Shark movies are a dime a dozen, so when one comes around that actually works, it’s worth celebrating. That would be Aussie horror film Beast of War (2025), which despite a certain amount of narrative familiarity and tropey characters, still manages to impress, in large part because the shark in question is animatronic and it looks freaking amazing.
Written and directed by Kiah Roache-Turner (Sting), the film finds a troop of young Aussie soldiers stranded on a small life raft after their ship is sunk crossing the Timor Sea during WWII.
Like most creature features, the main appeal are the attack sequences, but you still need a few humans to invest in, plus several red shirts to chum the water. Beast of War does an admirable job of introducing and fleshing out its main three characters when they’re still in training <somewhere> in Australia.* That includes Indigenous lead Leo (Mark Coles Smith) who is harbouring a tragic backstory involving his brother Archie (Aswan Reid) and who takes to heart the message from a superior that in war all you have are your mates.
*Considering Roache-Turner is Australian, the weird lack of specificity in the geography is a bit bizarre. As someone who lives in Canada, which is of comparable size, simply saying the location is a country is wild.
The “leave no man” mantra comes into play repeatedly in Leo’s friendship with Will (Joel Nankervis), particularly whenever the pair’s path intersects with proud, pretty boy Des (Sam Delich). The early part of the film chronicles the squad’s training, which frequently involves Des making racist comments and thinking he’s better than Leo, then being bested by the Indigenous man at every turn.
It’s simple (and even a little predictable), but that hardly matters because it’s always satisfying to watch Leo wipe the smug look off Des’ face.
Things take a turn when they’re packed onto a large ship, which promptly sinks when it’s attacked by the Japanese at the end of the first act. Of course, that’s not the only threat: there’s a lack of food and fresh water; there’s the lingering animosity between Des and Leo; and, finally, there’s an enormous 20 ft female great white shark picking off the survivors one at a time.
The men who survive – and the ones who are fish bait – is hardly a surprise, but Roache-Turner still manages to churn out a number of exciting set pieces. Helping matters is the fact that the shark is real and not CGI (like most finned horror films). The animatronic is *enormous* and the film gets tons of mileage out of shots of the massive row of teeth and gaping mouth resting just below the surface near hands, feet and (in one memorable shot) head!
Roache-Turner also uses a simple, but effective colour scheme to suggest the passage of time. Golden hues for a new day are replaced by inky blackness for nights, with red for present day bloody sequences and beautiful crystal blue for Leo’s flashbacks as he contends with his guilt, his dehydration, and his hallucinations of Archie as the film progresses.
All in all Beast of War is a solid B-movie that’s augmented by practical FX. It’s gory as hell and has a tight running time of ~87 minutes, so even when the characters lean into stereotype or the deaths follow a somewhat predictable pattern, the film doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Plus those shark effects! <chef’s kiss> 3/5
Beast of War is now available on VOD and Blu. The Well Go USA physical media release is bare bones, with the film’s trailer and a few for other movies, plus subtitles on the feature.