A film review by Craig J. Koban August 31, 2022

BEAST   

2022, R, 93 mins.

Idris Elba as Dr. Nate Daniels  /  Leah Jeffries as Norah Daniels  /  Iyana Halley as Meredith Daniels  /  Sharlto Copley as Martin Battles

I can't think of another actor other than Idris Elba that could have given a more gripping and convincing performance playing opposite of a CG man hungry/stalking lion in the new outdoor survival thriller BEAST.  

With a lesser thespian at the helm and this film would have been rendered into high camp, but Elba is so grounded and authentic in BEAST that he really helps elevate the otherwise B-movie material.  Director Baltasar Kormakur deserves some credit as well here, who previously made the thanklessly solid EVEREST and ADRIFT, so he's no stranger whatsoever to quarterbacking nail biters involving man against the elements.  At a lean and mean 90 minutes, BEAST never wears out its welcome as a solidly rendered nerve-wracker.  This movie is absolutely absurd at times, but there's no denying that it's absurdly entertaining and directed with real flair and showmanship.   

Elba plays Dr. Nate Daniels, a recently widowed father that - as the film opens - is making a pilgrimage to South Africa with his two teenage daughters in tow - Mere (Ivana Halley) and Norah (Leah Jeffries) - in an effort to return to the birthplace of his late wife and take in some of the scenery while there.  When the family arrives they are greeted by an old friend of Nate's in Martin Battles (a surprisingly and effectively understated Sharlto Copley, a far cry from playing his usual psychopath roles), who manages a local game reserve and takes it upon himself to lead his longtime BFF and his kids on a large scale tour.  Nate's relationship has been especially torn up by the death of his ex-wife, leaving Mere in particular having resentment issues with her father for not being there enough for her mom during her final days.  Nate hopes that taking his children on this safari will help all of them bond together once again and heal old wounds, but the trip gets off to more than a bit off a rocky start, especially when - gasp! - there doesn't appear to be any WiFi access for Mere and her sister at the place they're staying at.   

Worst.  Vacation.  Ever. 

Nevertheless, Martin makes for a rather spirited tour guide, and the photographer nut in Mere drinks in all of the lush natural atmosphere and wildlife surrounding her family.  Martin takes great pride in introducing Nate and company to a pride of lions that he helped raise since they were very young, but when they all visit a nearby village shortly thereafter things go south really fast for all of them.  Upon arrival, it appears that all of the villagers have been viciously mauled and killed by what appears to be (Martin's words) a "rogue lion" that has been mostly likely triggered into the territorial/predatory offensive by some local poachers that Martin has been battling against for some time.  What Nate doesn't know about his old pal is that he's actually an "anti-poacher" on his wildlife preserve and will stop at nothing - even killing vile poachers - if it means protecting his lions.  Unfortunately for all, that pesky rogue lion makes a frightening appearance and attacks Martin, Nate, and his family while in their vehicle, and making matters ever more dire is the fact that (a) the more grizzled survivalist in Martin becomes wounded and separated from Nate and his kids and (b) this family is stuck inside their vehicle that has been damaged while trying to flee and is incapable of being driven again. 

Worst-est.  Vacation.  Ever. 

One thing that Kormakur brings to the table here in a big, big way is how much mileage he gets at utilizing the natural shooting locations.  I'm sure that the temptation here would have been to green-screen sound stages and try to digitally fake the environments, so that makes me especially appreciative that Kormakur aimed for verisimilitude throughout in this regard.  Working with the painterly eye of cinematographer Phillippe Rousselot, Kormakur makes South Africa in BEAST breathe and simmer with so much uncanny beauty.  Another interesting stylistic choice used here is the liberal application of ultra long one-take establishing shots (or ones that at least look like the product of one long shot) to help immerse viewers in the proceedings ever further (considering that so many thrillers and horror films these days are editorial hatchet jobs, it's refreshing to see such a patient directorial choice used in BEAST).  Audience members, as a result of this technique, are made to feel like fly-on-the-wall tourists alongside Nate and his family, and when the film careens down into its nightmare predicament of this fish-out-of-water father (with no outdoor survival skills whatsoever outside of what he can bring to the table as a doctor) being forced to defend his kids against this devastatingly aggressive lion while trapped in their vehicle the film becomes genuinely terrifying.  This forces Kormakur to get creative with the visuals in terms of generating tension within the limited confines of this vehicle in question and without feeling like he's repeating himself as the film progresses. 

BEAST also wisely takes its cues from past films about man versus nature/animal thrillers like JAWS in the sense that it's in no real rush to give us full shots of the rogue lion until near the halfway point of the film, which helps to establish it as a scary force of implied menace (we're not alarmed by the sight of it, but rather by the notion that it could spring from the shadows in the middle of the night with little notice).  Now, one could logically pick apart the idea of a lion going - ahem! - "rogue" and wanting to embark on some sweet vengeance against the human poachers - or any other human, for that matter - that it feels has wronged it (Martin surmises that this lion had its packed murdered by the poachers, which has led to it going all Charles Bronson in the wild).  Like JAWS elevating everyone's fears of sharks and going into the water, BEAST operates on a somewhat similar wavelength by tapping into everyone's phobia of being stranded in the middle of nowhere and in a oppressively hot environment with no water and food...and having a salivating natural predator wanting to turn you and your family into food.  As Martin relays in an unintentionally funny line, "It's the law of the jungle" for the rogue lion and it's "the only law that applies here now".  They're all being served up on its dinner plate.  Again, you can question the realism of a lion seeking revenge on people (oddly, the basic premise of the laughably terrible JAWS: THE REVENGE), but in BEAST I found it all more tolerable.  Once you buy into the film's cockamamie premise, it becomes hard to free yourself from its enthralling stranglehold. 

Obviously, we eventually do get many sequences involving the rogue lion appearing fully in the flesh, and - for the most part - it's achieved largely through some fairly credible CG effects, and with Kormakur wisely knowing when to cut away from the gigantic cat before the VFX illusions are all but spoiled.  Helping to sell all of the ludicrous madness that befalls BEAST is - as alluded to earlier - the fine performance good will of Elba himself, who probably understands what kind of film he's occupying and chose to play things as straight as possible.  Even when he's not punching his way out of harm's way from the lion (literally...he punches the lion at one point), Elba is really good here at playing this grieving widow with many years of regrets eating him away from the inside out trying as he can to take stock of his life and death situation and ensure that he and his daughters live to see another day.  Elba digs deeper into the psychological underpinnings of Nate with a fine nuance, but I also admired how Ryan Engle's screenplay doesn't go out of its way to make him an indestructible super hero that can easily get out of any scenario.  Nate becomes a survivor less because he's a tough, square jawed action hero, but rather because of his quick thinking as a doctor and how his natural survival instincts kick in when it comes to sheltering his family from this rogue monster.