Like it's title, the film is a rare and strange 'beast'. Part of the First Feature Competition at the London Film Festival, it is expected to be raw, something that is hard to ignore and bursting with talent, which the film certainly is. There is uneasy feeling that channels throughout the story, making you questions the characters motives, whether they are telling the truth for truths sake and will passion win over instinct, all these elements have you on the edge of your seat.
Mol lives on Jersey with her overbearing and heartless mother, she lives at home to take care of her ill father and works as history tour guide which she is unsatified with. She is overlooked and blamed for most things tha go wrong. She leaves her birthday party (that wasn't really for her) to escape and dance. After a long night she ends up on the beach where she meets Pascal. The instant their eyes meet, something ignites them. Throughout the lustful first love to obsessive devotion, these two damaged souls, harbour secrets that don't burst out but graudually break and seep into their lives. At first in the background then brought to a crashing conclusion, a murderer is loose on the island, with the police closing in on their number one suspect.
Aside from the brilliant chemistry between Mol (Jessie Buckly) and Pascal (Johnny Flynn), the stop start ending(s) started to wear thin and loose momentem BUT this is a first feature and feels as if some things were being tested out, which isn't a bad thing.
Director Michael Pearce has created a pyschosexual thriller that excites and terrifys, making you questions whether you want these two people to 'come clean'. With some brilliant scenes, particular the couple in question letting the waves wash over them and rather disturbing scene where Mol climbs into a dug out grave (I'll say no more), the story and characters are unervingly bursting at the seams with desire, hate, love and a sinister edge that keeps everything together. Hoping this get a release date soon.