Product Description

In 1765 something was stalking the mountains of south-western France. A 'beast' that pounced on humans and animals with terrible ferocity. Indeed they beast became so notorious that the King of France dispatched envoys to find out what was happening and to kill the creature. By the end, the Beast of Gevaudan had killed over 100 people, to this day, no one is entirely sure what it was, wolf? hyena? or something supernatural? Whatever it was, shepherds had the same life-expectancy as the red-suited guys in 'Star Trek'. The Beast is a popular myth in France, albeit one rooted firmly in reality; somewhat surprisingly it is little known to the outside world, and perhaps incredibly it has never been made into a movie. Until now... Based on the true story of the Beast of the Gevaudan that terrorised France in the mid-XVIIIth century, the movie aims to tell first and explain afterwards. In the first part, a special envoy of the King of France, altogether biologist, explorer and philosopher, arrives in the Gevaudan region, in the mountainous central part of France. The Beast has been attacking women and children for months and nobody has quite been able to harm it or even take a good look at it. In the second part, our hero Chevalier de Fronsac will not only have to fight the Beast, but also ignorance, bigotry and conspiracy and will rely on two women, one an aristocrat, the other a prostitute, as well as the enigmatic Mani, an Iroquois he met in New-France (Canada).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #98156 in DVD
• Published on: 2001
• Formats: Color, Widescreen, Subtitled, Import, DVD, NTSC
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 152 minutes

Features

• REGION 1 DVD - NSTC

Customer Reviews

Interesting genre fusion, strange story arcs
This period piece laced with martial arts is interesting to watch, especially considering since it's been 7 years since its release. Undoubtably the angles and camera work are interesting. However, several times I thought the story arcs were strange, and dragging. I felt the movie could have been completed 1/2 hour earlier-it was anti-climactic in parts. The plot reminded me a bit of "The Village", where the town had created a beast to keep residents in line. However, that does not take away from the film. I can say that I wish that I spoke French, as I watched the dubbed version yesterday, and found it a bit distracting. It's definitely worth a look, especially if you like mythicism and interesting settings/camera work, but suspend disbelief when thinking about the actual structure of the film's flow.

Haunting
I saw this when it came out on DVD and it was the french version with subtitles. I couldn't get over the film, so I had to buy it. Alas, I bought the version that was dubbed. And, it just didn't work for me. So, I mustered up my courage and found the french version with subtitles. This is a film that has everything: mystery, romance, martial arts, rich history, and frankly a lot of extremely good looking people, and of course one super creepy villian. If you like a roller-coaster movie, this is the one for you!

Wow!
At Christmastime, in 2004, my wife, daughter and I traveled to Maine to see old and good friends. I took with me my trusty Mac portable, on which I had developed the habit of watching movies, in the middle of the night, when I could not sleep. With a pair of earphones from my iPod I was a happy, if sleepy the next day, man. A local movie rental shop in the little town of Union had this movie, and being a fan of good horror movies, I rented it. I was totally captivated. Recently it occurred to me to track it down on amazon. It is an amazing film. The acting is superb. The action kept me happily awake all through the movie. It made me cry (not only do I cry during hopeful scenes in movies, where someone is kind to another, but for violence when it is very well done--such as recently with Heath Ledger's performance in The Dark Knight (Batman)). If intelligent horror/fantasy/historical (loosely based)/erotic (somewhat)/martial arts movies are your thing, I recommend this one especially.