By David Dent
10-year-old Willow (Caoilinn Springall lives an unusual life; a sickly child, relying on regular oxygen from a cannister she carries around with her, Willow shares her home with her mother Imogen (Ashleigh Cummings), grandfather Waylon (James Cosmo)…and her often absent father, Noah (Kit Harington). When dad’s home he’s more often than not locked in his room or bundled in the back of a van.
Willow experiences the dysfunctional operation of the household through young innocent eyes, struggling to understand why her mother is protective of Noah but at the same time keen to escape, particularly around the time of the full moon; Waylon meanwhile remains barely tolerant of Noah’s behaviour.
Things continue in this way until an intervention from Willow’s father provides the details of his family history and brings matters to a fiery conclusion.
Ultimately little is what it seems in The Beast Within, and there’s a fairytale quality to the film which renders the events somewhat dreamlike and oblique.
“There are two wolves inside of us…they are always at war” states the proverb at the movie’s beginning, setting out its metaphoric take on the traditional werewolf story. In the final analysis, despite some solid acting (particularly from Springall as the child whose eyes provide the window to the sights onscreen), Farrell’s movie is more impressive visually than narratively; relationships between family members remain muddy and unresolved, and the film’s USP – the conflation of lycanthropy with the unpredictability of a violent man within the household – becomes overlaboured.
Bloody Flicks 