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Beast
(Universal Pictures)
By Lucas Allen
In the tradition of “The Shallows” and “Crawl,” “Beast” is the latest modern day-variation on the nature animals run amok sub-genre of the 1970s that started with the classic “Jaws.” Any cult horror fan can also see this as a slick remake of either of the William Girdler films “Grizzly” or “Day of the Animals.” The movie is directed by Baltasar Kormakur, who previously put big name stars through survival with “Everest.”
In the plains of Africa, Dr. Nate Samuels (Idris Elba) is trying to reconnect with his two daughters Meredith (Iyana Hadley) and Norah (Leah Jeffries) after his ex-wife died of cancer. However, the eldest, Meredith, resents her father for not being there to care for her mother. Nate’s old pal Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley) guides the family through parts of the Savannah when they come across a village full of dead bodies. It was the work of a large lion seeking revenge after poachers killed its whole family.
With the lion in pursuit, the four of them, including a severely injured Martin, are stranded inside the truck with few resources. As night falls, their fight for survival turns into desperation, with both the stalking beast and the poachers threatening their lives. Ultimately, it’s up to Nate to find the strength and challenge such an adversary to a final showdown.
It’s about time there’s an R-rated version of “The Lion King” where Simba actually has grown up and become “Scar.” That’s the vibe audiences are going to get when they see a killer CG lion munching on helpless humans. Surprisingly, the CG design of the beast looks amazing on screen, especially when it makes its attack. It will make you jump almost every time. Even during the night scenes, it looks like a terrifying demon of the night, and will induce nightmares for weeks to come.
Ryan Engle, who wrote the scripts for “Breaking In” and “Rampage,” is screenwriter, and “Beast” is certainly several notches above those other titles. Though, while thrilling, it does share similar issues of exposition dumping and melodrama. It probably could’ve used a further draft to make it more believable for a far-fetched plot.
One aspect worth noting is that for a B-movie creature feature, “Beast” certainly does have an ambition rarely seen before. There are a good number of long takes scattered throughout the movie where some scenes seem to be shot continuously in one take. These parts do give the movie a more artsy approach on top of an already decent script.
Elba is really good in the lead role as a brave father willing to risk his life to save his family. Seeing him interact with a CG lion in a fight to the death will likely be everyone’s favorite part. Copley is basically your typical old man animal expert who tends to become the creature’s snack, but he has some interesting moments to boot. Both Hadley and Jeffries are also fine as the young daughters who seem to study the handbook of being “young characters in horror movies” pretty well.
“Beast”may not be anything special, but for what it is, it does its job at what it sets out to do. It’s definitely much better than anything that gets dumped into theaters during the dog days of summer. Whatever floats your bone, watching one of Hollywood’s top leading man get into a scuffle with the king of the jungle is worth any admission.
THE MOVIE’S RATING: R (for violent content, bloody images, and some language)
THE CRITIC’S RATING: 3 Stars (Out of Four)
