Noah (Kit Harington, Game of Thrones) can be a great family man… except when he’s being an abusive ass… but there is a reason he’s given to such mood swings and violence, but there is no way the excuse would be accepted in any court of law anywhere… you’ll see…
Anyway, Noah lives with his wife Imogen (Ashleigh Cummings, NOS4A2), and their young daughter Willow (Caoilinn Springall, Stopmotion) in a crumbling, castle-like mansion deep in the English countryside, along with Imogen’s pappy, Waylon (James Cosmo, Braveheart) who lives adjacent in a mobile home.
Willow, being curious and not a dumb-ass, deduces that there is a very strange dynamic going on with her family, but she is rather surprised, as one would be… probably… that her father is a fuckin’ werewolf!
That’s going to make family dinners awkward…
More concerned with family drama than monster mayhem, director Alexander J. Farrell’s (who also co-wrote the film along with Greer Ellison) The Beast Within manages to cast a spell of mounting fear and dread due to Noah’s dark presence and influence over the family.
Harington plays the role putrid patriarch with plenty of seething rage and pathos, but the real heavy lifting here is done by Springall who brings a sense of innocence rapidly draining the more she has to deal with her pad-footed pater.
Speaking of Springall, her character also provides a solid fairy-tale protagonist surrogate which is only aided and abetted by the ancient woods and town that surround her equally archaic abode… and there is more than a hint of the unabridged Little Red Riding-hood to the narrative, and the hazy golden hour shots of cinematographer Daniel Katz contrasted with the primordial forest and crumbling stone structures dotting the landscape creates a suitably surreal take on the tropes we would associate with a yarn such as this.
Of course the main sticking point here will be your tolerance for exploring a creature feature with very little creature action, but it has to be said when the beast raises it’s head among the psychological terror at hand it’s a great creation that I would have enjoyed seeing much more of.
As for special features on this Blu-ray release from Well Go USA, things are light and contain only the film’s trailer (along with previews of other releases from the distributor).
The Beast Within does a great job contrasting domestic abuse with the curse of lycanthropy while offering palpable tension and strong fairy tale vibes. It’s not your typical werewolf pic and is well worth a wickked watch if you don’t expect non-stop monster thrills n’ chills.
