Schlocky and silly but fun: Beast reviewed

Beast is, the blurb tells us, a ‘pulse-pounding thriller about a father and his daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator’. Whether this was ever intended to be a serious film, I cannot say, but it’s fun in its schlocky, gory, silly way, doesn’t outstay its welcome (it’s barely 90 minutes) and will satisfy anyone who has ever yearned to see Idris Elba wrestle a lion and then punch it full in the face. Not my dream especially, but each to their own.

It is written by Ryan Engle from a story by Jaime Primak Sullivan and directed by Baltasar Kormakur, whose previous films have titles like Adrift, Deep and Everest. He is obviously your go-to person for tales that can be summed up in a single word and involve nature at its most vengeful (like, say, the mightiest film in this genre, Jaws. Yet this is no Jaws). Elba plays Nate Samuels, an American doctor (always a doctor, never a newsagent) and grieving husband who takes his two daughters, Mere (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Jeffries), on safari to their South African mother’s birthplace. He wants this to be a healing trip. He’d been separated from the girls’ mother, by mutual agreement, and was not attentive when her health declined due to cancer. Mere particularly resents this, while he feels guilt. This emotional back story is rather forced, but still, what can he do to show he loves them and will always protect them? I wonder.

The film opens with a prologue that shows poachers snaring and killing a pride of lions, which makes you question: who is the beast here, really? But they fail to snare the pride’s alpha male, which will henceforward seek revenge against humankind. Lions, they don’t forgive and forget. Apparently. Next, we see Nate and family stepping off a small plane as they arrive in the bush. They are met by their guide, Martin (Sharlto Copley), an old family friend, while the girls complain about being so hot even their eyes are sweating. You will often want to shout at the screen and what you will first wish to shout is: ‘Girls, take your coats and sweaters off!’ (You need a mother to work that out?)

The next day Martin takes the family on safari, and we know trouble is afoot when a badly injured man halts the jeep. They race to the local village to seek help but all the villagers have been mauled to death. ‘Whatever did this is still out there,’ someone says because someone always has to say that. They discover what it is when the (CGI) lion attacks their car, roaring, smashing windows, even stretching its paws into the interior, gashing Dad’s torso. There is much screaming. Subsequent events follow an absolutely standard outline. The two-way radio conks out. They’re running out of water. There are various set pieces as the lion ambushes them, rips chunks out of them, while they always make the least credible decision. ‘Mere, stay in the car. STAY IN THE CAR, MERE!’ Oops, there she goes. At one point they hole up in an abandoned school. Phew, safe. But maybe close the doors, you’ll want to suggest.

The CGI is perfectly decent, there are plenty of jump scares, the performances are committed, and it is lean. You can imagine it’ll play well on a Saturday night to a half-drunk audience. Hard to know how seriously Elba takes it but in an interview he has said there’s more to this film than meets the eye. ‘The lion is a beast. Grief is a beast. Sorrow is a beast. Survival is a beast… it isn’t just about a lion chasing a man.’ Except, of course, it is.