The Philippines, especially during the late 1960s and early 1970s, had been a perfect backdrop and shooting locating for exploitation filmmakers, and it didn’t hurt that the land proved to be cost efficient. Whether it be to represent a monster-filled island, the locale of a secluded women’s prison, or just to have its busy city streets serve as a cinematic bed of crime, the Philippines always proved distinguishable, and the familiar home-grown character actors brought into the various productions only added to the audience’s association with these films. Shot and released in 1972, at the height of the Filipino exploitation craze, SUPERBEAST now makes its Blu-ray debut courtesy of Shout! Factory’s “Scream Factory” arm.

Somewhere in the jungle, a desperate man (John Garwood, HELLS ANGELS ON WHEELS) makes an escape and ends up in an airport after being refused medical attention at a local clinic. In a men's room stall, he kills another fellow and steals his passport so he can board a plane. He becomes more Neanderthal and animal-like in a short period of time, and after the plane makes an emergency landing, he is shot on sight. Pathologist Dr. Alix Pardee (Antoinette Bower, DIE SISTER, DIE!) is then flown in the United States to conduct an autopsy on the dead man-beast, and is left baffled as she continues her investigation. A rafting mishap over a dangerous waterfall leaves her unconscious and brought safely to the care of youngish Dr. Bill Fleming (TV actor Craig Littler, later the star of the Saturday morning kiddy favorite, “Jason of Star Command”) who oversees a deep-jungle plantation inhabited by convicts in various stages of rehabilitation. It turns out that Fleming is performing experiments on the convicts which transform them into a dangerous form of prehistoric man, and a cigar-chomping cretin named Stewart Victor (Harry Lauter, ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES) – who is financing the entire project – gets to play big game hunter and shoot down the poor unfortunate creatures once the good doctor is finished with them.

Even if you’ve never seen SUPERBEAST before, if you’ve read about it before there will be nothing new in telling you it’s sort of a cross between “The Island of Dr. Moreau” (the basis of several other Filipino horror movies) and “The Most Dangerous Game” with unsatisfactory results. There is some terrific location shooting, monster make-up by none other than John Chambers (PLANET OF THE APES, THE DEVIL'S RAIN) which is quite effective once the subjects are in full Neanderthal stage, and Bower adds a sense of legitimacy and class to the production (even when her character is having a strange, hazy sexual fever dream concerning a love-making bout with a homely beasty). But the film moves at a lethargic pace, taking its sweet time to reveal the mystery behind these haf-men/half monster beings as well as give a back-story to Lauter’s unethical character, at which time it becomes forgettable – there’s a bit of a twist before the climax which too is uneventful. Also, if it wasn’t for some quick (and boring) shots of bare breasts and some ghastly inserted surgery footage, the film could have probably gotten away with a PG rating rather than an R (though its co-feature DAUGHTERS OF SATAN – also due out on Blu-ray from Scream Factory – definitely warrants an R).

Despite the flaws of SUPERBEAST as a film, there’s still enough of interest here for Filipino monster movie completists (of course it’s not nearly as fun as any of the earlier “Blood Island” entries). Veteran actor Lauter was a supporting or walk-on fixture in numerous 1940s and 1950s B movies (including THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA and CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN) and it’s great to see him in more of a leading role, and he plays the sleazy bad guy to the hilt. Because there was some kind of law at one time that said no Philippines-lensed exploitation movie could be made without him, Vic Diaz (THE BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT) shows up as a character unimaginatively named Diaz, introduced as a sweaty police constable with a beer belly who you know is up to no good (he’s actually the sidekick of Stewart Victor who of course ends up double-crossing the little weasel). This would be the only directing credit for George Schenck (who also produced and wrote the screenplay) though he would continue to have a successful producing/writing career on television, most recently with the popular NCIS series. Schenk’s father Aubrey served here as an executive producer (uncredited) and was involved with such 1950s monster flicks as VOODOO ISLAND and FRANKENSTEIN 1970 (so there’s even a reference to Boris Karloff in SUPERBEAST).