Beast of War - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Beast of War



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
“Based on a true story” has various levels of believability, and over the years, I’ve learned to take notice of a film’s opening scrawl with a grain of salt. It can be a truly faithful replication of the original story, but more often than not, movie writers/directors take the barest essence of the original tale and use that leap leapfrog their way into a completely fictitious experience. And while Beast of War is loosely inspired by the real-life sinking of the HMAS Armidale in 1942 near the end of 2nd World War, it is about as close to the original story as Road House is to my weekend jaunt to the local pub.

Set in the Pacific theater during World War II, a group of sailors prepares for impending conflict with the Japanese. Training on a small island, the sailors soon find out that their war games don’t prepare them for everything. A day after leaving their little island, the Japanese air force sink the Amidale to the bottom of the ocean, leaving only a handful of survivors floating on a few scraps of the boat. They’re out of food, out of water, and pretty much only have each other and a HOPE that the rest of the Navy somehow finds their location amidst the fog and mist. To make matters worse, they’re beset upon by a huge great white shark, which finds the dead bodies floating all around a tasty feeding ground.

The men, trying their best to stay calm, find out that the shark has figured out their existence on the raft, and tensions rise as the circling beast of nature slowly circles the feeding ground, deliberately figuring out a way to pick them off one by one. And like any good drama, the shark isn’t the ONLY villain in the story. While most people on the raft are doing their best to keep each other safe, lone man out Des Kelly (Sam Delich) has a bit more Machiavellian ways of keeping himself alive. Even if it means sacrificing his fellow sailors to do so.

Australian director Kiah Roache-Turner (who most recently did the extremely weird creature feature Sting last year) is playing with more ideas than Beast of War, being either a shark movie or a war movie. While it most certainly is both, it’s a psychological horror film that takes the visceral idea of a shark and turns it into an allegorical stand-in for the horrors of war itself. A metaphor, if you will, for the ravages and horrors of war that these men are subject to after being blown out of the water by the Japanese fighter pilots. It’s simple, effective, but still a bit rough around the edges.

The film thrives on being an actual, practical, effect-based horror movie, and this is something I’m all for. Everything from the shark, the severed limbs, and ripped flesh is ALL practical. To my knowledge, if there was any CGI whatsoever, it was for really minor things and not major effects. The shark is absolutely terrifying here, with a raw, jagged tooth look that genuinely creeped me out (god, I love practical shark effects). The downside of that is that the shark is hidden most of the time due to budgetary concerns, giving us only brief glimpses of the monster's face coming out of the water, a la Jaws, or a few instances where you see the silhouette under the water.

The fact that this is a corollary for wartime drama means that the interpersonal drama plays a huge part in the telling of the story. Mostly between Leo (Mark Coles Smith), an Aboriginal soldier, vs. his own trauma that he’s dealing with in regards to losing his brother as a child to another great white shark. And most of the time it really works. But sometimes the constant slow-mo shots of the shark, mixed with Leo grieving the loss of his brother, wears a tad thin. The best interpersonal drama sparks up as the rivalry between Leo and the narcissistic Des, who will do whatever it takes to survive, while Leo struggles to keep them all together. Again, it’s a bit rough at times, but overall does a good job of striking a balance between torturous war drama and terrifying horror movie.




Rating:

Rated R for bloody, violent content, gore, and language.




Video:

As is the case with 99% of the Well Go USA indie titles, IMDB doesn’t really have any info out there on the shooting style and the cameras used for this production. Just judging by my own eyes and my experience, I’d hazard a guess that this was a 2K digital intermediate struck from some sort of digital camera system. But I’ve been wrong before. Anyways, the image looks quite nice for the most part, with good detail levels across the board, especially in the outdoor jungle scenes as the sailors train in the first twenty minutes or so. Once they get out into the ocean, where it’s all dark and misty, things change to a more amber and sepia-tinted look, especially in the “daytime” shots, where the entire ocean seems to be covered in a misty fog, and light just seeps through. Artifacting is, for the most part, pretty nonexistent, except for the ever-present banding that we knew was coming (pitch black and underwater is naturally the worst). It’s never egregious, but always present in an otherwise very pleasant-looking image.









Audio:

Beast of War offers up a fantastic 5.1 DTS-HD MA lossless audio mix that is EASILY the highlight of the entire package. It’s a very engaging and active track that makes full use of the surrounds as the men try and stay alive on the raft. The sea laps at their feet continually, the titular beast crashes and roars from all directions, and the creepy score permeates every angle of the sound stage. There’s a brief moment in the beginning that is pretty talky, but after the boys get on the ship, the track basically grabs you by the hackles and shakes you around the whole time. LFE is punchy and impressive whenever the shark comes into play, and the Japanese plane making its dive at the survivors is more than jaw-dropping. All in all, this is a very impressive audio experience.









Extras:

• Theatrical Trailer
• Well Go USA Previews

Final Score:

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While it’s not as weird as Sting, Beast of War is a solid shark movie that does incredibly well considering how small the budget was. I absolutely adore the fact that this is not your standard B-grade movie with cheap CGI, but instead a well-crafted monster movie using nearly 100% practical effects. Something that Hollywood proper really should go back to, in my personal opinion. The Blu-ray looks solid, sounds great, and, like most Well Go USA titles, is pretty anemic on the extras. A fun watch for sure at the very least.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Mark Coles Smith, Joel Nankervis, Sma Delich, Maximillian Johnson, Lee Tiger Halley
Directed by: Kiah Roache-Turner
Written by: Kiah Roache-Turner
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: R
Runtime: 88 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: December 9th, 2025

Recommendation: Great Watch