The Beasts

Released Jul 28, 2023

2h 18m

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

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66 Reviews

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100+ Ratings

An expatriate French couple (Denis Ménochet and Marina Foïs) operate an organic farm in the Spanish countryside. However, their earnest enthusiasm reeks of patronizing privilege to the handful of "hill people" families who have toiled on the land for generations. Tensions between locals and foreigners boil over in this edge-of-your-seat thriller.

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Critics Consensus

Rodrigo Sorogoyen throws us into rural Galicia with The Beasts, where tension and unease spread like wildfire in a scorching tale of decayed human nature.

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Bilge Ebiri

New York Magazine/Vulture

Sorogoyen might give lip service to the economic realities underlying the land dispute, but he’s also not afraid to take sides and to entertain.

Dec 9, 2023

Full Review

Mark Kermode

Kermode and Mayo's Take (YouTube)

It becomes unbearably tense, really, really properly tense.

Dec 6, 2023

Full Review

Sergio Burstein

Los Angeles Times

Impressive in its setting, positive outlook, and in its reference to character development. [Full review in Spanish]

Oct 5, 2023

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Eric Ortiz García

ScreenAnarchy

The Beasts is a potent display of the consequences of violence.

Dec 6, 2023

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Matthew Turner

Nerdly

Sorogoyen is a master at ratcheting up the suspense, creating an atmosphere more fraught with tension than any recent mainstream thriller you care to mention.

Dec 6, 2023

Full Review

Pablo O. Scholz

Clarín

Devastating, piercing, and vigorous, The Beasts is one of the best that Spanish cinema has produced in recent times. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 4/4

Dec 6, 2023

Full Review

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Audience Member

A Spanish French film that really puts you on edge, brilliant acting by all the lead characters and well worth a watch

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/10/24

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S P

Tough but realistic film. Mirrors the terribly true story of the Dutch Martin Verfondern https://archive.is/KHfGb. There is a documentary from 2016 called Santoalla to complete this watching to make it even more depressing.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

04/05/24

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Alec B

At times, the movie has a tendency to openly state the themes clumsily but it's hard to deny the emotional effectiveness of the ending

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/04/24

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Jonathan S

One of the worst films I've ever sat through. Utterly brilliant first half, but fuelled only by the false hope that something mesmerising was coming in the second... it wasn't. Do not waste two hours of your life on this. Absolutely no value as entertainment or education or anything else. Ultimately it was just a cheap, grey, Jean de Florette-wannabe misery-porno.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/25/24

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Born K

How much spoiler you can put on a poster? All of it it seems... The movie exposes some of the xenophobe caused by material issues that can happen anywhere in the world, but in Spain in this case against a couple of French that survives by an ecosutenatible live. The tensions rise up to peak and unavoidable point. Good acting, believable story, hard to watch - but with and open end that we (hope) wish for justice. A 7.5 out of 10.0 for me, B+. But could be better.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/20/24

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Jason R

As far as I know this is our first Galician language film - unsurprisingly, I know absolutely nothing about it. I have concerns it's going to be a bit tense for my liking, but let's see... The film doesn't rush in to giving you any clue as to what's going to happen - we meet Olga (Marina Foïs) and Antoine (Denis Ménochet) who are a French couple living in Spain and they seem to mostly get on with their lives, but there are initial signs that they doesn't get on with some of the natives. Particularly their neighbours Xan (Luis Zahera) and Loren (Diego Anido), and things just get worse as the film progresses - and that's all I'm going to tell you about the story! It's all very well written and surprisingly tense throughout - much more so than I was expecting (I had to take quite a few breaks from it) and you get a real sense of injustice in places. However, it's nicely balanced because although one side is obviously wronged, all parties could be more considerate and they're given their moment to explain their point of view and their motivation. It also has an ending that really keeps you guessing - ten minutes from the end, I had no idea how it was going to be wrapped up (but it does it well). There are also a surprising number of scenes where the actors are really given the opportunity to open up their acting throttle and let loose - which I wasn't really expecting. It's very well acted by all the people I've previously mentioned, with Denis in particular giving a really good performance - it's actually the second time we've seen him on here because he's also in Only The Animals (which is a film I very much recommentd) - he's also in Inglorious Basterds, apparently. I'm also going to mention Marie Colomb who plays Marie, Olga and Antoine's daughter - she's not in it loads, but she's in a couple of very strong scenes with Marina. It's also well shot - the rural setting is beautiful and really used to full effect, but there are also some very well framed indoor shots. My only real quibble would be that I didn't need it to be 2:15 long - losing 20-30 minutes would have made absolutely no difference to the plot. However, it would have made things even tenser, so maybe I should be pleased it gave me some opportunities to relax. For the first film on the list (which must have had a reasonably small budget) this is an amazingly accomplished offering - I don't imagine too many people will have sought out a Galician language offering, but everyone's missing out on a great film. If you fancy it, it's available to stream on BFIPlayer and, you might be surprised to hear, available to rent in most of the usual places, so I hope people stumble across it (provided they're able to deal with tension slightly better than I am).

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/13/24

Full Review

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Rodrigo Sorogoyen

Director

Denis Ménochet

Antoine Denis

Marina Foïs

Olga Denis

Luis Zahera

Xan

Diego Anido

Lorenzo

Marie Colomb

Marie Denis

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Out in the Open

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The Beasts: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

An expatriate French couple (Denis Ménochet and Marina Foïs) operate an organic farm in the Spanish countryside. However, their earnest enthusiasm reeks of patronizing privilege to the handful of "hill people" families who have toiled on the land for generations. Tensions between locals and foreigners boil over in this edge-of-your-seat thriller.

Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Producer: Ibón Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé, Sandra Tapia, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Eduardo Villanueva, Thomas Pibarot, Jean Labadie, Anne Labadie
Screenwriter: Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Isabel Peña
Distributor: Greenwich Entertainment
Production Co: Institut Català de les Empreses Culturals, Canal+, Latido Films, Caballo Films, Cronos Entertainment, Gobierno de España, Cofimage 33, Movistar+, Arcadia Motion Pictures, Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales, Comunidad de Madrid, SofiTVciné 9, Crea SGR, Ciné+, Le Pacte, Eurimages, Radio Televisión Española
Genre: Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: French (France)
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 28, 2023, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 26, 2023
Runtime: 2h 18m
Aspect Ratio: Digital 2.39:1

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