The Beast Within – A Squandered Creature Feature (Early Review)

The Beast Within is a new horror thriller from director Alexander J. Farrell. After a series of strange events leads her to question her family’s isolated life on a fortified compound in the English wilds, 10-year-old Willow (Springall) follows her parents Noah (Harington) and Imogen (Cummings) on one of their secret late-night treks to the heart of the ancient forest just outside her house. But Willow witnesses something far more horrific than she ever could’ve imagined as she watches her father undergo a horrible transformation. From there, she becomes ensnared by the dark ancestral secret that they’ve desperately tried so desperately to conceal. While it may not be that great of a film overall, it delivers a unique take on both the werewolf and creature feature genre that arguably works a lot better on paper than how they were executed here.

Boasting a very small cast of only four actors, they all turn in solid performances. Harington, the most well known amongst the group, delivers a very good albeit slightly different performance than what audiences are probably used to seeing from him. Though he may not exactly be the lead, like the film’s premise and promotional material might suggest, he’s well utilized very well, especially over its subtler and creepier moments. In the end, the true lead of the film is the young Springall who does a fantastic job as Willow, holding it together and excelling during the film’s more emotional and intense moments. Cummings and James Cosmo provide strong supporting work as Imogen and Waylon.

On the technical side, the cinematography is beautiful to look at as it captures both the beauty and eeriness of the English countryside where the film is set. Also, the creature design might not work for everyone but it is unique and the practical effects used to bring it to life were still pretty good considering the lower budget. Meanwhile, Farrell shows a decent hand when it came to building suspense adds to its aforementioned creepy moments as the intense ratchets up for the final act. Even though it doesn’t quite work as a whole, it is hard not to appreciate the effort in trying to do something different within the genre.

But just because The Beast Within attempts to do something different, that did not necessarily make it successful. Ultimately, the film is way too slow to leave an impact, moving at a snail’s pace for the majority of the runtime. There are undeniably plenty of great ideas brimming below the surface, however, too few of them are given a chance which is a shame because of their potential. Taking a more reserved, grounded, and serious approach to a premise like this is admirable, the problem is that it feels so uneventful until the final act and quite frankly, is a boring watch. Sort of offering a mystery element that it wants audiences to go along with alongside its character, but its title is already a big giveaway to where it all inevitably will go, essentially faulting it from the start. While its third act does pick up a bit, it could have been doing so much more, or at least something more interesting than what it actually did.

At the end of the day, The Beast Within isn’t terrible but is sadly a dull and rather predictable watch that its cast, cinematography, and fleeting moments of tension can’t save. Though the cast tries their best and the potential for a unique and different type of creature feature were there, but they just didn’t have the chance to ever get off the ground.

still courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/