THE BEAST WITHIN movie poster | ©2024 Well Go USA Entertainment

Rating: R
Stars: Kit Harington, Ashleigh Cummings, James Cosmo, Caolinn Springall
Writers: Greer Taylor Ellison & Alexander J. Farrell
Director: Alexander J. Farrell
Distributor: Well Go USA Entertainment
Release Date: July 26, 2024

THE BEAST WITHIN begins with the onscreen proverb, ““There are two wolves inside of us … they are always at war.” We then see a woman in old-time garb searching in the forest for “William.” This ends badly.

Then we’re in the present, or thereabouts. An English family – Noah (Kit Harington), his wife Imogen (Ashleigh Cummings, of NOS4A2), their young daughter Willow (Caolinn Springall) and Imogen’s father Waylon (James Cosmo) – live in an isolated mansion surrounded by a wall within a forest.

Willow uses an oxygen tank, but sometimes explores the woods without it. She is very curious about where Mom takes Dad at night sometimes, and is getting frustrated that no one will explain it to her.

Then Willow has revelatory dreams, followed by actually finding out the big secret. Her parents and grandfather cope with this in different ways. And then …

The film is beautifully shot by cinematographer Daniel Katz. It is also sensitively acted, with Harington and Cosmo sure to delight GAME OF THRONES fans (not only were they both in the series, Cosmo’s character played Harington’s character’s commander). Cummings brings maternal ferocity to Imogen, and Springall has a proper sense of wonder and moodiness as Willow.

Director Alexander J. Farrell and his co-writer Greer Taylor Ellison seem to know what they want to do, but they don’t actually know how to achieve it. A character study about a family pressed to the breaking point by a curse rather than more normal abuse is a perfectly sound idea.

However, to make it work, we need characters who are more frequently expressive than these. There are some affecting moments, especially between Harington and Springall, but it takes some time to get to them. There’s also an aspect to the story being told that’s going to occur to most viewers immediately, though it’s presented as a twist.

Meanwhile, the audience is way ahead of the characters. At this point in cinema, you can do practically anything with a werewolf story, except treat the audience like we’re unfamiliar with the basics (unless those are somehow different, and they aren’t here).

This aside, we have lots of questions. Since this is Noah’s ancestral home, it seems evident he’s got a family trait. When did it start manifesting? How long have he and Imogen and Waylon been dealing with it? When were they planning to tell Willow? How long have they been living in the house, and why is it still so dusty? Why is Imogen so angry at her father that she calls him by his first name rather than “Dad” (which has the additional demerit of making us wonder whose parent Waylon is for a good while)? What happens toward the end of the film when something that was customary suddenly turns into a crisis?

In real-world terms, what is up with Willow’s use of an oxygen tank on some occasions, and wandering around freely without it on others? This would be highly unusual, to say the least. Is this meant to be symbolic of something?

There are more unaddressed issues here, but these are enough to keep us from investing too much in these people and their plight.

The filmmakers succeed in creating a mood of general unease and sorrow in THE BEAST WITHIN, though these never coalesce into terror or deep feeling for us.

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