An ancient medallion, a haunted house, a quartet of succubi and a team of parapsychologists – all ingredients for an odd little homage to European horror from director Terry M. West (“Blood for the Muse”). In terms of plot, there’s little going on aside from the paranormal investigators hired to scope out the old house, search for the aforementioned medallion and get picked off in gruesome ways by the nude, seductive demons from the other world.
“Flesh for the Beast” was definitely made with love by director West. Though in the DVD’s featurette, the producers cite Fulci and Argento, the director that West seems to be evoking most here is Jean Rollin (if I may go out on a limb, here). And there are a number of really disturbing set pieces that really set the audience on edge – the opening sequence culminating in a man being dragged quickly into the darkness by unseen hands springs immediately to mind.
West isn’t afraid to show the blood or the skin – the film has ample quantities of both, which is always welcome – and gets fair to good performances from his actresses, culled mostly from the Seduction Cinema stable. The male characters (all named after famous horror writers – John Stoker, Douglas Clegg, Jack Ketchum, etc) are largely interchangeable, but the people who are going to be most pleased by this film are the fans of erotic gore films, like the canon of the aforementioned Rollin.
“Flesh for the Beast” is the debut in-house film for the distribution house Media Blasters and it is not a disappointment.
