Villain(s)  Witch possession

Actor(s):  Barbara Steele, Ian Ogilvy, John Karlsen, Mel Welles

Brief Description  The She Beast (originally released in Italy as Il lago di Satana [“The Lake of Satan”] and also known as Revenge of the Blood Beast) is a 1966 supernatural horror film. It is highly notable as the directorial debut of Michael Reeves, a tragic and legendary figure in British horror who directed the masterpiece Witchfinder General before dying at age 25. Shot on a minuscule budget in Italy and Yugoslavia, the film stars legendary horror icon Barbara Steele alongside Ian Ogilvy and John Karlsen.

Plot:
The film opens 200 years in the past in the remote village of Bowash (or Vaubrac), Transylvania. The local, superstitious peasants capture Vardella, a grotesque, monstrous-looking witch. Instead of waiting for the local authority—the 12th Count von Helsing—to properly handle the demonic execution, the angry mob takes the law into their own hands. They strap Vardella to a medieval dunking stool and drown her in a nearby lake. As she sinks into the water, Vardella screams a terrible curse, vowing to return and enact bloody vengeance upon the villagers and all of their descendants. The story shifts to the mid-1960s (the present day at the time of filming). Philip (Ian Ogilvy) and his beautiful new bride Veronica (Barbara Steele) are a young English couple driving through Transylvania on their honeymoon in a Volkswagen Beetle. They reluctantly check into a sleazy, run-down local hotel managed by Ladislave Groper (Mel Welles), a despicable, alcoholic peeping tom. At dinner, they meet Count von Helsing (John Karlsen), an eccentric, elderly descendant of the famous vampire-hunting lineage. Von Helsing, who currently lives in a cave because he lost his ancestral home, warns them about the history of the town and Vardella’s lingering curse. The modern, cynical English couple dismisses his stories as superstitious nonsense and goes to bed. That night, Philip catches Groper spying on Veronica through a window and gives the hotel manager a severe beating. The next morning, Veronica takes the car out alone for a drive along the edge of the local lake. A sudden tire blowout or distraction causes her to lose control, and the Volkswagen plunges deep into the murky waters. Philip rushes to the scene to save his wife. However, when the car is pulled from the lake, Veronica's beautiful body is completely gone.

In her place is the resurrected, hideous corpse of the witch Vardella. Veronica's spirit has been suppressed, and her physical form has been completely possessed and transformed into the monstrous "She Beast." Vardella, utilizing the physical host, wastes no time carrying out her 200-year-old threat. She embarks on a brutal, bloody rampage through the village, tracking down and murdering the descendants of the peasants who drowned her. The film shifts heavily into B-movie horror and pitch-black comedy during this sequence. Philip is utterly bewildered and terrified, desperate to get his real wife back. He turns to the eccentric Count von Helsing for help. Realizing that garlic will not work on a witch, Von Helsing uses his library of ancient demonic law to figure out how to break the possession. Meanwhile, local law enforcement gets involved. The sequence turns chaotic and features a darkly comedic, extended car chase involving the local police, who act more like buffoons out of a slapstick comedy than actual threat-responders. Philip and Count von Helsing manage to capture the rampaging witch. Von Helsing determines that the only way to save Veronica is to perform a proper, formal exorcism—the exact ritual his ancestor failed to conduct centuries prior. They transport Vardella back to the edge of the lake and perform the ritual. The exorcism successfully drives the evil spirit of the witch out of the host body. Vardella's hideous form fades away, and Veronica is restored to her normal, beautiful self, reunited with a relieved Philip. However, in classic horror fashion, the film ends on an ominous note. As the couple prepares to leave the cursed region forever, a final shot reveals that the evil forces of the lake are not entirely destroyed, leaving the door open to the possibility that the cycle of vengeance could return again.