A new werewolf movie is always a treat in this reviewer’s world, so I was very much looking forward to Alexander J. Farrell’s The Beast Within.
Starring Game of Thrones breakout, Kit Harrington, the film takes place in a compound deep in the wilds of England. There, a family of four – father Noah (Harrington), mother Imogen (Ashleigh Cummings), ten-year-old daughter Willow (Caoilinn Springall), and grandfather Waylon (James Cosmo) – live in isolation miles away from any neighbors.
Why? Probably because Noah is a bit of a monster and needs to be chained up every month when the moon is full. Yep, Noah is a werewolf, and the family has tried to keep this fact away from Willow – but her prying eyes prove to be a problem. When curiosity gets the best of her, she follows her mother and father to some ruins far into the woods, where Imogen locks Noah in chains. She also brings a live pig for – what we discover – is his sustenance.
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Once Willow learns the truth about her dear old dad, Noah tries to bond with her, but something seems slightly off. There’s an edge to him that frightens Willow, but at the same time, his attention is welcome.
Grampa Waylon isn’t a fan of Noah and really wants Imogen and Willow to leave their homestead, but Imogen feels she can’t, despite Willow’s increasing anxiety around this new revelation. This delay in action causes a windy-night attack that has the family fighting for their lives – and maybe the life of Noah’s as well.
Farrell’s film has an interesting dynamic with this clearly depressed family unit dealing with something otherworldly. Imogen is a woman who desperately wants not to be a victim but constantly puts herself in the position of being one. Similarly, she wants to protect her child but can’t bring herself to leave the violence Noah’s beast brings with him.
With that in mind, there is more going on in Greer Ellison and Farrell’s screenplay than you expect at first. In fact, despite an unnecessary chase/werewolf reveal opening, the film spends most of its hour and thirty-seven-minute running time studying Willow as she catches up to what’s going on. The movie is seen through her eyes, and young Springall is masterful at bringing the character to life. Make no mistake, despite the star power of Harrington, this is Springall’s movie through and through.
The acting by all four leads is quite good, and Farrell directs with a sensitive hand, beautifully placing flashbacks here and there to enhance the emotional undertone of the film.
The problems lie in a few places.
Firstly, since we know upfront that Noah is a werewolf, we spend the first 30 minutes waiting for Willow to catch up. Had we not known why Imogen was taking Noah deep into the woods and why Noah seemed to be ill, we would have joined Willow on her quest to find out the truth. There would be a mystery. Instead, we just wait to get past this plot point for the movie to kick in.
It doesn’t necessarily go full-throttle at that point either, as it becomes more of a morose family drama that is interesting in fits and starts, but when all the characters are either mean, grumpy, depressed, or confused, it’s sort of not a fun place to visit.
The film takes a turn in the last twenty minutes, finally opening itself up to the contained chase scene we’ve been waiting for. There is a modicum of suspense here.
But then Farrell and Ellison decide to make the film about something more topical. It’s a reveal I had thought about early on but hoped wouldn’t be the place where the movie ended up. Alas, it does, and it only raises more questions than it answers. Sure, you can go back and rewatch the film from a different vantage point, but in doing so, you’ll see the cracks in the film’s walls.
There is a lot to appreciate here, but if you’re hoping for a full-on werewolf horror movie or one that is in any way “fun,” this won’t be it. This is a maudlin exercise that takes a supernatural trope and uses it to tell a much darker story.
At the same time, it’s a bit too on the “snout” to be profound and too esoteric to generate satisfying excitement.
The Beast Within opens in theaters on July 26, 2024.
