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The Body Beneath (1970)

Dir: Andy Milligan

Graham Ford (Colin Gordon) is in his home, waiting for his Wife Anna (Susan Clark) to return from putting flowers on her Mother's grave, when he .has some unexpected callers.
They are the Reverend Alexander Algernon Ford (Gavin Reed) and his sullen, lank haired Wife Alicia (Susan Heard, Technical Director on Milligan's "Bloodthirsty Butchers").
The Rev. tells Graham that Alicia and himself have just moved into London where he is taking over the running of "All Saints Church" He also informs Graham they are distant relatives and invites him Anna to dinner at 'Carfax Abby' where they are staying.
Graham agrees just as Anna arrives back in a distressed state (we see her pounced on by three green-faced women, sporting laughably bad make-up, at the start of the film) and looks strangely at the Reverend.
Soon she is acting weird and wanting the night to come…while sporting a concealing scarf around her neck!

We next meet Paul (Richmond Ross) and his girlfriend Susan Ford (Jackie Skarvellis) as they make languid love (with Milligan doing his normal, shaky, unflattering microscopic close-ups of entangled bodies) and we learn that Susan is pregnant.
She tells Paul (who is showcasing some amazingly ugly, light blue Y fronts) she has received a letter from a Rev. Ford saying he is a family member and inviting her to 'Carfax Abby'.
Seiazing the chance to get a handy wedding out of this unexpected turn of events she decides to take the invitation up.

Next up is actress Candace Ford (Emma Jones) whose Maid is hypnotised by one of the green faced women to take some flowers up to her mistress, who promptly pricks herself on them.
The Maid secretly collects the spilt blood.

It turns out the Fords were traditionally a family of Vampires and their head is the mysterious Reverend!
Every 40 years they return to 'Carfax Abby', but the last century has seen the Ford Vampire line worn down due to inter-marriage.
The Rev. though has hatched a plan to save the Vampire lineage, he want Susan's baby to use as a pure well spring to breed more Ford Vamps!
With the help of the three green ghouls, Alicia and his assistant named Spool (Berwick Kaller) who is that that most staple of Milligan ingredients, a crippled hunchback, Susan and the other Fords fall into the Vampires dastardly trap!…..

It may come as a surprise to learn that Andy Milligan, that most iconic of American Grindhouse directors, briefly popped on over the Ye Olde England for an ill-fated production deal.
"The Body Beneath" was one of the films to come out of that deal and it's perhaps the most accomplished and professional horror film he ever made.

Never fear though, we still have many of the Milligan trademarks on show as far as camera set-ups, bad make-up and bizarre costumes are concerned as well as the ever present whirring of the camera in the background.
But some of the acting is far better than usual for a Milligan movie and the actual care taken with how the film looks and plays (as opposed to the sloppy as hell "Guru the Mad Monk") is refreshing.
Perhaps the move away from the dreaded Mishkin's (his normal distributors/producers), and the chaos of the ultra low budget New York movie making regime, instilled a bit of the old enthusiasm again.
Perhaps he had some ray of hope in the new deal and it brought out the best in him (though it was to be a short lived hope, as the UK deal was as messed up as his American ones), who can say. But whatever the reasons "The Body Beneath" is actually a 'good' film!

One of the main highlights is the performance by Gavin Reed as the Vampyric Reverend.
He supplies lots of high camp entertainment and uses his clipped English tones to great effect, giving the character an air of sinister arrogance.
After receiving a blood transfusion to survive in the daylight he declares "I wish that we didn't have to face the sunlight. Someone has to do it and it might as well be me" in a great moment of seemingly casual egotism.
He also enjoys the typical Vampire aristocrat dialogue flourishes like, "I can feel the blood flowing through my veins" and "things are not going well, we are at the edge of trouble"!
His polite nastiness is lots of fun too. After informing Candace she is going to be a human blood bank he calmly waves away her hysterics with that most English of cure-alls…"Have some tea, you'll feel better".
But Milligan's script also tries to flesh out the character, moving him away from just being a camp villain with lines like, "It's strange. I have no soul, but I feel compassion" (though it has to be said that this line is said after he has just crucified a guy, so take that as you will)!
Sure it's cliché emotion, but combined with Reed's delivery such moments move the Rev. on from a simple pantomime bad guy.
It's perhaps the best performance in any Milligan film I have viewed so far.

The other performances are pretty much at the standard enthusiastic amateur level, though Kaller as the prancing, giggling hunchback loon does a good job and as is the cliché with deformed assistants, he of course has a softer side and a tragic (and hysterically complicated and weird) history.

With mention of Highgate Cemetery and Carfax Abby (as well as its own take on a familiar line of dialogue, "We never drink…wine, at this hour") it's obvious Milligan is dancing around Stoker's "Dracula" with his own Vampire tale, but it's never pushed to parody lengths and the story remains very much Milligan's.
It is a shame though that he did not make more of the authentic English locations. This basically could have been filmed anywhere.

Gore and violence is kept to a minimum, in keeping with the more laid back feel of the movie, though we do have knitting needles rammed in the eyes (at least the aftermath) and it's effective enough thanks to Milligan's chaotic shaking camera as they are plunged down.
Sometimes if you have not got the resources to pull off an effect it's best not to try and make less more. And here Milligan understands this, unlike in "Guru the Mad Monk" where some of the FX he did actually show were so terrible they destroyed any shock value.
The only other real scene of violence though, the crucifixion scene, is very weak visually.

Being a more subdued and, dare I say it, subtle Milligan outing we do miss the delightfully acidic dialogue that he normally writes and there is also a lack of crazed and mean spirited relationships between family members that Milligan normally has such 'fun' with.
But this more down to earth, calm script generally suits the feel of the movie. Given the score (slow piano and flute library music with creeping strings and the odd organ flourish), the generally restrained and far more professional acting performances and the general tone of seriousness that Milligan instils into the proceedings this far more 'normal' screenplay actually works in the film's favour.

As far as set pieces go the highlight has to be an abstract, chaotic vampire feast (with the same 'Halloween night' ghoul make-up seen on the three green faced women and outrageous multicoloured lace pantomime dresses with matching grotesque head gear) which is filmed in a dreamlike haze that shows some actual artistic care and a flair for visual adventure on Milligan's part…though the later torching of an unfortunate that is filmed in this same way is almost impossible to follow.

This sequence also contains one of the only examples of Milligan acid dialogue and it's actually aimed at his homeland by an English Vampess who bemoans the fact there are plans to move the Vampire clan to America, "What is America? What is it made of? Pimp, prostitutes, religious fanatics…thrown out of England just a few short centuries ago! They are the scum of the Earth"!
There is a less than subtle dig at London though to even things up when the Rev. states "You all know how difficult it is to move around London after 11.30 p.m. London is a police state after midnight! Anyone can be stopped and asked where they are going".
Milligan was not a fan of England, especially London, and to anyone who knows that it is very obvious it's Milligan's thoughts being expressed by the Reverend!
And when added to the aforementioned, rather puritanical, rant at America it makes you wonder if the volatile Andy Milligan was really happy anywhere.

These Vampyric shenanigans all end with an out of the blue twist that is effective enough and rather satisfying it has to be said.
And this finale flourish rounds off what is a genuinely enjoyable, basically well made and professional looking movie that may lack some of the trashy Exploitation charm of many of Milligan's other works but is (along with his earlier films) evidence that he was a better filmmaker (when he tried) than he is generally given credit for.