Grindhouse Fest: The Beast in Heat (1977)

-Grindhouse Fest is the special section in Celluloid Dimension where you can discover all the goodies from the golden age of exploitation cinema. Have fun!

The Beast in Heat (1977) Directed by Luigi Batzella

Gloriously repugnant but aimless Nazisploitation flick that dawdles in an underdeveloped triptych storytelling. Luigi Batzella’s Video Nasty attempts to be first and foremost the filthiest of Nazi exploitation movies, then a cheesy, low-brow war movie, and lastly a sort of bizarre Creature Feature. In occupied Europe, the villainous SS doctor Ellen Kratsch (wickedly played by Macha Magall) conducts bestial experiments in which many innocent female prisoners forcibly participate, serving as carnal comfort to appease the voracious libido of a hairy monster genetically created by the sadistic Nazi doctor. While this is going on in the interiors of a castle, on the outskirts of town an insurgency erupts; local partisans rise up in arms to fight the Nazi decadence in their land. The absence of talent in this production is glaring and the surplus of gore and porn is equally flagrant in its amateurish ineptitude. The only thing left to appreciate is the bizarrely unsavory feel that the prosaic panorama of pornographic torture leaves in your perplexed psyche and finally, fittingly, assaults the sight of decency and decorum. Batzella’s film does not lack audacity, it lacks purpose; for that very reason his exploitative pseudo-entertainment never manages to be impressive in its graphic display of immorality, only risible and unpalatable. Or maybe for you it is mind-blowing to witness a human beast munching on female pubic hair; if so, then The Beast in Heat is the Nazisploitation for you. It’s dastardly dirty, but vacuous, which is unequivocally why I deem it inferior to its infamous counterparts.