"Beast" a lean, skillfully made B-movie that does what it needs to do

Beast (2022)

Trust in the simplicity of Idris Elba being his family’s protector against a big angry kitty in a South African wildlife preserve. “Beast” is very much what it says on the box: a lean, mean when-animals-attack, family-in-peril survival thriller. And, as such, it is reliably effective at giving you what you expect, nothing more and nothing less. Sort of a cross between “Cujo,” “The Ghost and the Darkness,” and the less-memorable “Primeval,” this B-movie is made with more skill and technique than one might expect.

As the recently widowed Dr. Nate Samuels, Idris Elba is a beacon of paternal strength and calm for his two daughters, 18-year-old Mere (Iyana Halley) and 13-year-old Norah (Leah Jeffries) — and that’s even before the vicious lion with an anti-poaching axe to grind. In an attempt to grieve and reconnect with his girls, Nate takes them on a trip to the African village where Mom grew up. Giving them their own personal safari of the game reserve is “Uncle Martin” (Sharlto Copley), a reserve enforcer and a family friend who introduced Nate and his wife. When they come across a slaughtered village, Martin suspects it is a lion (even though “lions don’t do this,” and anacondas don’t do what they did in “Anaconda,” either), and he is damn right. 

If you want to look for subtext, the rogue lion could represent Nate and his girls conquering grief, sure. But sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur (2018’s “Adrift”), “Beast” delivers as a meat-and-potatoes thrill machine, and it’s a sufficiently well-oiled one at that. One major asset is the dynamic camerawork, consisting primarily of long tracking shots, by Kormákur’s director of photography Philippe Rousselot. Another is the CG apex predator himself looking pretty convincing; he can be frightening when pouncing on a jeep with Nate and his daughters inside, and he can be just as frightening when seen from afar, sneaking towards his prey. 

The screenplay by Ryan Engle (2018’s “Breaking In”) is efficient in setting up Nate’s relationship with his two daughters, like resentments over his divorce when their mother was dying. The sympathetic characters and harrowing story are exactly what they need to be, as the majority of the film is watching Nate and his daughters try to escape the clawed clutches of Mad Mufasa. When Mere asks how the lion found them, Nate gives the best rationalization one could: “He must have cut through the mountain.” Before that, the lion is just really pissed from a group of poachers slaughtering its entire pride. As it turns out, that is more than enough for the film to work.

Director Baltasar Kormákur only misses with one narrative device, a recurring dream sequence involving Nate’s late wife. Only seen in dribs and drabs, the film saves the entirety of Nate’s dream until the finale, and the intended impact is more of a whimper. Also, momentary lapses in common sense may test an audience member’s patience with the daughter characters, particularly the eldest. Listen to your father and stay put! Close those doors! Get away from that window! Maybe now isn’t the time to use the walkie-talkie! Of course, without these frustrations, there’d be less drama and tension, so let’s just chalk it all up to human fallibility when thrown into a life-or-death situation without any prep. Without upping the ante more than it has to, “Beast” is tense and rock-solid when cutting to the bone.

Grade: B -

Universal Pictures released “Beast” (93 min.) in theaters on August 19, 2022.