The Beast In Heat — The Beast In Heat( Blu Ray)
The Beast In Heat( aka S.S. Experiment Camp 2, Horrifying Experiments of the S.S. Last Days) was an Italian production made in 1977- it was directed by Luigi Batzella- who had both directed & acting in a host of euro exploitation films such as Nude For Satan , God Is My Colt 45, Curse Of Blood Ghouls, and The Blood Sucker Leads The Dance. The Beast In Heat brings together footage filmed in 77 solely for the film, as well as rather large/ decidedly more aged footage from two early 1970's War films. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Nazisploitation, and while this is far from the best of this most controversial of exploitation genres- it has it’s effective, if at times ridiculous moments of shock & depravity- it’s just a pity large parts of the film are dragged down by rather bland war film cliché-ness.
The film's plot is a haphazard blend of two key stories- we have Dr. Ellen Kratsch(Macha Magall) a highly sexualized nazi doctor who has created a beast-like man, and is obsessed with various form of nude torture. Then we have a group of resistance fighters who blow-up one nazi bridge, then hide out in a small village for most of the remainder of the film. The more shocking & sleazed Dr elements take up around just under half of the film's runtime, while the largely dull & predictable resistance footage takes up the rest of the film- someone does have to have a fair bit of patience to wait for the nasty stuff. And the shocking sleaze- when it does come, is extreme if at times a little lo-fi looking…we start with the raping-then-killing of a women by the beast after she thrown into his cage. Moving on later we get bloody female genitals electrocutions,nude male whipping & water torture, babies thrown-up into the air & shot at, and most notorious of all the beast rug munching scene- which literal shows the beast ripping then eating the pubic mound of a women.
Acting & dubbing wise the film is extremely mixed- Magall as is great as depreaved & sleazed Dr. Kratsch, as she moves well between cold & cruel, to leering & kinky. The rest of her nazi staff- go from between been bland & overacting. The real issue is the resistance- as one of the key characters has a very well-spoken English accent, which often sounds mocking & at times rather silly- which takes away any impact of any of the scenes he appears in. On the whole, The Beast In Heat certainly deserves its notoriety- it’s just a pity it does get brought down by the dull war movie moments, silly dubbing, and awkward film grade shifts between the two lots of footage the films created with.
The new print of the film offered up here is somewhat of a double-edged sword, as the sleazy, blood & flesh look nicely garish & bright. While on the negative side the different types of film stock are much more glaring, and some of the effects look naff. The extra side of the release is great first we get Fascism On A Thread – The Strange Story of Nazisploitation Cinema- this is an hour & half documentary covering the genre in wonderful detail- it brings together film scholars, exploitation experts/ fans- with a good selection of film directors, and we also get lengthy interview segments with Dyanne Thorne from the Ilsa films. It’s a fascinating & well put together doc- that traces the origins, development & the fizzling out of Nazispolation. Discussed, in quite some depth/ length, are pretty much all of the key films in genre . Towards the end of the doc we get of course talk about the Beast In Heat, and we get an interview Giuliano Sorgini who did the synth base score for the film. All in all it one of the best & far-reaching doc I’ve seen on a sub-genre of exploitation film in some time- and it’s worth to purchase the Blu ray for this alone. Then we get horror/ exploitation expert Stephen Thrower offering up a thirty-minute featurette entitled Nasty Nazi- this begins with him giving an overview of the Nazisploitation genre, before moving onto discuss The Beast In Heat- talking about the films general impact, key actors, the director. Before moving on to talk about how it played in relatively normal cinemas around Europe on its release, before finishing talking about how it gained notoriety/ interest due to its place on the UK’s Video nasty list. As we’ve come to expect from Thrower he’s very informed, passionate, and at times amusing in his discussion/ critique of the film.
So Severin has done a great job with releasing this sleazy and offensive film- with the great two hours of extras really pushing it up to a must-buy for any fan of the wider exploitation genre.