The VIFF is a chance for some eccentric ideas to come across on the big screen. Friendly Beast is a Brazilian film that allows insanity to go wild.
The film begins at a nice small restaurant in Brazil. The owner Inacio takes pride in his business and appears to have things cool and under control. He may be nasty to some of the lesser workers, but what restaurant owner isn’t? Waitress Sara seems to be the one who most helps him without question.
During the night, Inacio is dealing with a couple that appear to be like any other. Then a robbery happens. Instead of letting the two take what they need, Inacio attacks them and holds them captive. It doesn’t stop there. Inacio then makes his ‘lesser’ workers captive too, and then the dining couple! Sara willingly goes along.
Inacio uses his time to antagonize and even torture the people he holds hostage. He even accuses kitchen-hand Djair of planning this robbery. We learn that Sara also has the same diabolical urges as Inacio and she takes the same pleasure in inflicting torture, especially in the female diner. It goes from one thing to the next, from torturing one person to killing another. Whatever Inacio commands, Sara follows along. Inacio even comes across as threatening to her, too. However Sara gets even with him in the end and turns the tables. Inacio is not so much the man in control!
What we have here are common things we’d find in a horror film. They’re also things that can parlay into one of those horror movies that come off as dreadful. We have a restaurant owner who appears to be in control on the inside. He appears no nastier and no more controlling than your typical restaurant owner. That all changes after the failed robbery. Son he terrorizes the robbers, then his coworkers, then the dining couple. Then the waitress joins into his sinister plan, only to be the one who overtakes him in the end.
Yes, the making for something dreadful. However what keeps it from being dreadful is that the film is well-written and well-acted throughout. In order for Inacio to suddenly become sinister when the robbery happens, the transfer to madness has to work well. It also has to work for Sara when she too becomes part of this mad scheme. If you saw the movie, you’d see that it worked out well. Inacio first making victims of the robbers and them making everyone in the restaurant captive, including the couple dining out, worked out in the film and did not come off as ridiculous. Sara suddenly controlling Inacio also worked too, and it added for a surprise twist for an ending.
A film like this even has to have some dark sick humor added to this as well. There are elements of that too, like stealing a dead person’s earrings to seduce someone, or flirting in the presence of a man who’s bleeding out. There’s also that scene where Inacio makes a phone call to his wife trying to sound cool and collect and that it’s just another day at the place, when it couldn’t be further from the truth!
Gabriela Amaral did a very good job in writing and directing a bizarre and darkly humorous horror movie that’s big on thrills and intrigue, but puts the right limit on the gore. Betcha didn’t think a woman director/writer can create a good horror film, did you? Murilo Benicio did a very good job with the character of Inacio in turning him from a typical restaurant owner to a Charles Manson-like madman. Luciana Paes also did a very good job in making Sara go from a regular waitress to sinister to being the one who overtakes Inacio. The other actors in their minor parts also did well and contributed greatly to the film.
Friendly Beast is a surprising horror film. It’s well-written, well-acted and does not come across as cheesy and ridiculous like so many horror films.
Jon The Blogcentric 