Game of Thrones‘ Kitt Harrington stars as a beast of a man in the new werewolf thriller The Beast Within, a film as gloomy and dimly lit as a Gothic Horror. In fact, it’s even set on a rural English Estate. Sadly, as a fan of werewolf movies it’s my grave duty to report that The Beast Within is much more of a grim family drama than a dark ‘n’ stormy creature-feature. That said, a family drama with a werewolf is 100x better than family drama without a werewolf, and the films boasts a rock-solid cast, all delivering great performances.
Because of its transformational ability and the duality of the creature/character, werewolves are pretty regularly used as a metaphor for addiction or mental illness or what have you. I mean, heck, you can’t swing a dead cat near your DVD shelf these days without hitting at least 13 horror movies that use their Horror element as a metaphor for some kind of psychological trauma. Told from the perspective of child, The Beast Within is a tale about abusive fathers and how in a split second (or under the glow of a full moon) they can go from being protective and caring to cruel and downright monstrous.
“The Beast Within is much more of a grim family drama than a dark ‘n’ stormy creature-feature.”
Kitt Harrington’s Noah is a rugged man and the epitome of homespun masculinity. From the outside, he’s strong, charismatic, and good with his hands…but behind closed doors he’s also controlling, unpredictable, and quick to anger. As is the case with the proverb highlighted in the opening moments of the film, there are two wolves living inside the man, both at war with each other. Most days, Noah’s daughter Willow (Caoillinn Springall, Stopmotion) sees the fun and carefree version of her father but for reasons beyond her understanding, he regularly turns into a snarling, abusive bastard. It’s like living with an undomesticated wolf- oh wait…
Willow‘s mother Imogen (Ashleigh Cummings, Hounds of Love) does her best to protect her daughter from the worst parts of Noah but she receives the lion’s share of his abuse and suffers in silence. Like so many “Elevated Horror” movies of the last decade, if you stripped out a couple key scenes, The Beast Within would look indistinguishable from any other overwrought drama. The performers are all great (including a surprise supporting role from the eternally tough James Cosmo as Willow’s grandfather Waylon) and the movie looks cinematic af, it’s just a bit too low key and leisurely paced than you might expect in a werewolf flick.
Horror, as a genre, is often the closest you can come to photographing an emotion and it’s what attracts filmmakers looking to tell stories about the darker parts of our nature. Coming from the world of Documentary film, the genre is a sandbox for director/co-written Alexander J. Farrell (Refugee) to experiment and showcase the complexity of trauma. For the average, everyday viewer who watches scary movies sparingly, this will check a lot of boxes without the added burden of sleepless nights. But for the werewolf obsessed among us, The Beast Within is a humorless slow burn the prefers to keep its creature in the shadows.
Alexander J. Farrell’s The Beast Within celebrated its World Premiere at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival and will be hitting select theatres July 26. Click HERE to follow our continued coverage of the festival be sure to let us know what you think of this grim werewolf tale over in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord!
