The Beast Must Die movie review (2021)

Jumbo of “The Good Fight” fame plays Frances, a mother deep in unimaginable grief. Six months ago, her six-year-old son was killed in a hit and run accident on the Isle of Wight, and she’s just been informed that the police have basically run out of leads. Imagine losing your son and then imagine having to live knowing that the person who murdered him is just going happily with life. Frances decides she can’t live like that, and she sets out to find the killer herself, determined to kill him when she finds him, which honestly doesn’t take her very long.

By the second episode, Frances has not only done the job the police couldn’t do but she’s befriended a key witness that day in a young woman named Lena (Mia Tomlinson), inveigling her way into her life with the story that she’s writing a novel about her industry. Lena’s brother-in-law is George Rattery (Harris), the kind of bullying social climber whose success has turned him into a monster. He bullies everyone in his life, including his quiet wife Violet (Maeve Dermody), sister (Geraldine James), and awkward son Phil (Barney Sayburn). As he quite simply always is, Harris is great here, turning a character who could have been a two-dimensional villain into something even darker in its realism. George drives fast and bullies people not only because he’s a risk taker but because he knows he’s rich and powerful enough that there are no real risks. Harris leans into the character, biting on each line delivery.

Meanwhile, a new detective named Strangeways (Howle, increasingly impressive with each performance) has moved to the Isle of Wight. Self-described as “a therapist’s retirement plan just waiting to happen,” not only is he cleaning up a relatively lackluster police department but he’s fleeing PTSD after the death of a colleague. He meets Frances and “The Beast Must Die” becomes a show about two people trying to find justice from different sides of the law. Will Strangeways find enough evidence before Frances does something drastic in the name of vengeance?