film with some underlying comedic touches. The chase scene near the end in particular.
The film has a cult following. Whether it’s for Barbara Steele, Michael Reeves or bad horror movies in general is up to the beholder. A restored version is available on DVD so fans of the film will be able to find a version far better than the public domain versions out there.
The budget was small but the filming was done on location in Yugoslavia so the locations are eerily desolate and crumbling. I wasn’t all that impressed with it. To me it was rather slow and not all that eventful. The creepy 200 year dead witch was impressive but she didn’t do much more than scream and run about. Her death toll wasn’t that extraordinary and the film never really said, other than the perverted appropriately named Groper, who in town was an ancient relative to those responsible for Vardella’s death.
The part of Vardella the witch was played by Joe Riley.