Werewolves have long stalked the silver screen, with stories that mix fur, fangs, and folklore.  Beginning with the indelible image of Lon Chaney Jr.’s The Wolf Man in 1941 to the comedic horror of An American Werewolf in London from 1981, you don’t need a red hood to come face to snout with a scowling beast in theaters.  Modern classics such as The Howling, The Company of Wolves, Wolfen (and an underseen gem, by the way) kept the primary fury of the lycanthrope alive, with each new project introducing landmark special effects to show the transformations from man into beast.  Even A-list director Mike Nichols got in the action, with 1994’s Wolf turning a smug Jack Nicholson into a beast with a thing for the stunning Michelle Pfeiffer.  

Alas, The Beast Within, the newest addition to the werewolf feature cycle, is more sheep than wolf, tripping over a narrative painfully laden with eye-rolling metaphors.  Suggesting the presence of beastly evil more than it shows anything spectacular, it aspires to join the ranks of the well-regarded but will have most horror fans howling with boredom.  Co-writing the screenplay with Greer Taylor Ellison, documentary filmmaker Alexander J. Farrell makes his feature film debut with this creature feature rich in atmosphere but poor in delivering the goods viewers would expect going in.

In an isolated English compound, young Willow (Caoilinn Springall, The Midnight Sky) is an asthmatic curious to know why her mother Imogen (Ashleigh Cummings, The Goldfinch) and father Noah (Kit Harington, Pompeii) make nightly treks into the woods that surround their estate.  These evening journeys appear to be having an increasingly terrible effect on both her parents, with her mother wasting away and her father arriving back bruised and bloodied.  Where are they going, and why has her mother brought livestock in a cage with them? 

An increasing number of strange events and more than a few loud bumps in the night lead Willow to question the isolated life her family leads.  Their only visitor is Imogen’s dad, Waylon (James Cosmo, My Sailor, My Love), and if he isn’t privy to all the mysteries around the house, he’s at least helping his daughter hide something important.  After witnessing her father undergo a horrific transformation, Willow gets caught up in a dark ancestral secret the family has been desperately trying to conceal.  As the moon reaches the fullest part of its cycle, Noah’s behavior becomes more erratic. Imogen’s fear rises, leading Willow to finally uncover the truth behind a legacy she’d been sheltered from until it was too big to hide.

The Beast Within stumbles into problematic territory from the beginning, opening bluntly with a hackneyed sequence of woodland fright that feels lifted directly from a well-worn B-movie playbook.  The credits are barely over, and the screenplay has already made a dash for the finish line without considering that several laps are yet to go.  The lack of originality at the start continues through the entire production as it meanders without much to show or say until it arrives at a twist conclusion that is predictable if you’ve been paying attention but hard to digest all the same.

As a man harboring a snarling secret, Harington should be a commanding presence, but his attempt to deepen the timbre of his voice and make it gravely grave sounds like he’s auditioning for a Saturday morning cartoon villain rather than a man tormented by his transformation by moonlight. This inner turmoil could be compelling, but it comes across as unintentionally comical, bordering on caricature.  He’s shown up before and given layered performances, so it’s a bit of a surprise he’s so off the mark in The Beast Within. 

On the flip side, I quite liked Cummings as a dutiful wife tasked with calming her husband and keeping her child from seeing him at his worst.  She brings depth to her role that the mostly shallow script doesn’t provide her.  There’s a scene later in the movie where she must convey true terror, and her reaction is unnerving and genuine.  Unfortunately, Springall’s Willow is too often reduced to little more than a wide-eyed observer, wheezing heavily, so we always remember she always needs her 02 with her (in case that, y’know, becomes important.).  The screenplay that treats her as a plot device rather than a fully realized protagonist eventually stifles her character’s potential for growth completely.

On a technical level, the film is a mixed bag of success.  There’s a peculiar modern touch to Adam Howe’s costumes, never clarifying the period, which helps make the family feel much more isolated from the outside world.  The production design of the remote compound and ancient forests (it was filmed at the stunning Harewood Woods and Castle in West Yorkshire) is a terrific setting, but the script winds up getting lost in the woods.  Even the haunting score from Jack Halama & Nathan W. Klein struggles to elevate the staid narrative. The special effects could have been a selling point, but we rarely see the frustratingly elusive beast outwardly, let alone within.  Instead, we get numerous reaction shots that tell us characters are seeing something frightening and running away from it.  When we are afforded a glimpse, it’s fleeting and…unsatisfying.

A twist at the end of The Best Within might surprise some, but I don’t think it holds up under scrutiny.  While thematically resonant, the statement it’s making doesn’t feel earned and appears to be coming from filmmakers desperate to be insightful rather than innovative.  Being so ham-fisted right before the credits roll leaves the viewer with a distinctly sour taste in their mouths, not the best note to end on.  If you are seeking a lupine fix, countless superior options are available.  Despite a worthwhile performance from Cummings and a solid sense of atmosphere, The Beast Within will sink into the shadows of your memory quickly.