Beasts - The Complete Series [DVD]

Another wonderful series from the pen of Nigel Kneale, Beasts was initially shown back in 1976, and made by ATV in Birmingahm. The series deals with the macabre, each using the relationship between man and differing animals, or if you will, Beasts. They range from the bizaar (a haunted Swimming Pool) to the fear of rats, this sets a standard of excellence and keeps it. There is not a single duffer here, and to top it, there is an extra, also penned by Nigel Kneale about witchcraft. All filmed on videotape rather than film, the colours are sometimes a bit gaudy (what can one expect after such a long period of time), but the acting is always excellent (Pauline Quirk especially), resulting in an outstanding series and a dvd certainly worth owning if this genre is your thing. Nigel Kneale (for those not in the know) wrote some of the most outstanding, challenging and entertaining television in the last 50 years, and can be argued the father of British Sci Fi (due to his not unconsiderable tales of Professor Quatermass). This is another classic and deserves to be seen by one and all, especially if you like a little terror and psycho-drama. Stop messing about; this sbould be bought on a daily basis! go on. this is a work of a brain who will be viewed as a litiary classic in future. Cheers!

3 of the stories are good. 1, a witch’s familiar is buried in the wall and kills children, 2, a man spends his life studying werewolves, 3, rats turn against humans. The other 3 are not great but worth watching once. I hope this helps. I would say buy it for your collection.

I remember this series vaguely from the 70's, when I was a very young child. I remember the "Baby" episode and being absolutely terrified by it. I was too afraid to watch the final scenes and it gave me nightmares for months. I was interested to see if this was as frightening as I remember or just a big let down. I enjoyed all the episodes- "What Big Eyes" and "The Dummy" were my least favourites- but still watchable. I thought "Buddy Boy" was more sad than scary- Martin Shaw was good as the sleazy porn baron. "Special Offer" was not remotely frightening, with it's cans of beans, but I enjoyed Pauline Quirke's early performance. I also enjoyed "During Bartys Party", with the unseen, menacing rats. The best, for me, was "Murrain", not part of the "Beasts" series. It seemed more developed and gritty. An old lady in a remote Derbyshire village is shunned for being a witch. An outsider tries to convince them she is a harmless old lady- or is she? A really interesting take on witchcraft and mob mentality. I saved "Baby" for last- and watched it with some trepidation. The nasty thing they found in the wall still gave me the creeps, it's never explained fully what it was- it just suggests and leaves it to your imagination. I found some of the characters a bit annoying- especially the husband and his weird anger problem- what's with all the shouting? The end scenes were (obviously), not as frightening as I remember, but I still found it very creepy and sinister. The series was a bit dated- but the ideas are still good, and I had a very enjoyable Sunday afternoon watching these.

Beasts is an interesting DVD set of all of the episodes that made up this British TV series from 1976. The Set also includes another bonus story that had appeared in another series the year before by the same writer and with a similar style. I had forgotten about this series. In fact I remembered the series Thriller from the mid 1970s very well and was convinced that one story in that series was about a mummified creature being found hidden in a wall of an old house. I bought the DVD set of Thriller and after watching every episode realised that that episode did not belong to that series. After a little research I found that it was in fact an episode from this series called Beasts. I have now watched the entire series and although I had forgotten the existence of this series, I realised I did remember some of the other episodes as well. The best thing about this series is the writing by Nigel Kneale. There are some excellent ideas here. I did feel that this series probably seemed better back in 1976. I found this series sadly dated in terms of the way the excellent stories were interpreted through limited sets and direction by Nicholas Palmer. All of which is the result of a poor budget. Disc one begins with The Baby,(the story I had been looking for,) "The Baby" was by far the best story anyway. This still felt creepy today. However there a couple of other stories that were quite good. In the second story the basic plot seems like an interesting idea. There is an old broken down pool that is being haunted by a Dolphin. Sadly I didn't care for this second story at all. In fact I found it quite boring. But the series is dated and this episode proved this point with limited sets and endless dialogue. The plot moved slowly and even the acting skills of Martin Shaw couldn't make up for the poor dialogue and gloomy set. Episode three seems to have been popular with some reviewers. I felt that this story about an actor who becomes possessed by the character he is playing as he goes through a breakdown had some very good drama in the script. But again the poor direction in terms of camera angles, sets and effects let the story down a little, However I liked the way there was a deliberate mockery of the sort of Hammer Horror stories with the guy in the monster suit, even if it was embarrassingly silly. Disc two was not so bad. The first story stars Pauline Quirke in a story where a poltergeist haunts a small supermarket. This story had a limited set two, but since a lot of supermarkets really were that small in 1976 and all the action takes place in it, the story still works. Then the second story about a scientist who tries to turn himself into a wolf was good in terms of concept but I felt its production was dated again. I also would have liked a more developed ending. The final story where a couple are trapped in the house by a horde of rats did work well despite the fact we never see the rats. The extra story called Murrain was actually quite good too. Generally if you view this series as if you were living in 1976 it is very good indeed. However you may find it hard not to notice how dated the production is. But the whole series is worth watching at least once. There are some strong ideas and good writing. It is also interesting to look at the series as an example of the sort of things that was around in the mid 1970s. There are some famous faces and there is a lot of light entertainment here.

A 6 episode anthology in which each story has a "beast" of sorts involved in the plot. Might be an animal or something imagined. Each quite creepy and unsettling. Lots of great actors involved and the usual low budgets of British TV in the 70s. But quite effective, with downbeat endings. This set includes another Kneale story made a year before for another program which is in the same vein. All were good, the first and last were my favorites. Wish there were subtitles.

Not bad but not great either.

Only one of 6 episodes have Martin Shaw, but it was great!! Thank you!!!