The Beast Within - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Beast Within



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
I’ve noticed lately that it’s become very common in lower budget horror movies to weave in an adjacent “morality” tale hidden under the surface of what you’re watching. Sort of a “movie within a movie”, or more accurately, a tale told by an unreliable narrator. In this case the narrator is young Willow (Caoilinn Springall) who is a health plagued young girl on an oxygen tank living out in the middle of the Scottish nowhere with her family. All you’re really privy to at the beginning is that Willow is very obviously scared of her father (who is harboring some deep dark secret), watching her mother cart him off to town.

As the story progresses with their shaky nuclear family (albeit hidden out in the wilderness a long way from the closest town) Willow begins to see that her father Noah’s (Kit Harrington) secret is a bit darker than anyone ever expected. Her mother Imogen (Ashleigh Cummings) tries to keep it from her daughter, but it’s not long before Noah unleashes the monster within. A vicious werewolf who attempts to hunt down and slaughter his family.

I hesitate to spoil the ending here, but it’s hard to talk about the themes OF the movie without doing so, so I’m giving an official spoiler warning for the next two paragraphs. The film’s twist ending is sort of a letdown, as it seems to suck the fun out of the story by inserting real life scenarios of domestic violence. All the while winking and nodding to the audience that the last hour and a half has basically been a warped image as seen through the eyes of young girl who is coping with the fact that her father is abusive to the two of them. The werewolf story is the obvious lens that Willow uses to see her father through, as well as a coping mechanism that allows her to deal with the pain.

I don’t mind the inclusion of the warped narrator, but the story suffers from a rather straight forward and rote werewolf tale that isn’t that special to begin with. Likable and a nice enough thriller, but the film spends SOOOOO much effort setting the audience up for the ending, that it doesn’t really come across as a shock. The foreshadowing for this being “something more than the sum of its parts” narrative wise is a bit heavy handed. From the first 15 minutes of the movie you could tell that the werewolf tale was a blind being used, I just couldn’t figure out where and WHY it was being used until the last 30 second reveal of the film. And by then it sort of felt meaningless as the audience has been prepped for this moment since the opening act of the film, and when it comes it was “oh, so this was all a guise to show us the dangers of domestic violence….cool”.




Rating:

Rated R for some violent content and language




Video:

As is the case with MOST of these low budget films, I couldn’t find much information on what cameras were used for the shoot, nor what resolution the master was struck at. That being said, I did read another review, which sent me down a rabbit hole where DP Daniel Katz mentioned use of of the Sony Venice digital camera system, which would make me pretty sure that it was used for at least a majority of the shoot. The image itself is generally quite good, with the outdoor shots showing dazzling clarity and this sort of honey tinged warmth to it that is intoxicating. The night time shots and indoor hunting lodge shoots showcase some digital noise and a little milkiness in the black levels here and there, but overall this is a very impressive looking image, especially on Blu-ray.









Audio:

The singular 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is nice and robust, with a metric TON of outdoor material to really light up the surround stage. The forest environment is rich with little chirps, snaps and various sundry forest noises to keep things active, and the use of a heavily distorted “bwaaaaa” in the sound effects adds some nice punch. The more action oriented bits with the werewolf near the end adds that ferocity and power in the low end, which is usually a bit softer near the front half of the film. Scoring is well done and adds a really encompassing effect to the whole film as well. All in all, a great sound design despite the shakiness of the movie itself.












Extras: :

• Theatrical Trailer
• Well Go USA Previews

Final Score:
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I like Kit Harrington as an actor, and genuinely don’t know why he didn’t get the fame of some of his other Game of Thrones co-stars. He’s never given a really bad performance in any of his movies, but he seems to get the short end of the stick in these non Hollywood blockbusters these days. The Beast Within is a bit of a predictable werewolf movie, but not without it’s merits, up until the point where it pulls the predictable rug out from under the viewer at the very end. I enjoyed bits of it, rolled my eyes at other parts, but felt that it would have landed better with audiences if it stuck with being a low budget werewolf film instead of trying to be something more introspective. Decent Rental is my personal recommendation.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Kit Harrington, Ashleigh Cummings, Caoilinn Springall
Directed by: Alexander J. Farrell
Written by: Greer Ellison, Alexander J. Farrell
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: 97 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: October 22nd, 2024

Recommendation: Decent Rental