The Beast Must Die (1974) Movie Script
1
- This film
is a detective story
in which you are the detective.
The question is not who is the murderer,
but who is the werewolf?
After all the clues have been shown,
you will get a chance to give your answer.
Watch for the werewolf break.
- Have visual contact.
- Have scanner contact,
repeat, have scanner contact.
Go!
- Target in woods,
have lost visual contact.
- Target heading towards
map reference 263475,
repeat, map reference 263475, intercept.
Target at exactly map
reference 261471, intercept!
Target breaking right.
Target taking cover, not moving.
I can hear his heartbeats.
You're about 10 yards away.
Zero in, number one.
He's right by ground mic 87.
He's yours.
You will get another chance, let him go.
Target now heading 0262475.
- Bang, you're dead!
- Not until you pull that trigger, boy!
- Number three, 10 yards to your right.
Target breaking right, intercept and kill.
They're blanks, of course, an
added personal touch of mine.
I thought maybe, uh,
it would give you an extra kick.
Well, you are satisfied with my efforts?
- But I spotted the television cameras
and the mics you had staked in the ground.
They could be destroyed!
- But what you haven't seen is this.
The underground grid pattern.
Now, each one of those red
lights represents a microphone
buried immediately under the surface,
and each one can detect a human footstep
up to the range of one mile.
- Ok, so the whole area's covered.
Now, what if deer or some other animal
moves into your fancy grid system?
- This analyzes and rates every vibration,
computerized to identify
bird, beast, or man.
- Now, what about this house?
- Yes, the house.
Up to the range of 100 yards,
there is a pressure
strip under the ground.
Nothing can cross that
without activating the alarms.
Nothing can penetrate your estate
without you knowing about
it and identifying it.
- And being able to pinpoint it.
- As I've proved to you with
you, yourself, as the target!
- Good, you've earned your money, pavel.
- And since it is a great
deal of money, thank you.
May I now ask a question?
- Ask away.
- All this expense, why?
Protection?
- Against whom?
I have enemies, what big man doesn't?
In this world, you're either
the hunter or the hunted.
- And you are the hunter?
- Always.
On safari or in the board
room, it's all the same.
I go after what I want.
With money, that is not very difficult.
Money buys things, men shape events.
Half the kids I grew
up with are right there
in the same stinking shantytowns,
still hustling spooked
tourists for a living.
- And how did you, uh, shape events?
- I told you, I was born a hunter.
I set my sights on the right tourists.
Tracked it, snared it,
and allowed her to take
me to Miami, Florida.
I was very determined.
- Oh, I'm, uh, I'm quite aware
of your, uh, reputation.
Still, my question stands, why all this?
- Hmm, because this is
going to help me hunt
the biggest game of all.
- Perhaps you can tell us why you arranged
to have yourself shot.
- Certainly, just checking
the system's effectiveness.
- System, what system?
Men popping up out of the bushes,
and then frightening us to death?
- Oh, just part of my grand design.
The same plan that got you
all here at the same time.
Why do you think I invited you?
Because every one of you
sitting here in this room
has one thing in common, death.
You, bennington, once you
were a united nations delegate
til two members of your grubby entourage
mysteriously disappeared.
- There was an inquiry and
i was completely exonerated.
- So completely that they threw you
out of the diplomatic core.
Now, you're a part-time
television personality,
which I suppose makes you
everybody's houseguest.
- I don't have to take
that kind of talk from you!
- You just did.
And how about our friend,
the maestro, here?
International concert pianist,
plays all over the world, or used to.
Now, there are certain European capitals
where he is not welcomed anymore.
Seems there were nasty
killings in those cities
and always when you were playing there.
All the victims were found
with their throats torn out.
- Tom, if you're trying to
completely ruin our weekend--
- and if you're trying
to protect Davina, no go.
She wasn't invited
because she's your friend.
She's here on her own account,
because funny things happen
when Davina gilmore's
in a house party, like
you end up a guest short.
Some poor man or woman
quite dead and half-eaten.
- Tom, stop it!
- But you asked me to explain,
and I haven't finished yet!
Mr. foote knows all
about eating human flesh.
Isn't that right, Paul,
you went to prison for it
once, didn't you, Paul'?
- Well, somebody's been
doing his homework.
Still, that's no secret.
I started out to be a doctor.
- Really?
- Yes, really, there were nine
of us medical students involved.
We each ate a piece of human flesh.
Anatomical specimen!
- I know all that.
What I don't know is why.
- Curiosity, bravado, I don't know.
- Maybe you couldn't help yourself,
but that's more Dr. lundgren's subject.
- My subject is archeology.
- But not your passion.
Your overwhelming
interest is the loup-garou.
- Oh, yeah.
- The what?
- I prefer to call it rolok.
- Call it what you like,
the result's the same.
Human flesh torn out and eaten,
as one of you knows only too well,
because one of you
sitting here in this room
is a werewolf.
- If only I could believe it was a joke,
but you never joke, ever!
So, that leaves only
one other alternative.
You're out of your mind.
- I have never been
more serious in my life.
- Serious?
- One of our guests is
a werewolf, I know it.
- Then why invite them here?
Send them home, please.
- They're here and they're staying.
- Tom, I don't know what you're planning.
I don't care, but please,
for my sake.
- Things are easy to give up,
but a dream, a dream of hunting and facing
what no man has ever trapped before,
to give up that dream, no way.
- Tom?
What if the werewolf turns out to be me'?
" Pow!
Where were you going?
- I was going to the village!
- You were trying to escape!
- You don't really believe that one of us
is a, a werewolf?
- I certainly do.
- And you think it is me!
- It's a possibility.
- Look, I'll tell you what.
I'll stay here, you let the others go.
- Who are you trying to protect, Davina?
Is it Davina?
Let's go back, uh, this way, please.
Before the night's over, I'll
know exactly which one it is.
- Your werewolf, hmm?
- Hmm, a man who, by the
light of the full moon,
turns into a savage and ravening beast.
I understood they were very
common in your country.
- That is one of the
reasons I left my country,
why I escaped to england.
Away from a mentality that
believes in such things.
- Well, in Poland they may rely on garlic
and wolf bane strung about the house.
I prefer to make use of science.
- Well, if he's your werewolf,
I admire his taste in flesh.
- She used to be jan's pupil.
Had a great scene going
until he gave her the push.
- Hmm, well, they
seem close enough now.
- Now, yes, jan hasn't
played in over a year.
He got sick with some sort of virus.
As soon as Davina heard,
she dropped her jet-setting
and came back to him,
and he took her back.
It could be either one of them.
- She looks like butter
wouldn't melt in her mouth.
- Maybe she prefers meat, raw.
- Talking of raw meat, I, uh,
heard what you said in the conservatory.
- Last year in San trope, a
man was found partially eaten.
Paul foote spent the
summer there painting.
One of the paintings he did,
a man being attacked by a devil.
The face of that man--
- was the face of the victim.
- Right, he claims he copied it
from a newspaper photograph, he claims.
Well, maybe he's telling
the truth, just maybe.
One of my guests is certainly lying,
but which one?
Many books have been
written to show the werewolf
does not exist, but tonight,
I'm going to prove them wrong.
The conditions are ideal.
First, one must have a
full moon, oh, thank you.
- Oh, and I'm supposed to be
your favorite neighborhood nut!
- Well, let's ask the scientist.
Dr. lundgren, do you believe
such creatures exist?
- Each man, each woman has a
mass of glands in the throat,
here, the lymphatic glands.
Once it served a purpose, to
secrete into the bloodstream
a hormone, a fluid called lymph.
Now, this gland is the vital element
in the condition that creates a werewolf.
The fluid it releases
is a colorless alkaline
resembling blood but
containing no red corpuscles.
Once conveyed into the bloodstream,
it causes the disease, for disease it is,
which produces the werewolf.
- You sound sorry for the beast.
- Well, of course, it has no choice.
- No choice?
- It is totally unable to deny the urge
to feed on human flesh.
The primary symptoms are the
growing of more body hair
and, oh, what is the word?
Iklienda, ah, yes, the
itchiness of the skin, so--
- tell us what the
secondary symptoms are, lundgren.
- As the lymphatic hormone breaks down,
the molecular structure of
the blood through the victim,
and make no mistake, the
werewolf is a victim,
begins to change identity.
Now, first the eyes, red,
like those of a mad dog,
then, the body also.
Finally, when the
transmogrification is complete,
the urge to eat human
flesh is uncontrollable.
It's appetite must be assuaged.
- Guess what, I've just lost mine.
- Go on, doctor.
- Well, I'm afraid there's worse to come.
The werewolf will eventually
die of its condition,
die one of the most painful
and pitiful deaths imaginable.
In the early stages of the
disease, the blood recovers,
and the werewolf can regain
human shape almost at will.
But at last, the blood becomes
more and more unstable.
The white corpuscles can no
longer combat any disease,
any virus known to mankind.
This is what kills the werewolf.
- Well, if anyone feels
like eating after that,
he's welcome.
- I find it fascinating,
Dr. lundgren is an expert.
He's been looking for a
werewolf all his life,
isn't that right, doctor?
- But never, i
regret, have I ever caught one.
- How would you go about
catching one, doctor?
- I'll tell you how.
He'd gather together a
number of possible suspects,
isolate them miles from
anywhere, wait for a full m00n--
- like tonight,
and then when the man or woman
was compelled to turn into a werewolf
and ran loose on the estate,
every inch of which has
been electronically bugged,
he'd take his rifle,
track it,
corner it,
and kill it as I shall.
- You know, I think we
can settle this matter
once and for all.
Oh, I hate to deprive tom of his sport,
but if somebody wanted to kill a werewolf,
I can think of a simpler way.
- What's that?
- Please.
This is silver, isn't it'?
- Of course.
- Am I right, doctor, silver's
supposed to be poisonous
to the werewolf, even the touch of silver?
- Death would be almost instantaneous.
Minute particles of silver
will be absorbed by the skin
and, together with the lymphatic hormone,
would combine to make a deadly poison.
- Then why
don't we pass this around?
If one of us is a werewolf and drops dead,
we can get on with our meal in peace.
- Great, a kind of
classy Russian roulette!
Give it here, mwah!
- I've always loathed party games,
what am I supposed to do, hmm?
There.
Satisfied?
- How about our hostess?
- There!
And since you've completely
succeeded in wrecking dinner,
I think I'll have a stiff drink.
- I'll join you.
- Well, if that was dinner,
i can't wait for the cabaret!
- Your husband knew
the experiment could not work.
- Why not?
- An essential
element was missing.
Pollen has to be in the air,
pollen from the plant wolf bane.
- You sound so disappointed!
- Oh, no, not really, but
i have waited many years.
You understand, it is rare
for all the necessary elements
to assemble as one at the same time.
First, there must be a full moon.
This activates the gland in the same way
as the full moon influences the seas,
the tides, the winds.
- The moon might make
me feel a little odd,
but I can't see
myself turning into a werewolf.
- Then you do not mind?
For that to happen, the lymphatic hormone
would have to be released
into your bloodstream.
The wolf bane pollen acts as an irritant,
the trigger mechanism if you like.
- Moral, stay away from harvest festivals.
- No, all
of us are safe enough.
Wolf bane does not grow in Great Britain,
and in any case, it only
pollinates during the Autumn.
- The full moon.
Shame nobody thought to order--
- wolf bane?
Carefully nurtured in the hot house
and pollinating beautifully.
- We've played pass the candlestick,
and I think we've put our guests
through enough for one evening.
- But there was no pollen in the air then!
There is now.
How long before any change takes place?
- I do not know for sure.
If the werewolf is young,
and the disease in its early stages,
then the willpower may hold
off the change for a few hours.
- But not until morning
when the moon goes down.
- Oh, no, not for so long.
- Good!
Then, we wait.
The full moon lasts at least three days.
Oh, by the way,
we'll be alone in the house from now on.
I've given the staff a rest.
I'm sure Caroline will look
after you all beautifully,
won't you, Caroline?
- Of course, tom.
- It's called aggro art.
You cover a canvas with paint,
express your creative
aggression by beating it
with different sizes of whip.
- I'm a landscape man myself.
- You really expect
something to happen, don't you?
- Of course.
Damn it, two of them are missing!
Go closer.
Give me sound!
- I can't think
what's got into tom,
perhaps he's drunk.
- Well, you've known him
longer than I have, Davina.
What's he really like?
- Well, I don't know him all that well.
Caroline, yes, we shared a flat together
before she got married.
Tom's stinking rich, of course,
but then, we all know that,
and he hunts, anything.
If it exists, tom newcliffe shot it.
- The dogs are restless.
Must be the full moon.
- Don't you start, we came out here
to get away from all that grisly chat.
You don't believe all that stuff?
Gothic tales of werewolves
are as fake as this house.
- But the house exists!
I'm a sort of agnostic, maybe
they exist, maybe they don't,
but tom is a true believer.
- Suddenly this place
is giving me the creeps.
I'm glad you're here with me.
- Let's go inside.
You know, if we don't reappear,
tom will think we've turned
into a pair of werewolves
and come after us with a gun.
- Do you still believe it could
be one of those lovebirds?
- Don't lose them!
- So your king is in check.
- Mm-hmm, but not mate.
The game has hardly begun yet.
I think I'll have a Brandy!
Extraordinary, even the backs
of your hands are covered in hair!
- Well, you know what they say.
- No, I don't, I have no idea
who they are or what they say.
- Caroline will tell you.
- Oh, you mean the masculinity bit.
Personally, I've never been crazy
about animated Teddy bears.
- I don't
know about Teddy bears.
Your husband's expecting one of us
to change into a werewolf!
Any signs yet, doctor?
- No, not yet.
- Then I hope no one minds
if I don't stick around.
Caroline?
- Sure, go on up.
- Young man, a simple
precaution, lock your door.
- In c889 someone starts
to eat his way through the guest list?
- Perhaps not so flippant,
but something like that.
- Poor beast, he'll get food poisoning!
Night, all.
- Good night.
- Go with him!
- Good night, Paul.
- As tight as you can go!
- I, uh, didn't think
to bug the bathrooms.
A great many men have
hairs on their chest.
- And also on the back of their hands?
The hell of it is I can't remember
if his were always that way.
Better check on the others.
- I'm terribly sorry about tom.
He certainly does know how to put
the kiss of death on a party.
- A rather unfortunate
turn of phrase, madam.
- You know, maybe we're all
a little bit crazy for coming here.
- You know,
there's a very good man
on Harley street.
I should get tom to go
and see him if I were you,
'cause he's clearly off his head.
Good night, darling, good night, Davina.
- Good night.
- Mm, eavesdroppers seldom hear
anything good about themselves, you know?
Oh, you want me to tune
in on your guests in bed?
- I'm no voyeur.
I'm gonna get some rest while
you keep your eyes open.
I don't want you to miss a heartbeat.
Anything stirs, anything at all,
let me know immediately.
- Mr. newcliffe, newcliffe!
Activity on the estate.
Target heading fast and
steady towards the river.
- Visual contact?
- Not yet.
But whatever it is, it's
keeping close to cover.
- I know what it is.
- Computer identifies target as large,
four-legged animal, weight 159 pounds.
- That's what I said, zero me in!
- Control to hunter,
target static at river.
Control to hunter, move
to your left, 45 degrees.
Target, uh, moving to the north.
Control to hunter, maintain
course to intercept.
Repeat, maintain course to intercept.
Control to hunter, target
making straight for you.
Target heading straight at you, hunter.
Range, range 200 yards and closing.
Target, 150 yards.
150 yards and closing.
To your north, newcliffe, directly north.
Target 100 yards and closing.
Target slowing.
Target stopped, no,
target moving very slowly.
Target heading directly for you.
I have you in vision, hunter.
Target 8o yards away.
Target edging south, following
the contours of the clearing.
Good, you're following his move.
Target coming, hunter.
It's almost on you.
Control to hunter, is that you moving
towards the house or the target?
- I'm not moving.
- Did you have visual contact?
- Just the shape, and you?
- On the monitor, the same, just a shape.
- Zero me in again, pavel!
- Target heading straight for
the house, and closing fast.
- He's coming for you, pavel!
To stop you guiding me!
- Range 100 yards and closing,
and I don't believe in werewolves.
- I don't care what you believe in, pavel,
but for god's sake, protect yourself, man!
Lock the door, find something silver!
- Control to hunter, target
inside pressure strip
and out of external scanner range.
- Get something silver!
- Don't worry, hunter, i
can do better than that.
- Pavel, pavel!
- Didn't you hear shots?
- It was me, nothing to worry about.
I thought I saw a poacher.
- Did you get him?
- I'm sure I heard a scream.
- Maybe it was a dog howling.
- Where is Paul foote?
Come on, no use playing possum!
- What's the matter?
- Wake up, damn you!
- Huh?
- Sleeping pills.
- Thank god he's all right,
that we're all all right.
- And no one is missing?
- No,
no one is missing.
- Calling Mr. newcliffe.
- Good morning.
Change of plan, I want you to install
the night eye camera
and the scanner screen.
- Ok.
- Good, and to be on standby
at the house tonight,
I'll need you, over and out.
- Oh, come along,
Dr. lundgren, your go.
- You were going to show me
how to hold the mallet.
- How to hold the mallet?
Now, right hand down on the slip, you see'?
Now--
- can you tell tom, he'll
take it better from you.
- Sure, I will.
Tom, Davina's worried, it seems poor jan's
had some kind of setback,
and she's determined to
get him back to town.
She'd like to leave right away.
Tom!
Tom!
- Oh, they
have spoiled her call.
- Oh, no, no, nevermind.
Very near, dear, bad luck,
though it isn't easy.
- Go back.
Go back.
- Missed!
Want a drink?
- Why aren't you with the others?
- Been tracking you,
hunting the hunter!
Smile, you're on candid camera,
or didn't you know you
have television cameras
growing on your trees.
- Sure, I know, they
took years to cultivate.
- What's that, picnic lunch?
- The rotary arms for every
automobile on the estate
are at the bottom of the river.
- What?
- Oh, don't worry, I'll
have them all replaced
at my expense before you leave.
- Well, thanks a lot!
- You knew damn well I wanted
to get jan back to town.
- And I wanted you to stay, all of you.
Of course, if anyone cares to walk,
it's only 12 miles to the village.
- This whole business is preposterous!
L-i won't be kept here against my will!
I'll call the police if necessary!
- Unfortunately, the telephones
seem to be temporarily out of order.
- You know, you have taken
complete leave of your senses!
- For just one more night.
All the conditions are perfect.
So,
it won't be long now.
Anyone care to play the candlestick game?
- We went through
that circus last night.
- Scared?
- There, no fangs, now why don't you take
your solid silver werewolf
diviner and shove it!
- What about you, bennington?
- You know, if I had my way,
we'd read about that
candlestick in tomorrow's press.
Millionaire hunter done to
death with a blunt instrument!
- All bluff and bluster, but...
And what about our little lady friend
who's so anxious to get out of here?
Maybe she has reasons we don't know about.
Care to show us, Davina?
- Leave her alone, newcliffe!
- Careful, jan, mustn't excite yourself.
All of you, sitting here
so innocent and so scared!
You think I've gone off my head?
Well, I've checked you
out, you're all suspects!
One of you is a werewolf, I know it!
- Enough!
I've had enough!
- Maybe I should've looked closer to home.
- Closer to home?
I don't recognize you anymore.
You have to win all the time!
I've watched you climb
to the top of the heap,
and I've gone along with you.
- Don't tell me you didn't enjoy the ride!
- But not anymore.
You've let your passion for
hunting turn into a blood lust,
and I'll have no part of it.
This is what you wanted, blood?
- Leave her alone.
When the time comes, I'll be waiting.
- Tom?
Tom, tom,
tom, for god's sakes!
- Shh,
it's out there on the loose, listen!
- But we're all here!
- Paul foote isn't!
Let's go!
- Are they silver?
- Right, for a very special guest.
Same grid run as before.
I want you to sweep in a box pattern.
- No instructions from the house?
- No, we're on our own tonight.
Infrared camera set up?
- Slung immediately below us.
- Good.
We've lost him!
We've passed him below us at 9 o'clock!
Turn around!
Swing 'round!
He's headed for the marsh!
Take me down!
- Right.
- I've got him!
Caroline, stay where you are!
He's in there somewhere.
- He's hurt badly!
- Davina, please take
Caroline back to the house.
Could you see that they get back safely?
- Of course.
- It's like living in a shooting gallery!
- Where were you?
- When? I've been lots of places.
- Earlier, when I checked your room
and the wolf was out there on the loose
and you were nowhere to be found!
- Oh, then, well, i
heard some howling, too,
so I thought I'd slip out
and take a look for myself.
There isn't a crime in that, is there?
- I went up in the helicopter to hunt it.
I saw the beast, all right,
but I didn't see you!
- Oh, I saw you, though, blasting
away from your whirlybird.
- Can't prove any of it,
though, can you, foote?
And you, where were you?
- L- | went out, too, but
like Paul, I can't prove it.
- And when you came back?
- I got back into bed, I heard
somebody come in after me.
He fell on the stairs.
- That was me,
tripping over my own feet.
- Out there, a man lies dead.
My pilot had his throat
torn out by one of you!
Once you have tasted
human flesh, you can then
change back into your present shape,
but neither of you has escaped me yet!
- Benningt0n's not here.
- Stay where you are!
But even if the phone was working,
can you imagine explaining
to some village cop
that Arthur bennington
was killed by a werewolf?
And not only bennington,
there's the pilot as well!
- But we should get
the police in any case!
- No.
- Tom, two men are dead, doesn't
that mean anything to you?
- Two killings in one night,
that means the disease
has gotten a firmer hold,
and your resistance, or
yours, is getting weaker.
Tonight is my last chance, the
last night of the full moon,
and I warn you both,
tonight the beast must die and will.
- This is the werewolf break.
Have you guessed who the werewolf is?
Is it Paul foote,
jan,
Davina,
Dr. lundgren,
Caroline?
You have 30 seconds to give your answer.
Made up your mind?
Let's see if you're right.
- It has to be you!
You knew you couldn't
hold out much longer,
so you tried to make a
run for it, didn't you?
- No, it's not that at all.
I am scared, and I have
every right to be scared.
Last night, two men had
their throats ripped out!
I don't want to be the third victim!
- You're scared all right,
scared about how many people
you know you'll have to kill tonight!
Isn't that more like the truth?
- It can't be me,
and I can prove it!
There.
I held it last night at dinner, remember?
- We all held the damn
thing last night at dinner,
and poor old Arthur bennington still died!
- It has to be you.
You couldn't account for
your movements last night,
and today you tried to leave the estate.
It all fits!
But can you explain why
silver has no effect?
- If contact is made, silver must kill.
- But I'm alive!
- But in this day and age,
it would be simple enough
to protect the skin with a plastic coating
such as to be used on
cuts or nail varnish.
- There's nothing on my hand!
Look!
- It was just a possible explanation.
- Every one of these is silver.
N0b0dy's going to varnish
the inside of his mouth.
Now you!
One for each of you, and enough to spare.
Mustn't play favorites.
- Time for my pill?
- It couldn't be her,
it couldn't be Caroline!
- Jan, take her out of here.
- I killed her.
- Foote, see if you can help with Davina.
Go on, man, get out!
I'll take care of things here.
- All the time, it was Caroline,
and I killed her.
She was with me in the barn last night
at the same time that
the werewolf was there.
I can believe my own eyes, can't I?
And she held the candlestick at dinner.
- If a human being is bitten
by a werewolf and lives,
he or she becomes a werewolf.
The fatal hormone is
transferred with the bite.
- But Carol wasn't bitten, her dog was!
- Caroline had an open wound on her hand
from the glass she broke at dinner.
The blood from her dog,
already infected by the beast,
made her a victim also.
- Then the original werewolf is--
- there, hush!
After this attack, it
may try for another kill.
- Then it's him and me.
Huh, one bullet left,
that's sporting enough.
Look after Davina.
- I will.
- And don't leave the house.
- Come.
- I'm sorry, Davina.
- Are you hurt'?
- Just bruised to hell.
It bit me.
The werewolf bit me!
- There must be a cure, there must be!
- There is only one cure.
- This film
is a detective story
in which you are the detective.
The question is not who is the murderer,
but who is the werewolf?
After all the clues have been shown,
you will get a chance to give your answer.
Watch for the werewolf break.
- Have visual contact.
- Have scanner contact,
repeat, have scanner contact.
Go!
- Target in woods,
have lost visual contact.
- Target heading towards
map reference 263475,
repeat, map reference 263475, intercept.
Target at exactly map
reference 261471, intercept!
Target breaking right.
Target taking cover, not moving.
I can hear his heartbeats.
You're about 10 yards away.
Zero in, number one.
He's right by ground mic 87.
He's yours.
You will get another chance, let him go.
Target now heading 0262475.
- Bang, you're dead!
- Not until you pull that trigger, boy!
- Number three, 10 yards to your right.
Target breaking right, intercept and kill.
They're blanks, of course, an
added personal touch of mine.
I thought maybe, uh,
it would give you an extra kick.
Well, you are satisfied with my efforts?
- But I spotted the television cameras
and the mics you had staked in the ground.
They could be destroyed!
- But what you haven't seen is this.
The underground grid pattern.
Now, each one of those red
lights represents a microphone
buried immediately under the surface,
and each one can detect a human footstep
up to the range of one mile.
- Ok, so the whole area's covered.
Now, what if deer or some other animal
moves into your fancy grid system?
- This analyzes and rates every vibration,
computerized to identify
bird, beast, or man.
- Now, what about this house?
- Yes, the house.
Up to the range of 100 yards,
there is a pressure
strip under the ground.
Nothing can cross that
without activating the alarms.
Nothing can penetrate your estate
without you knowing about
it and identifying it.
- And being able to pinpoint it.
- As I've proved to you with
you, yourself, as the target!
- Good, you've earned your money, pavel.
- And since it is a great
deal of money, thank you.
May I now ask a question?
- Ask away.
- All this expense, why?
Protection?
- Against whom?
I have enemies, what big man doesn't?
In this world, you're either
the hunter or the hunted.
- And you are the hunter?
- Always.
On safari or in the board
room, it's all the same.
I go after what I want.
With money, that is not very difficult.
Money buys things, men shape events.
Half the kids I grew
up with are right there
in the same stinking shantytowns,
still hustling spooked
tourists for a living.
- And how did you, uh, shape events?
- I told you, I was born a hunter.
I set my sights on the right tourists.
Tracked it, snared it,
and allowed her to take
me to Miami, Florida.
I was very determined.
- Oh, I'm, uh, I'm quite aware
of your, uh, reputation.
Still, my question stands, why all this?
- Hmm, because this is
going to help me hunt
the biggest game of all.
- Perhaps you can tell us why you arranged
to have yourself shot.
- Certainly, just checking
the system's effectiveness.
- System, what system?
Men popping up out of the bushes,
and then frightening us to death?
- Oh, just part of my grand design.
The same plan that got you
all here at the same time.
Why do you think I invited you?
Because every one of you
sitting here in this room
has one thing in common, death.
You, bennington, once you
were a united nations delegate
til two members of your grubby entourage
mysteriously disappeared.
- There was an inquiry and
i was completely exonerated.
- So completely that they threw you
out of the diplomatic core.
Now, you're a part-time
television personality,
which I suppose makes you
everybody's houseguest.
- I don't have to take
that kind of talk from you!
- You just did.
And how about our friend,
the maestro, here?
International concert pianist,
plays all over the world, or used to.
Now, there are certain European capitals
where he is not welcomed anymore.
Seems there were nasty
killings in those cities
and always when you were playing there.
All the victims were found
with their throats torn out.
- Tom, if you're trying to
completely ruin our weekend--
- and if you're trying
to protect Davina, no go.
She wasn't invited
because she's your friend.
She's here on her own account,
because funny things happen
when Davina gilmore's
in a house party, like
you end up a guest short.
Some poor man or woman
quite dead and half-eaten.
- Tom, stop it!
- But you asked me to explain,
and I haven't finished yet!
Mr. foote knows all
about eating human flesh.
Isn't that right, Paul,
you went to prison for it
once, didn't you, Paul'?
- Well, somebody's been
doing his homework.
Still, that's no secret.
I started out to be a doctor.
- Really?
- Yes, really, there were nine
of us medical students involved.
We each ate a piece of human flesh.
Anatomical specimen!
- I know all that.
What I don't know is why.
- Curiosity, bravado, I don't know.
- Maybe you couldn't help yourself,
but that's more Dr. lundgren's subject.
- My subject is archeology.
- But not your passion.
Your overwhelming
interest is the loup-garou.
- Oh, yeah.
- The what?
- I prefer to call it rolok.
- Call it what you like,
the result's the same.
Human flesh torn out and eaten,
as one of you knows only too well,
because one of you
sitting here in this room
is a werewolf.
- If only I could believe it was a joke,
but you never joke, ever!
So, that leaves only
one other alternative.
You're out of your mind.
- I have never been
more serious in my life.
- Serious?
- One of our guests is
a werewolf, I know it.
- Then why invite them here?
Send them home, please.
- They're here and they're staying.
- Tom, I don't know what you're planning.
I don't care, but please,
for my sake.
- Things are easy to give up,
but a dream, a dream of hunting and facing
what no man has ever trapped before,
to give up that dream, no way.
- Tom?
What if the werewolf turns out to be me'?
" Pow!
Where were you going?
- I was going to the village!
- You were trying to escape!
- You don't really believe that one of us
is a, a werewolf?
- I certainly do.
- And you think it is me!
- It's a possibility.
- Look, I'll tell you what.
I'll stay here, you let the others go.
- Who are you trying to protect, Davina?
Is it Davina?
Let's go back, uh, this way, please.
Before the night's over, I'll
know exactly which one it is.
- Your werewolf, hmm?
- Hmm, a man who, by the
light of the full moon,
turns into a savage and ravening beast.
I understood they were very
common in your country.
- That is one of the
reasons I left my country,
why I escaped to england.
Away from a mentality that
believes in such things.
- Well, in Poland they may rely on garlic
and wolf bane strung about the house.
I prefer to make use of science.
- Well, if he's your werewolf,
I admire his taste in flesh.
- She used to be jan's pupil.
Had a great scene going
until he gave her the push.
- Hmm, well, they
seem close enough now.
- Now, yes, jan hasn't
played in over a year.
He got sick with some sort of virus.
As soon as Davina heard,
she dropped her jet-setting
and came back to him,
and he took her back.
It could be either one of them.
- She looks like butter
wouldn't melt in her mouth.
- Maybe she prefers meat, raw.
- Talking of raw meat, I, uh,
heard what you said in the conservatory.
- Last year in San trope, a
man was found partially eaten.
Paul foote spent the
summer there painting.
One of the paintings he did,
a man being attacked by a devil.
The face of that man--
- was the face of the victim.
- Right, he claims he copied it
from a newspaper photograph, he claims.
Well, maybe he's telling
the truth, just maybe.
One of my guests is certainly lying,
but which one?
Many books have been
written to show the werewolf
does not exist, but tonight,
I'm going to prove them wrong.
The conditions are ideal.
First, one must have a
full moon, oh, thank you.
- Oh, and I'm supposed to be
your favorite neighborhood nut!
- Well, let's ask the scientist.
Dr. lundgren, do you believe
such creatures exist?
- Each man, each woman has a
mass of glands in the throat,
here, the lymphatic glands.
Once it served a purpose, to
secrete into the bloodstream
a hormone, a fluid called lymph.
Now, this gland is the vital element
in the condition that creates a werewolf.
The fluid it releases
is a colorless alkaline
resembling blood but
containing no red corpuscles.
Once conveyed into the bloodstream,
it causes the disease, for disease it is,
which produces the werewolf.
- You sound sorry for the beast.
- Well, of course, it has no choice.
- No choice?
- It is totally unable to deny the urge
to feed on human flesh.
The primary symptoms are the
growing of more body hair
and, oh, what is the word?
Iklienda, ah, yes, the
itchiness of the skin, so--
- tell us what the
secondary symptoms are, lundgren.
- As the lymphatic hormone breaks down,
the molecular structure of
the blood through the victim,
and make no mistake, the
werewolf is a victim,
begins to change identity.
Now, first the eyes, red,
like those of a mad dog,
then, the body also.
Finally, when the
transmogrification is complete,
the urge to eat human
flesh is uncontrollable.
It's appetite must be assuaged.
- Guess what, I've just lost mine.
- Go on, doctor.
- Well, I'm afraid there's worse to come.
The werewolf will eventually
die of its condition,
die one of the most painful
and pitiful deaths imaginable.
In the early stages of the
disease, the blood recovers,
and the werewolf can regain
human shape almost at will.
But at last, the blood becomes
more and more unstable.
The white corpuscles can no
longer combat any disease,
any virus known to mankind.
This is what kills the werewolf.
- Well, if anyone feels
like eating after that,
he's welcome.
- I find it fascinating,
Dr. lundgren is an expert.
He's been looking for a
werewolf all his life,
isn't that right, doctor?
- But never, i
regret, have I ever caught one.
- How would you go about
catching one, doctor?
- I'll tell you how.
He'd gather together a
number of possible suspects,
isolate them miles from
anywhere, wait for a full m00n--
- like tonight,
and then when the man or woman
was compelled to turn into a werewolf
and ran loose on the estate,
every inch of which has
been electronically bugged,
he'd take his rifle,
track it,
corner it,
and kill it as I shall.
- You know, I think we
can settle this matter
once and for all.
Oh, I hate to deprive tom of his sport,
but if somebody wanted to kill a werewolf,
I can think of a simpler way.
- What's that?
- Please.
This is silver, isn't it'?
- Of course.
- Am I right, doctor, silver's
supposed to be poisonous
to the werewolf, even the touch of silver?
- Death would be almost instantaneous.
Minute particles of silver
will be absorbed by the skin
and, together with the lymphatic hormone,
would combine to make a deadly poison.
- Then why
don't we pass this around?
If one of us is a werewolf and drops dead,
we can get on with our meal in peace.
- Great, a kind of
classy Russian roulette!
Give it here, mwah!
- I've always loathed party games,
what am I supposed to do, hmm?
There.
Satisfied?
- How about our hostess?
- There!
And since you've completely
succeeded in wrecking dinner,
I think I'll have a stiff drink.
- I'll join you.
- Well, if that was dinner,
i can't wait for the cabaret!
- Your husband knew
the experiment could not work.
- Why not?
- An essential
element was missing.
Pollen has to be in the air,
pollen from the plant wolf bane.
- You sound so disappointed!
- Oh, no, not really, but
i have waited many years.
You understand, it is rare
for all the necessary elements
to assemble as one at the same time.
First, there must be a full moon.
This activates the gland in the same way
as the full moon influences the seas,
the tides, the winds.
- The moon might make
me feel a little odd,
but I can't see
myself turning into a werewolf.
- Then you do not mind?
For that to happen, the lymphatic hormone
would have to be released
into your bloodstream.
The wolf bane pollen acts as an irritant,
the trigger mechanism if you like.
- Moral, stay away from harvest festivals.
- No, all
of us are safe enough.
Wolf bane does not grow in Great Britain,
and in any case, it only
pollinates during the Autumn.
- The full moon.
Shame nobody thought to order--
- wolf bane?
Carefully nurtured in the hot house
and pollinating beautifully.
- We've played pass the candlestick,
and I think we've put our guests
through enough for one evening.
- But there was no pollen in the air then!
There is now.
How long before any change takes place?
- I do not know for sure.
If the werewolf is young,
and the disease in its early stages,
then the willpower may hold
off the change for a few hours.
- But not until morning
when the moon goes down.
- Oh, no, not for so long.
- Good!
Then, we wait.
The full moon lasts at least three days.
Oh, by the way,
we'll be alone in the house from now on.
I've given the staff a rest.
I'm sure Caroline will look
after you all beautifully,
won't you, Caroline?
- Of course, tom.
- It's called aggro art.
You cover a canvas with paint,
express your creative
aggression by beating it
with different sizes of whip.
- I'm a landscape man myself.
- You really expect
something to happen, don't you?
- Of course.
Damn it, two of them are missing!
Go closer.
Give me sound!
- I can't think
what's got into tom,
perhaps he's drunk.
- Well, you've known him
longer than I have, Davina.
What's he really like?
- Well, I don't know him all that well.
Caroline, yes, we shared a flat together
before she got married.
Tom's stinking rich, of course,
but then, we all know that,
and he hunts, anything.
If it exists, tom newcliffe shot it.
- The dogs are restless.
Must be the full moon.
- Don't you start, we came out here
to get away from all that grisly chat.
You don't believe all that stuff?
Gothic tales of werewolves
are as fake as this house.
- But the house exists!
I'm a sort of agnostic, maybe
they exist, maybe they don't,
but tom is a true believer.
- Suddenly this place
is giving me the creeps.
I'm glad you're here with me.
- Let's go inside.
You know, if we don't reappear,
tom will think we've turned
into a pair of werewolves
and come after us with a gun.
- Do you still believe it could
be one of those lovebirds?
- Don't lose them!
- So your king is in check.
- Mm-hmm, but not mate.
The game has hardly begun yet.
I think I'll have a Brandy!
Extraordinary, even the backs
of your hands are covered in hair!
- Well, you know what they say.
- No, I don't, I have no idea
who they are or what they say.
- Caroline will tell you.
- Oh, you mean the masculinity bit.
Personally, I've never been crazy
about animated Teddy bears.
- I don't
know about Teddy bears.
Your husband's expecting one of us
to change into a werewolf!
Any signs yet, doctor?
- No, not yet.
- Then I hope no one minds
if I don't stick around.
Caroline?
- Sure, go on up.
- Young man, a simple
precaution, lock your door.
- In c889 someone starts
to eat his way through the guest list?
- Perhaps not so flippant,
but something like that.
- Poor beast, he'll get food poisoning!
Night, all.
- Good night.
- Go with him!
- Good night, Paul.
- As tight as you can go!
- I, uh, didn't think
to bug the bathrooms.
A great many men have
hairs on their chest.
- And also on the back of their hands?
The hell of it is I can't remember
if his were always that way.
Better check on the others.
- I'm terribly sorry about tom.
He certainly does know how to put
the kiss of death on a party.
- A rather unfortunate
turn of phrase, madam.
- You know, maybe we're all
a little bit crazy for coming here.
- You know,
there's a very good man
on Harley street.
I should get tom to go
and see him if I were you,
'cause he's clearly off his head.
Good night, darling, good night, Davina.
- Good night.
- Mm, eavesdroppers seldom hear
anything good about themselves, you know?
Oh, you want me to tune
in on your guests in bed?
- I'm no voyeur.
I'm gonna get some rest while
you keep your eyes open.
I don't want you to miss a heartbeat.
Anything stirs, anything at all,
let me know immediately.
- Mr. newcliffe, newcliffe!
Activity on the estate.
Target heading fast and
steady towards the river.
- Visual contact?
- Not yet.
But whatever it is, it's
keeping close to cover.
- I know what it is.
- Computer identifies target as large,
four-legged animal, weight 159 pounds.
- That's what I said, zero me in!
- Control to hunter,
target static at river.
Control to hunter, move
to your left, 45 degrees.
Target, uh, moving to the north.
Control to hunter, maintain
course to intercept.
Repeat, maintain course to intercept.
Control to hunter, target
making straight for you.
Target heading straight at you, hunter.
Range, range 200 yards and closing.
Target, 150 yards.
150 yards and closing.
To your north, newcliffe, directly north.
Target 100 yards and closing.
Target slowing.
Target stopped, no,
target moving very slowly.
Target heading directly for you.
I have you in vision, hunter.
Target 8o yards away.
Target edging south, following
the contours of the clearing.
Good, you're following his move.
Target coming, hunter.
It's almost on you.
Control to hunter, is that you moving
towards the house or the target?
- I'm not moving.
- Did you have visual contact?
- Just the shape, and you?
- On the monitor, the same, just a shape.
- Zero me in again, pavel!
- Target heading straight for
the house, and closing fast.
- He's coming for you, pavel!
To stop you guiding me!
- Range 100 yards and closing,
and I don't believe in werewolves.
- I don't care what you believe in, pavel,
but for god's sake, protect yourself, man!
Lock the door, find something silver!
- Control to hunter, target
inside pressure strip
and out of external scanner range.
- Get something silver!
- Don't worry, hunter, i
can do better than that.
- Pavel, pavel!
- Didn't you hear shots?
- It was me, nothing to worry about.
I thought I saw a poacher.
- Did you get him?
- I'm sure I heard a scream.
- Maybe it was a dog howling.
- Where is Paul foote?
Come on, no use playing possum!
- What's the matter?
- Wake up, damn you!
- Huh?
- Sleeping pills.
- Thank god he's all right,
that we're all all right.
- And no one is missing?
- No,
no one is missing.
- Calling Mr. newcliffe.
- Good morning.
Change of plan, I want you to install
the night eye camera
and the scanner screen.
- Ok.
- Good, and to be on standby
at the house tonight,
I'll need you, over and out.
- Oh, come along,
Dr. lundgren, your go.
- You were going to show me
how to hold the mallet.
- How to hold the mallet?
Now, right hand down on the slip, you see'?
Now--
- can you tell tom, he'll
take it better from you.
- Sure, I will.
Tom, Davina's worried, it seems poor jan's
had some kind of setback,
and she's determined to
get him back to town.
She'd like to leave right away.
Tom!
Tom!
- Oh, they
have spoiled her call.
- Oh, no, no, nevermind.
Very near, dear, bad luck,
though it isn't easy.
- Go back.
Go back.
- Missed!
Want a drink?
- Why aren't you with the others?
- Been tracking you,
hunting the hunter!
Smile, you're on candid camera,
or didn't you know you
have television cameras
growing on your trees.
- Sure, I know, they
took years to cultivate.
- What's that, picnic lunch?
- The rotary arms for every
automobile on the estate
are at the bottom of the river.
- What?
- Oh, don't worry, I'll
have them all replaced
at my expense before you leave.
- Well, thanks a lot!
- You knew damn well I wanted
to get jan back to town.
- And I wanted you to stay, all of you.
Of course, if anyone cares to walk,
it's only 12 miles to the village.
- This whole business is preposterous!
L-i won't be kept here against my will!
I'll call the police if necessary!
- Unfortunately, the telephones
seem to be temporarily out of order.
- You know, you have taken
complete leave of your senses!
- For just one more night.
All the conditions are perfect.
So,
it won't be long now.
Anyone care to play the candlestick game?
- We went through
that circus last night.
- Scared?
- There, no fangs, now why don't you take
your solid silver werewolf
diviner and shove it!
- What about you, bennington?
- You know, if I had my way,
we'd read about that
candlestick in tomorrow's press.
Millionaire hunter done to
death with a blunt instrument!
- All bluff and bluster, but...
And what about our little lady friend
who's so anxious to get out of here?
Maybe she has reasons we don't know about.
Care to show us, Davina?
- Leave her alone, newcliffe!
- Careful, jan, mustn't excite yourself.
All of you, sitting here
so innocent and so scared!
You think I've gone off my head?
Well, I've checked you
out, you're all suspects!
One of you is a werewolf, I know it!
- Enough!
I've had enough!
- Maybe I should've looked closer to home.
- Closer to home?
I don't recognize you anymore.
You have to win all the time!
I've watched you climb
to the top of the heap,
and I've gone along with you.
- Don't tell me you didn't enjoy the ride!
- But not anymore.
You've let your passion for
hunting turn into a blood lust,
and I'll have no part of it.
This is what you wanted, blood?
- Leave her alone.
When the time comes, I'll be waiting.
- Tom?
Tom, tom,
tom, for god's sakes!
- Shh,
it's out there on the loose, listen!
- But we're all here!
- Paul foote isn't!
Let's go!
- Are they silver?
- Right, for a very special guest.
Same grid run as before.
I want you to sweep in a box pattern.
- No instructions from the house?
- No, we're on our own tonight.
Infrared camera set up?
- Slung immediately below us.
- Good.
We've lost him!
We've passed him below us at 9 o'clock!
Turn around!
Swing 'round!
He's headed for the marsh!
Take me down!
- Right.
- I've got him!
Caroline, stay where you are!
He's in there somewhere.
- He's hurt badly!
- Davina, please take
Caroline back to the house.
Could you see that they get back safely?
- Of course.
- It's like living in a shooting gallery!
- Where were you?
- When? I've been lots of places.
- Earlier, when I checked your room
and the wolf was out there on the loose
and you were nowhere to be found!
- Oh, then, well, i
heard some howling, too,
so I thought I'd slip out
and take a look for myself.
There isn't a crime in that, is there?
- I went up in the helicopter to hunt it.
I saw the beast, all right,
but I didn't see you!
- Oh, I saw you, though, blasting
away from your whirlybird.
- Can't prove any of it,
though, can you, foote?
And you, where were you?
- L- | went out, too, but
like Paul, I can't prove it.
- And when you came back?
- I got back into bed, I heard
somebody come in after me.
He fell on the stairs.
- That was me,
tripping over my own feet.
- Out there, a man lies dead.
My pilot had his throat
torn out by one of you!
Once you have tasted
human flesh, you can then
change back into your present shape,
but neither of you has escaped me yet!
- Benningt0n's not here.
- Stay where you are!
But even if the phone was working,
can you imagine explaining
to some village cop
that Arthur bennington
was killed by a werewolf?
And not only bennington,
there's the pilot as well!
- But we should get
the police in any case!
- No.
- Tom, two men are dead, doesn't
that mean anything to you?
- Two killings in one night,
that means the disease
has gotten a firmer hold,
and your resistance, or
yours, is getting weaker.
Tonight is my last chance, the
last night of the full moon,
and I warn you both,
tonight the beast must die and will.
- This is the werewolf break.
Have you guessed who the werewolf is?
Is it Paul foote,
jan,
Davina,
Dr. lundgren,
Caroline?
You have 30 seconds to give your answer.
Made up your mind?
Let's see if you're right.
- It has to be you!
You knew you couldn't
hold out much longer,
so you tried to make a
run for it, didn't you?
- No, it's not that at all.
I am scared, and I have
every right to be scared.
Last night, two men had
their throats ripped out!
I don't want to be the third victim!
- You're scared all right,
scared about how many people
you know you'll have to kill tonight!
Isn't that more like the truth?
- It can't be me,
and I can prove it!
There.
I held it last night at dinner, remember?
- We all held the damn
thing last night at dinner,
and poor old Arthur bennington still died!
- It has to be you.
You couldn't account for
your movements last night,
and today you tried to leave the estate.
It all fits!
But can you explain why
silver has no effect?
- If contact is made, silver must kill.
- But I'm alive!
- But in this day and age,
it would be simple enough
to protect the skin with a plastic coating
such as to be used on
cuts or nail varnish.
- There's nothing on my hand!
Look!
- It was just a possible explanation.
- Every one of these is silver.
N0b0dy's going to varnish
the inside of his mouth.
Now you!
One for each of you, and enough to spare.
Mustn't play favorites.
- Time for my pill?
- It couldn't be her,
it couldn't be Caroline!
- Jan, take her out of here.
- I killed her.
- Foote, see if you can help with Davina.
Go on, man, get out!
I'll take care of things here.
- All the time, it was Caroline,
and I killed her.
She was with me in the barn last night
at the same time that
the werewolf was there.
I can believe my own eyes, can't I?
And she held the candlestick at dinner.
- If a human being is bitten
by a werewolf and lives,
he or she becomes a werewolf.
The fatal hormone is
transferred with the bite.
- But Carol wasn't bitten, her dog was!
- Caroline had an open wound on her hand
from the glass she broke at dinner.
The blood from her dog,
already infected by the beast,
made her a victim also.
- Then the original werewolf is--
- there, hush!
After this attack, it
may try for another kill.
- Then it's him and me.
Huh, one bullet left,
that's sporting enough.
Look after Davina.
- I will.
- And don't leave the house.
- Come.
- I'm sorry, Davina.
- Are you hurt'?
- Just bruised to hell.
It bit me.
The werewolf bit me!
- There must be a cure, there must be!
- There is only one cure.