Not to be overly pedantic, but the title should be Nights of the Blood Beast. While the “Blood Beast” part is a little complicated, the film does take place over a couple nights. Two Nights and Four Days of the Blood Beast. The Beast is a space monster. Maybe. It’s definitely a space creature, but it’s unclear if it’s a monster. It might just be misunderstood while having a very discomforting physical presence around the homo sapiens. The Blood Beast looks a little like a giant scab, like a protruding one–with claws and (presumably) red eyes.
Even with the rather obvious budgetary limitations on the costume, it’s not a nice-looking space creature.

Blood Beast is a space movie, like a NASA space movie. Pilot Michael Emmet rides up in a satellite (off-screen), then rockets back to Earth. Emmet has to crashland, and the team assembles to get to the crash site. Who are the team? There’s Ed Nelson and John Baer (interchangeable, sturdy, not-too-smart sort of military guys), then there’s boss scientist Tyler McVey, and let’s not forget the ladies. Georgianna Carter is the team photographer and technically the hardest-working actor in the picture. Angela Greene is the other doctor, who McVey berates and bosses around; Greene’s also engaged to Emmet.
One might think that engagement would lead to some significant drama in the film, but it does not. Greene doesn’t give one of the film’s better performances, but she also has the worst part. She isn’t xenophobic, so Nelson and Baer don’t want to talk to her, and McVey’s performance can best be characterized as “patriarchal hack.” So she’s not getting much in those scenes.

For the first half or so, Carter makes the most impression, usually because of where she’s standing. Also because she’s constantly fiddling with her cameras while everyone else hangs in space if they’re not talking; maybe it’s because Carter’s never talking.

The first Night is the best. Alexander Laszlo’s weird score is threatening more than foreboding (except when it’s bad, which happens only a couple times but, wow, does it happen). John M. Nickolaus Jr.’s black-and-white cinematography is fantastic. The film knows how to get mileage out of the shadows and the fullness of the black. There aren’t any miracles, however; the day-for-night shooting is still fairly bad. Though brief, like they knew they were ruining the mood.

The mood is McVey and Greene inexplicably being able to nurse Emmet back to health. He came in without a heartbeat and started–seemingly–improving. The tension of this weird medical phenomenon is caused, no doubt, by gamma rays off Alpha Centauri while they’re cut off from communicating. It works. It’s an engaging science thriller.

Lots of the third act hinge on Emmet’s performance. Given he’s playing a medical condition of one sort or the other, he does okay. But he never really transcends the material to take it higher. He does all right. On par, in the end, with Baer and Nelson, who eventually team up and become even less distinct.
Beast runs just over sixty minutes, but director Kowalski knows how to keep things moving and how to slow them down. There are a few lengthy shots of the nature hike they take on the second day of their plight.

It could be a whole lot worse.