The Beast Within (2024) [Blu-Ray]

Director: Alexander J. Farrell

Cast: Kit Harington, Ashleigh Cummings, Caoilinn Springall

Release Date: October 22, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 6.5/10

Synopsis:

After a series of strange events leads her to question her family’s isolated life on a fortified compound deep in the English wilds, 10-year-old Willow (Caoilinn Springall) follows her parents on one of their secret late-night treks to the heart of the ancient forest. But upon witnessing her father undergo a terrible transformation, she too becomes ensnared by the dark ancestral secret they’ve tried so desperately to conceal.

‘The Beast Within’ tells the haunting tale of a family living in the English wilds, secluded from the general public and embracing a quiet existence in peacefulness. At least aside from the unnerving events that seem to surround the father of the family which has caused 10-year-old Willow to take notice, determined to understand what’s occurring within her family. As her father repeatedly acts erratic and temperamental, while pigs are ushered out of the family compound in their vehicle with her father returning in their place the next day, often covered in blood; Willow eventually sneaks out to follow her mother and father only to witness her father’s terrifying transformation. But the answers to her questions may in fact only make their lives more dangerous as the pieces begin to come together.

Directed by Alexander J. Farrell (Making a Killing, Refugee) from a screenplay written by Greer Taylor Ellison (How to Date Billy Walsh) and Farrell, Farrell does a capable job at the helm of ‘The Beast Within’ guiding along the emotional tale with a fitting sense of dread and unease. The film’s cast includes Kit Harington (TV’s Industry), Ashleigh Cummings (TV’s Citadel), Caoilinn Springall (Stopmotion), and James Cosmo (TV’s Jack Ryan) who each offer altogether solid and in some cases fairly powerful performances in their respective roles.

‘The Beast Within’ is an intriguing thriller that masquerades primarily as a werewolf film but tends to borrow from various other styles and formulas along the way, in reality offering more of a psychological thriller of sorts that’s almost a take on domestic violence to a degree. The entirety of the film takes place in seclusion with little to no other individuals around and the family hiding a terrible secret which one would assume is the main reason for the type of existence they lead. The story is told mostly from the perspective of the ten year old daughter who struggles with the uncertain events and changes that seem to be affecting her father and also her mother due to her responsibility to deal with him even during the more unpleasant times as he frequently snaps or shifts from a goofy and childlike kindness to an impatient and anger-fueled personality with the snap of a finger.

The decision to approach everything from the girl’s perspective is probably the film’s biggest strength and it becomes somewhat rough at times to see how distraught and shaken the young girl becomes as she must not only try to deal with these horrifying events but also try to maintain her heath; often pushed to loss of consciousness when unable to reach her oxygen tank in time and repeatedly feeling lost in the confusion of what she doesn’t understand as her parents are initially intent to hide the reality of the situation from her.

‘The Beast Within’ offers a quite tense journey and not in the way you might expect; with the tension more commonly arising from the girl’s struggle and terror, at least until things finally get a little crazier in its conclusion. It does a great job of capturing the beautiful surroundings of the English wilds and the style and look is spectacular while also repeatedly complementing the eerie and tense tone with clever camera choices and approaches to certain scenarios. The cast is also solid throughout, with Caoilinn Springall doing a marvelous job in particular portraying young Willow. ‘The Beast Within’ definitely isn’t going to be a film for everyone but for those who enjoy a horror-ish film that dares to try something different and change up the formula (both for good and bad at times) and those who are fans of the key cast should all find something to appreciate within and may want to consider giving it a whirl.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘The Beast Within’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 2.39:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks very nice as a whole and delivers a clean, smooth and richly detailed presentation from start to finish that never suffers from any noteworthy issues or troubles along its course, at least perhaps aside from a minimal amount of banding in one or two significantly dark moments. Detail is exceptional throughout and noticeable on the gorgeous scenery along with character specifics and the details of the property both interior and exterior, while black levels hold up quite capably. Overall, this is a solid high definition video presentation that does its job well for the most part and should satisfy fans as well as newcomers.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack delivers a clean, crisp and often fairly immersive audio presentation throughout. It takes advantage of all five available channels in order to send music, creepy and nature effects, along with more throughout the various speakers whenever appropriate, while never resulting in any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously with one another to become distorted or rendered problematic in the process. Overall, this is a very nice 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that delivers in every way required of it and shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘The Beast Within’ does not include any extras other than the film’s ‘Theatrical Trailer’ (running approximately 2 minutes in length).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 7/10
Disc Rating: 6.5/10

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‘The Beast Within’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from from Well Go USA

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You can purchase ‘The Beast Within’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

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