THE BEAST IN THE CELLAR
UK, 1971, 101 minutes, Colour.
Beryl Reid, Flora Robson, John Hamill, Tessa Wyatt, T.P. Mc Kenna, Vernon Dobtcheff.
Directed by James Kelley.
The Beast in the Cellar is one of the many horror films produced in England during the late 1960s, early 1970s. Hammer Studios had started the trend during the 1950s and several other studios, including Tygon, followed suit. They employed character actors in the leads and offered rather creative variations on popular themes, especially vampires, werewolves etc.
This film is a variation on the Arsenic and Old Lace story. Two elderly unmarried sisters, Beryl Reid and Flora Robson, keep their mad brother locked up in their cellar for over three decades. Then he escapes. There is a certain amount of mayhem but the film is strong on characterisation, especially from its leads.
The film was written and directed by James Kelley who directed only one more film after this, Night Hair Child with Mark Lester.
1. The appeal of this kind of horror film, themes, fantasies, lurking realities, morbidity?
2. The emphasis of the title and its horror, as explained throughout the film?
3. The film's structure and style: the English village, the types, the drama, the horrifying aspects of an ordinary village?
4. Expectations with the various murders, their beast-dog, their effect on people?
5. The film's focus on the two sisters? How well were their characters delineated, their similarities and differences, the interaction, the way that they guarded their brother, their protecting Alan? Were they mad in any way?
6. Joyce's injury, her dressing up as a soldier to see the brother, Ellie and her wanting to tell the truth?
7. Audiences not seeing Steven, the revelation, the horror? The explanation of what had happened, the monologue when Ellie told the truth? How dramatically satisfying? The plausibility of the story, of what the two sisters had done? How did the plot gain plausibility by the reality of the two
sisters?
9. The authenticity of the film with the extra characters, the police, soldiers, doctor etc.?
10. The message of the film? The final threat of death to Joyce, her terror, the death of Steven? The irony that he was not going to injure them? What value in human terms did the story have, as a horror film?
