by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Mark Coles Smith, Joel Nankervis, Sam Delich, Lee Tiger Halley, Sam Parsonson, Steve Le Marquand, Lauren Grimson
Intro:
… a terrific, tense war movie/shark flick hybrid that sinks its teeth into you in the opening minutes and never lets go.
Every film critic, no matter how great or terrible, has a genre or style of film that they favour. Oh sure, we try to natter on with something approaching objectivity, but it’s a fool’s errand. Ultimately, it is human nature to have inherent biases. That’s true of titans of the industry like the late, great David Stratton right down to adolescent Youtubers whining about how A Minecraft Movie has “gone woke” or whatever. In the case of your humble word janitors, we favour Aussie genre films that punch far, far above their weight. Flicks made on a small budget that have no right to be as enjoyable as they are. And that cinematic sweet spot is beautifully exemplified by Beast of War, the latest flick from director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead, Sting), a man-eating shark yarn with a killer Aussie hook.
Beast of War is the story of Leo (Mark Coles Smith), an indigenous soldier heading into WWII with his fellow Aussie diggers. After a punishing time in boot camp – where Leo makes friends with the agreeable Will (Joel Nankervis) and enemies with racist gronk, Des (Sam Delich) – the freshly minted troops head off to war with adventure in their hearts. However, while moving across the Timor Sea, their ship is blasted to hell by Japanese fighter planes, leaving only a small group of survivors floating in the water on a makeshift raft, tending to their wounded. And that, of course, is when a certain hungry shark arrives and these young men face a battle that they were in no way expecting.
It’s no surprise that Kiah Roache-Turner nails the high-octane thrills and brutal action scenes in Beast of War – ol’ mate has been delivering that sort of gear since he posited fast-moving zombies as an alternate fuel source way back in 2014 with Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead. However, he also adds unexpected nuance and pathos to the characters and a genuine sense of creeping dread. Not bad for a movie that was mostly filmed in a water tank in Queensland!
Performances are uniformly good, with special kudos going to Mark Coles Smith who is a superb leading man, delivering an era-appropriate turn that is both heroic and vulnerable. Sam Delich does a great job as an absolute grub of a human being, who will have audiences praying that the wanker ends up as shark chow as swiftly as possible. Both Sam Parsonson and Steve Le Marquand do fantastic work in smaller but pivotal roles. And, of course, there’s the shark itself, brought to grisly, nightmarish life by Steve Boyle and his team at Formation FX, that is an absolute scene-stealer every time it raises its rude, toothy bonce above the water.
Wreathed in smoke and floating on red-stained waters, Beast of War is gorgeous to behold. It’s a lean and merciless film, beautifully paced, that drips with genuine tension and builds to a blood-frothing, jaw-dropping climax.
Sure, the killer shark subgenre is overcrowded, and there’s rarely anything new under that water, but the fresh perspective and WWII setting makes all the difference. For those who like their Aussie genre gear smart and effective, Beast of War is a terrific, tense war movie/shark flick hybrid that sinks its teeth into you in the opening minutes and never lets go.
