New Jersey Stage logo
New Jersey Stage Menu


New Release Review - "The Beast Within"


By Eric Hillis, TheMovieWaffler.com

originally published: 07/26/2024

One of the best indie horror movies to emerge from the UK in recent years is Jennifer Sheridan's 2020 film Rose: A Love Story. Sheridan took a classic monster - the vampire - and managed to create something fresh by exploring how someone might deal with a loved one who happens to be such a creature. The film was focussed on a man who lives with his vampire wife in a remote part of England, and has found a way to make their unconventional situation work...until it doesn't. With The Beast Within, director Alexander J. Farrell and co-writer Greer Ellison attempt to do something similar with another classic monster, the werewolf.

Like the married couple of Rose: A Love Story, the family at the centre of The Beast Within have isolated themselves from society and live in a remote and secluded farmhouse in rural England. The afflicted party in this case is Noah (Kit Harington), who in keeping with lupine lore, transforms into a werewolf every time there's a full moon. Noah, his wife Imogen (Ashleigh Cummings) and her father Waylon (James Cosmo) have come up with a solution. Whenever there's a full moon they lock Noah inside an old abbey with a live pig for him to feast on when he becomes a wolf.

The story is told largely through the eyes of Noah and Imogen's 10-year-old daughter Willow (Caoilinn Springall). Though her parents have tried to protect her from the truth, Willow knows more about her father's true nature than they would like, often secretly following her family members into the woods. This aspect made me think about how as a child I knew quite a bit about the adult world but for my parents' sake I would play dumb regarding grown-up affairs to preserve their belief that I was sheltered from such things.

Where Rose: A Love Story used its monster as an allegory for living with an addict, The Beast Within employs the werewolf as a metaphor for living with a domestic abuser. Imogen is clearly psychologically scarred and has been somewhat gaslit into believing her situation isn't all that odd, and she refuses to listen to her father's pleas to leave Noah. Even the danger posed to her daughter isn't enough to make her leave her monstrous husband. The trouble is Farrell and Ellison have made the misstep of making Noah an actual abusive husband and father. When he's not a literal monster he's a figurative one, exercising his terrifiying control over his wife and child. This melding of subtext with text amounts to putting a hat on a hat, and the film's gritty kitchen sink abuse drama clashes with its supernatural elements.

The allegory may have worked better if Willow simply imagined her domineering father to be a werewolf rather than him actually spouting fur and fangs. Noah often play acts the part of a vicious dog in his daughter's company, which seems an odd choice for a man trying to keep his animal nature secret, and such scenes would make more sense if he was only a monster in Willow's mind. Harington is an imposing presence, towering over his wife and child and snapping at the most innocuous statements. He's enough of a monster as a human that it negates the need for his supernatural transformation. Had Noah been a loving husband and father cursed by his monstrous affliction, it would have added a tragic pathos that is all too absent here.




Advertise with NJ Stage for $50-$100 per month, click here for info



Springall is captivating as a child grappling with the fact that her father might be a monster, but the movie does her performance a disservice by making everything clear from the start to both Willow and the audience. I can't help but wonder if I might have found The Beast Within more engaging if the storytelling concealed Noah's true nature from both Willow and the viewer and allowed us to witness a child coming to terms with the awful realisation that the man whose role is to protect her may actually pose her gravest threat.

Directed by: Alexander J. Farrell

Starring: Kit Harington, Caoilinn Springall, Ashleigh Cummings, James Cosmo



Eric Hillis is a film critic living in Sligo, Ireland who runs the website TheMovieWaffler.com



Advertise with NJ Stage for $50-$100 per month, click here for info




FEATURED EVENTS

COMEDY | DANCE | FILM | MUSIC | THEATRE | COMMUNITY

Narrow results by date, categories, or region of New Jersey.

Encanto

Encanto Sing Along

Sunday, January 12, 2025 @ 4:00pm
Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC)
30 North Van Brunt Street, Englewood, NJ 07631
category: film

View event page for full information


Encanto Sing Along

Sunday, January 12, 2025 @ 1:00pm
Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC)
30 North Van Brunt Street, Englewood, NJ 07631
category: film

View event page for full information


An Evening with Judge Reinhold and screening of Beverly Hills Cop

Friday, January 17, 2025 @ 7:00pm
Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC)
30 North Van Brunt Street, Englewood, NJ 07631
category: film

View event page for full information


More events

Event Listings are available for $10 and included with our banner ad packages








Advertise with New Jersey Stage for $50-$100 per month, click here for info




 

UPCOMING EVENTS

(ENGLEWOOD, NJ) Bergen Performing Arts Center (bergenPAC) presents An Evening with Judge Reinhold and screening of Beverly Hills Cop on Friday, January 17, 2025 at 7:00pm. Celebrating the 40th year anniversary of the Beverly Hills Cop franchise, here's your chance to hang out with Detective William "Billy" Rosewood, played by Judge Reinhold who co-starred in all four installments with Eddie Murphy including the latest 2024 Netflix release. ** Note: this show was rescheduled from September 27, 2024, previous purchased tickets will be honored at the new date. For inquiries, please contact the box office at 201-227-1030.


Lighthouse

Lighthouse International Film Society to screen "Every Little Thing"

2024-12-14


Theater

Theater to Go hosts "White Christmas Movie Sing Along" on Saturday at Kelsey Theatre

2024-12-14