British Film BEAST by Writer/Dir Michael Pearce is a Suspenseful Tense Psychological Thriller

BEAST is a film that is grabs you with its intriguing & eviscerating claws.  British dir/writer Michael Pearce has assembled a haunting cast. The heroine Moll (Jessie Buckley) has you wondering whether she is victimized or traumatized.  Moll lives at home with her domineering mother Hilary (Geraldine James) to help care for her father with Alzheimers.  Moll sings in the church choir which Hilary leads.  Hilary praises the choir but calls out Moll "I need more from you."  Hilary demands a lot from Moll.  She appears coldhearted & cruel towards Moll while adoring of her beautiful married sister.   Moll's mother orchestrates a 27th birthday party in which Moll feels demeaned & dismissive.  She leaves her own party & heads to a local club for a night of drinking & dancing.  In the early morning hours outside the club Moll is rescued from the aggressive unwanted advances of the man she had partied with by a handsome stranger armed with a rifle.  Moll follows her rescuer, Pascal (Johnny Flynn) to his car.  Moll uncovers a bucket of poached hares which sheds a harrowing metaphor.  Pascal takes her home after passing through a police road block.  At home her mother is standing guard & grills her for having left and stayed out all night.  When Pascal returns the next day Moll invites him for dinner overriding Hilary's disdain.  Hilary's disapproval doesn't deter Moll from falling insanely in love with an irreverent & magnetic Pascal.  She sheds the shackles of her mother's watch and moves in with him.  Layers of Moll's complexities are slowly revealed.  Several young women have been found murdered in the area.  When Pascal becomes a prime suspect Moll is questioned and provides a false alibi for her lover.  Suspense, suspicion & ambiguity concealed the film with a demented & unbalanced sense of evil.  The irrational behaviors of Moll & Pascal draw them together into a fierce & twisted relationship.  The sumptuously shot film is drenched in ominous psychological mystique that sustains our attention.  The final outcome may not prove satisfying but the grizzly ending provides plenty of food for thought.