Beast
World Premiere – Alamo Lamar, SXSW, March 11, 2018
Review by Stacey Lovett
Director/Cinematographer Ben Strang was awarded the award for Best Independent Episodic for the 2018 SXSW Film Festival with Beast – an anthology series of monsters of small-town America.
The premiere episode screening for the festival was gripping, reeling you in from the first scene at Chesapeake Bay’s Smith’s Island. Strang’s cinematographic side portrays the maritime setting with beautiful suspense, painting the light of a picturesque landscape with the question of what lurks beneath that surface. He taps into more of the fear of the unknown as the mystery offender of the story is not immediately revealed, or at all in that first episode, and the 17:15 in its entirety seemingly evokes a (well done) homage to classic Stephen King cinematic representation. Beast involves a boy’s quest – a persevering drive beyond that of simple boyhood curiosity – as he avenges the suspicions behind his father’s death. Despite his knowledge of the risks of his search and the prohibition of it from everyone in the small town, he continues his journey towards understanding what really lurks in the bay with the aid of the only other resident who truly understands and subsequently supports his passion to solve the mystery.
The storyline is simple yet in the manner portrayed is extremely captivating and enthralling; the structure remains solid and builds in intensity through the suggestion of the unknown playing off of the viewer’s translation of its reality alongside the protagonists’ active pursuit of it. The rebellious nature of the son and local fisherman in their journey to seek closure is fueled by the drive, despite any circumstance, of having to know what happened and this episodic leaves viewers feeling the same way.