‘The Beast Within’: Fantasia Review

Dir: Alexander J Farrell. UK. 2024. 96mins

Life inside an isolated, heavily fortified homestead deep in the heart of rural England is already approaching the otherworldly for 10-year-old Willow (Caoilinn Springall), even before she starts to understand the truth about her father’s increasingly strange behaviour. That truth is treated like a heavily guarded secret in The Beast Within, although it is not hard to see past the film’s genre trappings to the real-world themes beyond. Still, with its dreamlike visuals and strong performances, this is a striking modern fairytale.

 A striking modern fairytale

The Beast Within (previously titled What Remains Of Us) is Alexander J Farrell’s first foray into horror after documentaries including Refugee and Making A Killing (he also wrote the screenplay for Amazon romcom How To Date Billy Walsh). Premiering at Fantasia, the film should benefit from the presence of Game Of Thrones star Kit Harington when it opens in the US on July 26. That, together with likely solid word of mouth, should also help it find an audience on streaming, particularly amongst genre fans.

Willow is a quiet, intelligent child, rather more mature than her parents Noah (Harington) and Imogen (Ashleigh Cummings) take her for. They whisper in corners and behind closed doors, imagine that she can’t hear their conversations about “change” and “the truth” — her mother in particular seems desperate to protect her from things unspoken. Her grandfather (James Cosmo) is a beloved ally, although he too has been sworn to secrecy

For the first part of the film, Willow is ensconced in the supposed safety of the family home, forbidden to go into the surrounding forest after dark. (One scene in which she steals away, wearing a red cape, is one of many on-the-nose clues as to why.) Evocative production design details a hulking, run-down manor whose glories have long faded. Windows are broken, paint is peeling from the walls and floorboards creak ominously as Willow attempts to move around without being discovered — always with her oxygen tank in tow, in case of an asthma attack. The house is dark and oppressive, devoid of real colour, and at shadowy odds with the glorious Yorkshire countryside that surrounds it.

The plush velvet throne at the head of the table and the huge, slick family portrait on the wall speak to delusions of grandeur — not so much of the house, but of its patriarch, who clearly sees himself as king of this castle — and more besides. We don’t see much of Noah during the film’s first half, but we do see the effect he has on his daughter; the panicked breathing as she watches him being bundled into the back of the family truck and driven into the forest, the fear when he returns the next morning, his huge fur blanket covered in blood. 

While these events may point in one obvious lycanthropic direction, the film’s biggest strength is that it maintains Willow’s point of view throughout, so nothing is ever clear cut. Her childhood innocence and vulnerability cast a hazy gauze over family life, as evidenced by DoP’s Daniel Katz’s soft focus touch, and Springall (also impressive in fellow horror Stop Motion) effectively mines the psychological struggle of having to navigate shifting family dynamics at such a young age. The realisation that she can perhaps no longer rely on her parents to keep her safe makes for a savage coming of age narrative, which anchors this fantastical story.

When Willow illicitly follows her parents to an old abandoned castle in the forest — in reality, the atmospheric Harewood Castle — the scales really do fall from her eyes. From here, the tension mounts, propelled by Harington’s increasingly intense performance as he begins to reveal his true self, and a heightened score which is often in danger of overwhelming proceedings. In the end, however, Willow’s slow realisation of what her father is, and exactly what it means for her family, is as much about facing up to real-world horrors as it is about slaying the beasts who lurk in the dark.