The Beasts - As Bestas

The Beasts

As Bestas

Writer & Director - Rodrigo Sorogoyen

Writers – Isabel Peña, Rodrigo Sorogoyen

2023, Spain-France

Stars - Marina Foïs, Denis Ménochet, Luis Zahera

 

At the core of ‘The Beasts’ is our fear of bad neighbours. When things turn sour, how far will it go? The conflict here is between those that have grown up in a small village in Galacia and a French couple that have moved in for what they think is an idyll and a spot of rural restoration. Their vote against a wind turbine project which promises cash for the long-term locals causes antagonism.

 

This is articulated most completely in one of several confrontation scenes where our bullish but likeable protagonist tries to talk out a compromise with his neighbours in the local bar. It’s a place which the local men can’t seem to quite escape, where even dominoes take on a threatening undercurrent. This long take and the woodland confrontation are the highlights of a film that mostly simmers and broods. It doesn’t have the horror or nihilistic hold of, say, ‘Speak No Evil’ but it’s in the same playing field, raking up the fears and anxieties of social interaction, lack of compromise, the fear of others, of hosts, of interlopers. But exploitation is avoided: there’s never the sense that the characterisation of the antagonists is reductive. The long takes, the understatement and exemplary downplayed acting make sure of this. The tension and animosity builds in slow-burn and long takes until a confrontation leaves the film focused on feminine resolve.

 

Based on a true story, this latter section leaves behind its thriller concerns to segue into the area that similar set-ups rarely continue to address: the long process and years of waiting for truth and justice. This shift in emphasis makes it even clearer that ‘The Beasts’ is about the destructiveness of toxic masculinity, even as feminine resolution threatens to damage what remains. There’s considerable tonal control and breadth being covered, never forgetting its complexities. It’s a down-to-earth evocation of the themes that power the Home Invasion trend of horror, but it is no less upsetting for that, for its low-key relatability and humanity kick hard and haunt.