Friendly Beast Review: A waitress finds herself caught in the middle when her place of work comes under attack in this grisly empowered horror.
Friendly Beast review by Kat Hughes.
Friendly Beast Review
Secretly in love with her boss, tired waitress Sara (Luciana Paes) is almost at the end of her shift when two men burst in and take the restaurant workers and diners hostage. The tables are quickly turned on the would be robbers however, and Sara finds herself in the middle of a very messy situation…
Friendly Beast, or O Animal Cordial as it is known in its native tongue, is the feature debut of female director Gabriela Amaral. There are sadly very few female directors within the movie industry and fewer still working with horror. It seems that many are still under the archaic belief that horror isn’t a genre for women, that they should be sheltered from films of a grisly nature. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Recent entries such as Raw, The Babadook and Honeymoon prove that this is a very wrong way of thinking and, whilst these have focused more on the psychological side, Amaral shows a flare for the more risque.
Friendly Beast Review
There’s plenty of blood, sex and violence on display in Friendly Beast, but all have been filtered through the female eye which, rather than add the typical voyeuristic derogation, instead makes part of the film oddly sensual. Some moments within the film are almost stomach-churningly unbearable; scenes between Sara and Verônica (Camila Morgado) are particularly excruciating to sit through. It’s the dynamic between the pair, and not necessarily what happens, that causes the tension. Our characters are from very different backgrounds and of varying beauties; the horror comes from the very real way that they interact with one another. Females really can be the crueller sex.
Luciana Paes gives a commanding performance as Sara, her journey from meek to empowered is riveting to behold. Her arc is a true chrysalis story, and watching Pae work her way through the changes is a compelling watch. She throws herself into the role with an incredible amount of conviction. Given some of the acts that are in the film, there was clearly a lot of trust behind lead actor and director. Pae is clearly comfortable, and this trust enables moments that could be viewed as exploitative, as empowerment.
Friendly Beast Review
Though the film jumps almost straight into the action, it unfortunately starts to flag towards the end. At just shy of 100 minutes, it is perhaps ten to fifteen minutes, and one set-piece, too long. A reduced run-time would have made things a little punchier and much more palatable.
Set over the course of one night, Friendly Beast is a menacing and twisted tale that challenges perceptions about female roles in horror.
Friendly Beast review by Kat Hughes, March 2018.
Friendly Beast was reviewed at the 2018 Horror Channel Frightfest event which formed part of the 2018 Glasgow Film Festival.
