“The Beast” capitalizes on everything I love about Italian cinema in the 1970s. The willingness to be extreme, play with big ideas and just go for the throat on visuals. As the film opens, we get a loving montage of horses being bred. This leads into our introduction of the heroine, as she’s being pawned off on a stranger to marry. There’s a lot of subtext about humans being no different than animals. But, then you get that amazing dream sequence.
The film plays on the Beauty and the Beast story to create something far more adult. As our heroine dreams and learns of how The Beast was cursed into her suitor’s family, we are treated to one of the most graphic uses of a Special Effects donger ever put to film. If you ever wondered what Chewbacca’s penis might look like, Borowczyk answered that question. While the film plays short, it never makes the central premise feel tired. That being said, it might not be a film for the entire film.
The Blu-Ray comes with an introduction by Peter Bradshaw, featurettes, visual essay, a documentary, commercials from the director, a shorter documentary and a trailer as the special features. The A/V Quality is among the finest I’ve seen from Arrow so far. This is a recommended purchase.
Release Date: 9/15/15