Wild Beasts - DVD

Content: Law student Sara (Agnes Bruckner) is not one of the privileged ones who can fully concentrate on her studies. She has to moonlight at a bar to pay for her expensive college tuition. When the arrogant Brooke (Shanna Collins) tells her off to her boss because she is jealous that her boyfriend Eric (Shawn Ashmore) is making eyes at Sara, the attractive student loses this important source of income. It doesn't help that she makes a new friend, the mysterious Alex (Madeline Zima), who can distract her, at least briefly. But when Brooke then also ensures that Sara loses her scholarship and flies out of university, the rage at her adversary explodes. The new friends imagine what it would be like if Alex would finish Brooke off and Sara would take care of Alex`s hated stepmother Nina (Kate Levering) in return. For Sara, these mind games are just a way to blow off steam. For Alex, however, they are a binding pact. She kills Brooke, but makes it look like Sara is the killer so she can pressure her to actually keep her word. A deadly cat-and-mouse game begins, one that Sara quickly seems to lose...

With Wild Beasts, TV director Jamie Babbit (Girls, Gilmore Girls, Revenge) tries her hand at a tingling thriller for a rather younger target audience. She very obviously borrows from John McNaughton's 1998 Wild Things and the Hitchcock classic The Stranger on the Train. With Madeline Zima, she was also able to sign an actress who was already able to show in the series Californication that she can play the perfect beastly seductress. In itself, Wild Beasts could work really well. But while Wild Things could score not only with a cleverly constructed script, but also with uninhibitedly staged eroticism, Babbit clearly holds back in this point. Sex and seduction do play a major role, but the whole thing is staged in an astonishingly staid manner. And since the film also lacks a certain spice and originality in terms of content, the story never really gets going.

If the film wouldn't try to be erotic by hook or by crook without this ever taking place above the bedspread, but if Babbit would have rather concentrated on the psychological aspect of the thriller then Wild Beasts could have worked quite well. After all, the actors themselves are quite convincing and the production is perfectly fine in terms of craftsmanship. But if you decide to stage an erotic thriller and the whole thing is staged in such an uptight way, so that the young viewers don't get to see too much naked skin, then other minor flaws, which might have been overlooked otherwise, are much more noticeable.

And that's how it is with Wild Beasts. The fact that a lot of clichés are served here and the dialogues aren't particularly profound would have been much less disturbing if the staging had turned out more courageous and not so cramped. It's true that especially Madeline Zima as the manipulative bitch can pull something out at the end. And also the hypothermic atmosphere, which is created by the visuals, helps that the movie definitely has some moments worth watching. Wild Beasts doesn't come close to the quality of its very clear predecessors. But despite all the weaknesses, the whole thing still has a certain entertainment value, which is at least enough for fans of stylish and well-cast teen thrillers to risk a look here.

Picture + Sound: The film's audiovisuals are on good average throughout. The picture is clean, the colors coherently mixed and the image sharpness can convince mainly in the brighter sequences. Small point deductions are only in the darker moments. The sound presents the dialogues powerfully and well understandably mixed, the surround channels are used rather discreetly. Not a revelation, but perfectly adequate for a minor thriller like this. Good!

Extras: As a bonus, the DVD has only the trailer to offer.

Conclusion:Wild Beasts is a fairly well-behaved mix of the cult erotic thriller Wild Things and the Hitchcock classic The Stranger on the Train. Unfortunately, the production lacks both the titillation and the originality to be truly captivating. Madeline Zima is very well cast as the manipulative bitch, but she is never really allowed to live up to her full potential. If you can overlook various clichés and rather flat dialogue, however, you'll still get solid entertainment, which is presented on the DVD in good picture and sound quality. In this case, the film does not necessarily have to be bought right away, but the rental from the (online) video store is definitely recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp