She Beast was directed by Michael Reeves, who would go on to helm historical horror Witchfinder General, although at times it's hard to believe that the two films could have come from the same man. Witchfinder General was a truly chilling study of the evil in man, a genuine classic of the genre with a brilliant central performance from Vincent Price; She Beast, on the other hand, is an embarrassingly bad tongue-in cheek horror with a risible plot, stilted dialogue, weak comedy, and dreadful turns from its stars, Ian Ogilvy and Barbara Steele.Ogilvy and Steele play honeymooners Philip and Veronica, who are travelling through Transylvania when they crash their car into a lake where, centuries earlier, butt-ugly witch Vardella (Joe 'Flash' Riley) met her fate at the hands of an angry mob. Possessing Veronica, Vardella proceeds to make good on her dying words, a curse on the descendants of those responsible for her death.Cruddy low-lights of Reeve's lamentable feature-length debut include Philip and Veronica's dull-as-ditch-water stay at a hotel where the perverted owner, Ladislav Groper (Mel Welles), likes to peep on his guests, and a terrible car chase scene that sees Philip and local witch expert Count von Helsing (John Karlsen) pursued by three bumbling policemen, the action sped up for comic effect (with the cars inexplicably passing the same motorcyclist several times).Thankfully, Reeves got much better at his job before dying from an accidental overdose at the age of 25, meaning that horror fans can remember him for his one great movie and forget all about this hopeless mess.

Michael Reeves, the director famed for his bloodthirsty classic WITCHFINDER GENERAL, made his feature film debut with this astonishingly low budget camp classic, which is tacky, tawdry, and totally insane. You won't believe the low budget when you watch this film, as the camera repeatedly shakes and the obviously grainy film stock ruins any of the landscape beauty that Reeves filmed. Despite these obvious flaws, there is a lot more to this film than you might expect, and it's not just another Italian exploitation piece. Mainly, there is an unexpected slice of broad comedy in the film, of the slapstick variety, which really comes into play when the heroes are chased by a trio of incompetent policemen, who repeatedly squabble and fall over. This kind of comedy sits oddly out of place with the horror of the film, and makes it all the more intriguing because of this.Ian Ogilvy also makes his film debut as the dashing hero of the film, who has some hilarious dialogue. It sounds like the voices have been dubbed over this film afterwards, and a lot of the dialogue is very, very unintentionally funny. Barbara Steele stars as Ogilvy's wife, but has a very small role, as she only filmed for a single day (even if that day did last 18 hours). For most of the film she is possessed by the spirit of the evil witch, Vordella, and her name is there simply to add more glamour and a bit of class and a "name" star to the proceedings. These pair are joined by a crusty professor of the occult, a certain Von Helsing, played with mischievous relish by John Karlsen, and a lot of the fun comes from the sparring between he and Ogilvy. Mel Welles also enjoys himself in a small role as a sleazy hotel owner, who meets an infamous hammer-and-sickle death by the witch.The horror elements of this relatively short film are almost outweighed by the comedy aspects of it, and the narrative concentrates on a car chase for the finale, in which weirdos on motorbikes ride around dangerously for no reason. This scene is so strange as to be almost deranged, and the viewer really must watch it because my description doesn't do it any justice. However, when there is violence the blood is quite liberal, and Reeves even uses close ups of writhing worms in eye sockets like Fulci did later in ZOMBIE FLESH EATERS.The witch itself looks quite horrible, even if the rubber mask is obvious. Even worse are the screeching noises which the witch makes, and these are in some respects very frightening and repulsive - it reminded me of the witch noises in THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. The stand out scenes of the film are the opening flashbacks to the witch's death, where she is drowned via a huge wooden contraption in the local lake. The later classic moments of WITCHFINDER GENERAL are foreshadowed here. THE SHE BEAST is a little oddity of a film, with an extremely low budget, yet Reeves adds in some distinctly unusual elements to make it more interesting than you would imagine at first. Worth tracking down.

The wiki and other sources have this film tagged/labeled as horror and fantasy but NOT comedy. A lot of people are calling this one a comedy-horror when it is not just because there is some comic relief or comical moments within the film. It's on the campy side - so it's fun at times.Overall this film is terrible - really bad. It is mildly entertaining in it's way but mostly boring to me. It's such a shame because I like Barbara Steele and this film is a waste of her good talent - for one thing she is not in this film enough to satisfy most of us.The movie is just over 1 hour and 18 minutes long and it took 30 minutes for the car wreck to happen and the ghost witch to enter into the man's wife. After the possession, it is still pretty much of a bore to watch with a handful of good scenes.3/10

Horror fans who think they are in for a treat seeing that this Barbara Steele-starring movie is another Italian production - just like the acclaimed "Black Sunday" - will be in for a big disappointment. Steele is hardly in the movie, for one thing. But even if she were in more of the movie, it probably wouldn't have helped much. This is a real sluggish affair. It's slow-moving, and there is precious little that could be considered "horror". What little horror there is happens to be really badly directed, so much so that I'm sure even audiences in 1966 weren't spooked. It doesn't help that the horror is complimented by a surprising amount of comic relief material, which isn't the least bit funny. Even at a mere 78 minutes in length, this movie is quite tough to sit through.