Acclaimed ‘Dark Nail Biter’ BEAST Opens Today at AFS Cinema

It’s true. Most scary movies just aren’t that scary. Atmosphere is often conveyed by a bunch of well-worn cliches, and the jump-scare is relied upon to create the thrills.

In the new British thriller BEAST, writer-director Michael Pearce avoids these superficial pitfalls and instead delivers a creepy work of real tension and fresh situations. It’s half lovers-on-the-run story and half psychologically fraught murder procedural, and that’s all good.

As a series of murders plague the strange island of Jersey, our protagonist Moll (played wonderfully by Jessie Buckley) entrenches herself in a world of love and violence. This is a good, smart, very scary movie. See it while you can at the AFS Cinema.

But don’t just trust us, trust these professional movie critic people:

“The film is not so much a psychological thriller as a performance-driven portrait of a vulnerable-yet-ferocious woman in a very dangerous predicament, and the electrically intense Buckley is the actress to carry it.” Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Bathed in a shadowy beauty and slippery psychological atmosphere, BEAST soars on Ms. Buckley’s increasingly animalistic performance… This is lurid stuff, yet Mr. Pearce miraculously holds things together until the end” –Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times

“This dark nail-biter eschews the obvious at every turn and is less a whodunit than a twisted moral meditation grounded by its mesmerizing leading lady.” –Barbara VanDenburgh – Arizona Republic

“BEAST is, first and foremost, an inquisitive and empathetic character study, focused on the psychologically possessive qualities of belatedly unleashed sexuality.” –Guy Lodge, Variety

“Immaculately composed yet skittish, edgy and surprising, BEAST emanates a chill that will have you hugging your sides… Just when you think you’ve got it pinned down, it hairpins off in a new direction.” –Philip De Semlyen, TimeOut

Here’s that trailer:

 
  • Contributed by Shane Pfender

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