January 10, 2026
by Carla Hay
Directed by Kiah Roache-Turner
Culture Representation: Taking place in Australia and in the Indian Ocean’s Timor Sea, in 1942, the horror film “Beast of War” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asian and indigenous people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: After their ship crashes and overturns, seven World War II Australian soldiers get stranded in the Indian Ocean’s Timor Sea, where they are attacked by a great white shark.
Culture Audience: “Beast of War” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching faking-looking monster movies that are derivative and have laughably bad dialogue.
“Beast of War” is a poorly staged and sloppily edited movie about World War II soldiers attacked by a great white shark while stranded at sea. The acting is as terrible as the idiotic dialogue and awful visual effects. None of it looks believable.
Written and directed by Kiah Roache-Turner, “Beast of War” is supposed to take place mostly in the Indian Ocean’s Timor Sea. But all the scenes that are supposed to be in large bodies of water look like they were filmed in a very controlled studio. The movie is also lighted unnaturally, with glowing hues that wouldn’t be found in this environment in real life. This moody lighting is something you might see in a nightclub, not in shark-infested open waters. This phoniness is why “Beast of War” relentlessly insults viewers’ intelligence.
“Beast of War” (which takes place in 1942) begins by showing the soldiers during boot camp in an unnamed wooded area in Australia. The main protagonist is Leo (played by Mark Coles Smith), a heroic type, who immediately clashes with arrogant sleazeball Des Kelly (played by Sam Delich), which leads to a rivalry that affects what happens later in the movie. As shown in the movie, Des has a grudge against Leo because Leo ambushed Des and defeated Des during a boot camp combat training exercise.
The movie wastes some time showing mostly small talk and other activities that reveal nothing about these soldiers’ personal backgrounds or personalities. Leo is portrayed as a stereotypical “good guy,” while Des is portrayed as a stereotypical “bad guy.” All the other soldiers in the movie have generic personalities, except for an eccentric loner named Thompson (played by Sam Parsonson), whose nickname is Tommy.
“Beast of War” has a few scenes where Leo and his boot camp pal Will (played by Joel Nankervis) flirt with two nurses named Susan, nicknamed Susie (played by Laura Brogan Browne), and Hazel (played by Lauren Grimson), who slow dances with Will when Leo and Will sneak off to the nurses’ camp to meet up with Susie and Hazel. These nurses are never seen again in the movie.
That’s because after this rendezvous, the soldiers go on a ship somewhere in the Timor Sea. An explosion (presumably a bomb) causes the ship to crash and sink in the ocean. Most of the people on the ship do not survive this explosion.
However, seven of the soldiers end up on a wooden raft as they fight for survival: Leo, Des, Will, Thompson, Bobby (played by Tristan McKinnon), Teddy (played by Lee Tiger Halley) and Stan (played by Maximillian Johnson). They’ve got one gun, three grenades, a tin of peaches, a can of gas, a knife, two rescue flares and no fresh water. It’s also very foggy during the beginning of their ordeal.
The raft is not too far from a small motorboat that could be their way to get to shore safely. They don’t know if the motorboat will work, but someone has to swim to the motorboat to find out. The stranded soldiers are also at risk of being attacked by Japanese military that’s monitoring the area. And there’s another big problem: Soon after the stranded soldiers end up on the raft, a great white shark attacks.
The first time the shark attacks, it leaps out of the water to bite someone on the raft. And even though the shark is large, there’s no mistaking what it is, someone still screams: “What the fuck was that?” Leo answers, “Shark. A big one.” This is the type of brain-dead dialogue that pollutes the film. Some of the dialogue is also too modern for 1942.
Leo knows a lot about sharks because his younger brother Archie (played by Aswan Reid) was killed by a shark, as seen in flashbacks. Leo witnessed this brutal death, and he is still haunted by it. That’s the only backstory that’s given to Leo, who gets more background information in the movie than the other characters get.
In every shark attack movie, at least someone seems to lose a limb. In this movie, it’s Stan who has this unlucky fate first. His left leg is bitten off by the shark. There are some unrealistic “shark versus man” scenes underwater. And the movie gets more ridiculous as it goes along.
“Beast of War” has a lot of shouting and bloody scenes, but it’s just gory noise that has no creativity or real suspense. It’s a horror movie that’s never very scary, especially because the shark looks like a throwaway animatronic from an amusement park. It’s also very easy to predict who will die in this movie. A caption in the beginning of “Beast of War” says that the movie is “inspired by true events,” but this low-quality abomination looks as realistic as a shark assembling a gas station toilet.
Well Go USA released “Beast of War” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and on VOD on October 10, 2025. Shudder and AMC+ will premiere the movie on January 16, 2026.
