Beast (2021) User Reviews

A haunting portrayal of a twisted woman

[Rectangular_businessman · 8/10 · 14 February 2022]

The most interesting aspect of this short (Besides of its stylish animation and eerie atmosphere) its the way in which it how it captures the horror beneath the apparent mundaneness of everyday life under a totalitarian regime.

Here, Ingrid Olderök assumes her monstruous "routine" as torturer in the same prosaic manner an office worker would do. But eventually all the horror comes to surface, revealing the true dehumanizing nature of totalitarianism.

Ingrid Olderök was a monster. So was Pinochet. And sadly, there are still many people like them in world, willing to commit all kind of atrocities in the name of a so-called "greater good."

Be wary of any doctrine that totally dehumanizes any of its opponents. Fascism is born that way.

She was just one of many beasts in those years...

[Movie_Rating_n_Ranking · 8/10 · 21 March 2022]

Many times I have heard or read that Chilean cinema has squeezed every last drop from the Military Dictatorship of the 70's and 80's. But there are so many stories, many of them hidden, and most of them so chilling, that you don't even need a horror script to be horrified by the story.

In this case, this short film summarizes the harsh story of a sick, insecure and totally abusive woman who plays with the innocence of her pet and her tortured ones.

It's masterfully done, animated with stop-motion very much in the style of Wes Anderson in Isle of Dogs.

Despite its technique of realization, discretion is recommended for sensitive people.

Quite powerful, raw and intriguing short

[akellashashank · 8/10 · 23 February 2022]

Inspired by true events . This one tells us a story of Íngrid Olderöck , who is a cruel Chilean torturer during military dictatorship. At first , I didn't get the theme and not sure where it is heading to. Half way through it, Hugo Covarrubias started revealing the real picture by showing us the brutal side of the story which genuinely shook me. Still, I didn't get the whole gist and after finishing the short, quickly Googled the real story pertaining to Ingrid. Now, looking back at the short, I could literally feel the beast vibe and how she brutally tortured victims using her dog, sheer madness.

In just 15 minutes, Hugo delivered powerful , raw , dark , real content by using stop motion animation which further enhanced the experience. He brilliantly created the beast world with his animation work, I'm highly amazed and impressed. Even the score is eerie and perfectly blended with the flow. Great!! Just jump in blindly and give it a shot. I hope it takes the osacr home.

The best short movie of 2021

[tbasaurecastro · 5 November 2021]

10/10. This short film manages to expose a fascist in the most beautiful and disturbing way. The power of symbolism down to the smallest detail in the animation is spectacular. A Masterpiece from Chile, from Latin America, from the 21st century, from the world, from History.

Good

[PedroPires90 · 7/10 · 12 March 2022]

Very interesting one. Not only about the meanings of it, but also in terms of what the director was able to do in terms of creating tension and putting really horror vibes to it, with a great utilisation of sound and some interesting visual choices.

But let's be honest, if this was a long feature film, The Academy would never look into it! But nice to know that there are branches working well.

Wild

[Neon_Gold · 9/10 · 15 February 2022]

This is really dark and twisted and based on a true story which is even more disturbing.

I think this was masterfully made. I was pretty impressed. I thought I already had my pick for the Oscar winner but now I'm not too sure.

I loved the use of all the different textures as well. It just worked to create this dark nightmare world that looked so cute and innocent from the outside.

I'd say the best way to watch this movie is to go in blind, it was a wild ride.

An unforgettable poignant story of human atrocities told in stop-motion

[Horror_Flick_Fanatic · 10/10 · 16 February 2022]

I am quite impressed with the quality of this stop-motion animation and floored by the contents within it. It is a very powerful short story about totalitarianism and fascism. Totally blew my mind this animation was based on real-world events from the country of Chile. Ingrid was a real person.

Unique in every way

[chrishastings1066 · 10/10 · 30 May 2023]

I saw Bestia as part of a block of animated films at the Satisfied Eye International Film Festival and it deservedly walked away with the award for Best Animated Film.

From the unique animation style to the cerebral script and challenging imagery, it's a film that almost defies description - just like the very best works of art.

A sense of unease bubbles constantly beneath the surface. Bestia manages to reveal enough of the story behind Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile - and the life of one of his agents - that you come away wanting to learn more, but leaves enough to the imagination that the viewer is able to gather their own meaning from this brilliant piece of animation.

This film was not a beast in the positive sense

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 17 March 2022]

Here we have "Bestia", an animated short film from 2021, so this one is still relatively new and fresh. It is a Chilean production that has brought director and co-writer Hugo Covarrubias a great deal of awards recognition already. Most recently, this film that runs for minimally over a quarter of an hour won the prestigious Annie Awards too in the best short film category and I personally think that this is the film that also has the best chances from the five nominees to take home the Oscar. We will see soon enough if it can. You never know with this category, even if live action is probably even more difficult to predict. I think the film profits really a lot from the memorable main character, the woman you see on the poster here on imdb too and how she looks. I think they even produced dolls that look like her or action figures and that says it all about the popularity really. At least, the filmmaker was not scared of holding one into the camera when he won the Annie Award I think. But now let's take a closer look at these 16 minutes: While the Russian Oscar-nominated short film was one that got better and better the longer it went, I felt that this one her was the exact opposite. The beginning, i.e. First five minutes or so, was still pretty alright and maybe I would have given more stars there had it stayed that way, but I felt the longer it went, the messier the story became and it got pretty difficult to understand what was going on exactly. Even if there was no Spanish (or any other language) dialogue involved, so you won't need subtitles.

In general, this film's biggest strength was probably the character animation. The dog was really awesome too. Shocking when it got decapitated, but you never know if this twist was real or just in the head of the main character. And why was there a man's head instead of the dog's towards the end? And why was she shot randomly? Killed you would think, but then we see her inside the plane again with the hole inside her head. The way we saw her also at the very start, so somehow she even survived that despite the blood pouring out of her skull. You really wonder what is this woman? The title gives the answer. Some beast, some monster. Not human most likely. The one scene you will surely remember here is the one that has the dog do something very specific with its tongue. I will not go into detail. There is no way you will forget this shot anytime soon anyway. But this was in general a bit the problem of the film. It was very showy, very spectacular at times, but in terms of storytelling it came short for me and this production aspect is far more important than any other to me and eventually the key decision why I give this film a thumbs-down. I would say it is the second-weakest from the nominees and I would not be particularly happy if it wins the Oscar. Could definitely happen though. We'll see. I give it a negative recommendation. Pity, there are aspects here that I enjoyed. I still think you'd better skip the watch this time. Also, if you decide to watch it nonetheless, definitely do not do so with (your) kids nearby. It's for grown-ups.