Beast: A Serial Killer is stalking Jersey and has just claimed his fourth victim. Moll (Jessie Buckley) is celebrating her birthday but the event is upstaged by her sister Polly (Shannon Tarbet) announcing that she is pregnant with twins. Moll heads off to a local disco, ending up with a guy who gets forceful after they leave. Pascal (Johnny Flynn) appears and frightens him off. Subsequently Moll provides Pascal with an alibi, saying that they had danced all night and left the club together.
Moll has shadows in her own past, when she was 13 she stabbed a school bully resulting in her mother Hilary (Geraldine James) quitting her job to provide home schooling. Hilary uses this to control Moll, treating her more as a child than a 27 year old adult. She is also expected to mind her niece and look after her Alzheimer's stricken father. Given her toxic home environment Moll is eager to seek adventure with the free living Pascal who hunts and works as a handyman. He is the antithesis of her upper-middle class family who seem to be an exemplar of rich immigrants who look down on the locals and show contempt for itinerant Portuguese crop pickers.
Moll in a voiceover speaks of killer whales as she practices her smile in a mirror, reflecting on how they smash their teeth against tank walls in captivity as they try to escape. She continues in her escape and escapades with Pascal in spite of being told of his past criminal record by Clifford (Trystan Gravelle) who has feelings for Moll. More suspicion falls on Pascal and an English detective (Olwen Fouéré) interrogates Moll attempting to shift her evidence. While there is all round good acting in the film, this supporting role by Fouéré is a stand out performance.
There are many twists in this dark tale of insular Island life in this convincing tale directed and written by Michael Pearce in his feature film debut. 9/10.