As not everyone is who they seem, a rather modest priest, Reverend Ford is planning out his family reunion, and he's dead excited. However two things are still missing, two women to be exact. The Reverend, along with the help of his hunched back assistant and trio of "green faced bloodsuckers" decide to rent Carfax Abbey in an attempt to capture two young women who run in the same blood line; one as a main dish and the other to give birth to a new generation of vampires.
The best way to describe Andy Milligan's The Body Beneath is that it's in a relatively similar vein to the works of Hershell Gordon Lewis, and if you don't know who that is, just think abysmal Z-grade horror with little to no taste whatsoever. Although The Body Beneath is disappointingly lacking in the gore department compared to many of its genre, most of what else makes this campy formula great is still loud and unsubtle enough to keep you hooked in.
The acting in The Body Beneath is surprisingly good (in a rather loose use of the term), except for Gavin Reed who delivers a generally outstanding performance as Reverend Ford. For a film that was probably on a budget of half a shoestring; I'm honestly surprised the cast didn't entirely consist of friends and family. The story is also unexpectedly original for a film of it's kind and in comparison to other Andy Milligan films; that being said many characteristics of Andy's others movies are also represented here. The camera work and audio are at times so terrible that I question the sobriety of the crew, but this is of course all part of the fun.
The Body Beneath isn't the best of its kind, but it stands far from being the worst. Despite its obvious flaws, this film manages to come at you like a raging ball of classic Grindhouse strikingly well blended with the likes of first rate Hammer Horror. This Body Beneath is certainly a charming spectacle that is almost guaranteed to bring you some sort of nostalgia, especially for the old school horror fans and even for those who aren't, it's still amusing to say the least.
7/10
OFLC (Office of Film and Literature Classification) rating:
