It’s often said in Hollywood that the simpler the idea the better the movie. Certainly that thinking has underpinned some of the most successful pictures of all time, but for every Jaws or Jurassic Park there’s a far greater number of Snakes On A Plane style failures that spring to mind. So when the elevator pitch for Icelandic director Baltasar Korkmakur’s creature feature Beast was revealed to be ‘Cujo with a lion’ it’d be fair to say that expectations were set somewhat low. Which is a shame as Kormakur’s film is a sharper, nimbler and more interesting piece of work than its pitch or title would suggest.
Set and shot in South Africa, Beast is ostensibly a survivalist story that follows the recently widowed Dr Nate Samuels (Idris Elba) and his two daughters (Lyana Halley, Leah Sava Jeffries) as they go on a ‘healing’ vacation to the Mopani Game Reserve. Hooking up with the reserve’s manager, old friend Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), Nate and his kids are soon thrown into a bloody and violent struggle to survive that involves a crazed lion, illegal hunters and an environment that is as far away from comfortable middle class Manhattan as you could find.
With a taut screenplay by Ryan Engle and a brisk 90 minute run time, Beast is an efficient and effective B movie that delivers solid genre thrills alongside strong performances by Elba, Copley, Halley and Jeffries. Photographed in a subjective and immersive style by director Kormakur and D.O.P. Philippe Rousselot, with clear echoes of John Boorman’s Deliverance and Alfonso Cuaron’s Children Of Men in both its staging and style, Beast has a visceral edge and texture that sets it apart from the perfectly manicured digital fantasies that populate so many of our multiplex screens.
Beast is out now in cinemas
