Beast – REVIEW

How unintelligent do film producers think moviegoers are? In 1987 Jaws the Revenge was released, the premise dealing with a shark that took revenge on a particular family – the tagline reading, ‘this time it’s personal’.

Now Beast hits our cinemas which centres on a ‘super lion’ in Africa avenging all humans because poachers killed its family.

Interwoven in this idiocy a man and his two daughters are imprisoned in a car in the wilderness with no communication from the outside world in an area closed to the public. The demonic lion attacks them, perhaps desiring a three course meal!

Also reminiscent of Stephen King’s 1983 horror flick Cujo, the film stars Idris Elba as the father, heading a very capable cast who unfortunately were not miracle workers – they could only do so much with the material they were given to work with.

There are many genuinely unsettling scenes of canine gore and jump scare moments in this terrifying man versus beast tale, but the film was ultimately deflated by instances of silly dialogue and implausible inconsistencies throughout.

Stereotyped nonsensical actions by each of the characters who attempted to ‘out-hero’ each other  were obviously scripted for dramatic purposes but failed miserably, leading to uncontrollable laughter from audiences.

This only compounded to the ideology that perhaps the wild beast had more common sense and intelligence than all the characters combined!

Beast is suspenseful, boasting stunning cinematography in the African backdrop and utilising a realistic mechanical lion that should send shivers up audience’s spines, but these simply aren’t enough reasons to justify spending hard earned money on watching this ‘dead dog’ – lion that is…

★★

         In cinemas August 25th