Dennis Harvey Film Critic Beauty makes more of an impression than the titular creature in “The Beast Within.” Documentarian Alexander J.
Farrell’s first narrative feature is a handsomely crafted, modestly scaled affair that benefits from being shot largely around the historic Harewood Woods and Castle in West Yorkshire.
Structures dating back to the 14th century lend this supernatural tale one kind of timelessness, DP Daniel Katz’s beautifully atmospheric shots of the surrounding landscape another.
But the story of a small family kept in fearful isolation by a familiar horror-movie curse is underpopulated and underplotted, making for a capably handled genre exercise without the novelty or depth to achieve anything memorable.
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