One of the more well known scream queens in B-movie history during the 1960's was the exotic looking Barbara Steele. I haven't seen much of her work but can definitely understand why she had become a popular fixture in the 1960's horror circuit, as she has a very creepy yet sexy look. Unfortunatley The She-Beast is not one of Steele's better films which is probably how it ended up in the Mills Creek 250 Horror Collection.
A young recently married couple find themselves the rundown town of Transylvania where the inhabitants are all incredibly superstitious. Their honeymoon soon takes a turn for the worst when they're traveling on the narrow village road and lose control of their car flying into the nearby lake. The husband, Philip, manages to escape relatively unscathed but his wife Veronica (Barbara Steele) is nowhere to be found. In her place is the ghastly corpse of a 200 year old witch who was put to death in the same lake by the townspeople in the 18th century. She'd vowed to one day return and seek revenge on the dissidents of those who killed her, now that time has come as she's used the soul of Veronica to make her return. In order to have a chance of getting his wife back Philip has to join forces with the local supernatural exerciser Count von Helsing, a decent of the Van Helsing's who rid the country of the Dracula's so many generations ago. The Count informs Philip that the only way to get his wife back is to exercise the witch, if she is killed his wife will forever be lost.
For those of you looking for a good Barbara Steel film pass this one by, Steele makes an appearance for about five minutes in the beginning and is never seen again until the very end. The film itself is an odd mixture of bizarre comedy and horror but is never once remotely creepy. For a public domain horror film it's about the same level of quality entertainment as a majority of the other Mills Creek films I've reviewed, if you like extremely low budget horrors then you'll probably find this mildly amusing.
4/10
The She-Beast Full Film
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