(For Day 19 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was to write about a childhood scare, like a monster. While a lion is not a personal boogeyman for me, this creature feature seemed to fit the bill.)

It’s lurking where you cannot see,
Blocking where you cannot flee,
Looming in the liminal of known and too afraid to know.
Do not breathe and do not stir.
That’s a growl and not a purr,
Growing louder by the second, growing sick of lying low.
Save your scream; it knows you’re there,
Not a dream and no nightmare.
Something hungry this way comes, and you have nowhere else to go.
____________________________

MPA rating: R (nothing overly gruesome that I recall)

Idris Elba is good in just about anything. Whether he’s playing an immortal djinn in a bathrobe or an Asgardian gatekeeper, his natural gravitas just enhances every role he takes on. That goes for the more pedestrian efforts as well. Beast can be summed up pretty easily: man vs. lion. Elba plays Dr. Nate Samuels, who takes his daughters on a South Africa safari to reconnect after the death of their mother but is forced to defend them against a rogue lion on a killing spree.

As a survival thriller, Beast is a solid entry, elevated by Elba’s lead performance and Baltasar Kormákur’s rather artsy direction, such as some outstanding tracking shots that I love so much. Yet the occasionally dumb plot is cookie-cutter standard for the genre and unlikely to surprise anyone. The plot armor of the climax even becomes a little laughable when Elba fights the beast barehanded and lasts far longer than other characters it killed within seconds. Beast is all too familiar, doing for lions what Jaws did for sharks, but its African setting and intimidating feline make it unique enough to be worth a casual watch.

Rank: Honorable Mention

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