Trailer—The Body Beneath

The Body Beneath

I have a soft spot ( between my ears ) for this movie, I read about it in a vampire movie guide by Stephen Jones some 30 odd years ago , and even though the review wasn't positive, I still wanted to see it , well was it worth the wait? Yes for me it was , a vampire reverend wants to continue his family line which has been weakened by incest , and hunts down anyone who is distantly related to him, he kidnaps a pregnant long lost relative in the hope that the baby will continue the family line, chuck in a sad hunchback , some green faced lady ghouls , a shy vampire wife who is handy with a set of knitting needles and some tomato sauce gore and some ropey acting and you have a film that's as entertaining as it is amateurish ( part of its charm) think Acorn antiques and Dracula (1931).

A loosely threaded film - it's "stringy", cheesy and rather lame at best. It's a loosely knitted story and seems to be quickly thrown together to make a fast buck, yet it does get a little bit interesting once you get past the first 45 boring minutes of the film. I would have liked this film better if the first part of the film held my attention better - the last part of this one is pretty good though. Green vampresses - and not all of their hands are covered in green... sloppy make-up here. The rest of the characters are fine, I just did not like the three green vampresses, rather silly to me. The best character in the entire film is the blood sucking priest. Andy Milligan wrote and directed this - and for some weird reason I preferred his 'Guru, the Mad Monk' over 'The Body Beneath'. I guess "Guru" had enough cheesiness and strangeness to make me giggle harder. 3/10

One of The better Milligan films that actually sort of works if you give it a a few allowances. One of Milligans English films, this movie actually is a good...okay...just...story of a vampires and such trying to get new blood into their family. (that maybe giving too much away, or not since the movie doesn't wholly make sense.) Technically competent which only has to survive the need to keep all of the actors in close huddle and some make up that would be too thick even on stage, this is a decent drama/thriller thats actually one of the few Milligan movies I can recommend on any level. Sure it dances the fine line around being a bad movie (and crosses over into that territory a few times) but its the sort of time killer you may actually watch to the end. Both better and worse than I'm making out this maybe the Milligan movie to start with if you have a yen so long as you understand what you're getting yourself into.

Rev. Alexander Algernon Ford (Gavin Reed) is a vampire attempting to look for a stronger bloodline within his own. He has imprisoned Susan Ford (Jackie Skarvellis) a pregnant relative and plans to use her as breeding material. The acting was terrible as was the plot, make-up, and sound. Film includes a hunch-back and cemetery ghouls. Shows Ireland and America in a bad light. Cult film. Brief nudity (Jackie Skarvellis)