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Interesting movie, but for my taste some scenes were unnecessary gory and bloody and too detailed. Also, I think since matrix and similar movies, most movies overdo the slow-mo fighting scenes.

But mostly, the big gaping plot holes ruined the movie. Besides, I got the impressions when the beast is shown first, its CGI, but later, we see scenes of a real animal. I think it was a bad idea to mix these: why not use a real animal throughout, that would have looked more believable?

My nitpicks:

- At the beginning, it looks like villagers attacking the black-haired girl and her father. Then we hear they are soldiers. Then we see they are wolf hunters dressed up strangely. Then we learn the wolf hunters belong to the brotherhood, and that the healer cares for the beast. So, why did they attack them in the opening? And if the healer is brought in later, why doesn't he blow the whistle on the society in revenge?

- Why does Mani let himself be manipulated by the black-haired woman into fighting the wolf-hunters at the army camp? Even if she is some kind of witch and weave a spell, shouldn't he as shaman be able to protect himself?

- If Mani is an Iroquis, why doesn't he start tracking the beast from the site of the first attack? (Short Show syndrome?) There can't have passed that many days since the attack.

- For that matter, why does none of the bloodhounds used by the hunters and soldiers find the trail of the beastie? Are they too excited by finding normal wolves? (Then they are badly trained and handled!) A foreign smell from an african animal should be quite distinct from normal wolf trails.

- When Fronsanc draws the intersecting lines on the map to find the lair of the beastie, how does he know in which direction to draw the line? I didn't see him measure the prints at the place of attack. Drawing a circle around each place of attack would be more believable, and after 5 or 6 places of attack, the circles would intersect just as well.

- Why doesn't Fronsac investigate this place immediately, before this trap-building in the forest scene?

- For that matter, why did none of the soldiers/ officers think of using a map and strategic thinking? Why did none of the hunters try anything else to find the beastie than using prey and making several drives(?).?

- The method of fighting used by Mani is to my knowledge very un-indian.

- Fronsac says that Mani is his blood brother, yet he uses his knowledge of indian mystic like a parlor show. I also don't think a real shaman would disclose his knowledge like this. Could you imagine a catholic priest singing a holy song for entertainment?

- For that matter, why doesn't Fronsac inquire more closely what Mani percieved about Jean-Francois? If he didn't want to say it in front of everybody, surely he would have told him in private to warn him?

- I don't believe that Mani would sleep with a woman in a brothel for money. Most indian tribes had a different attitude towards sex and weren't that prudish about the human body like the whites, but they were faithful and believed in marriages and relationship. They didn't have brothels in indian villages. Even if Manis tribe has been wiped out, as Fronsac tells later, I think he would prefer a permanent relationship. If he is a Shaman, he may not be allowed one at all to keep his energy pure and concentrated on other things.

- If Manis totem is the white wolf - which is hinted at when Fronsac prevents Marianne from killing one at the templer place, Mani says "thanks" - why would he wear a snake armring? For that matter, the armring itself, with a supply of powder inside, looks un-indian to me. AAIK, the southwestern tribes, like Hopi and Navajo, made silver jewellery (with turqoise) in a certain traditional way and shape. The Iroquis aren't famed for their silverworks.

- If Mani is a shaman (I think what Fronsac means when he says he is a priest), why would he use some powder to waken the traumatized little girl? I'd expect some songs and dance, together with burning of herbs, to better waken her. (But then we couldn't have the dramatic scene when fronsac uses it on Marianne).

- I don't understand Jean-Francois motivations in hiding his arm all the time, beside the bad surprise effect in the middle of the show. It not only seems hardly possible to do it during the time when he was injured and dressings had to be changed, I also fail to see the motive. Yes, Francois is crazy because of his lust for Marianne, but craziness has its own logic, too, even if starting from false presumptions and using faulty science.

- Its amazing how many traps the three man - Fronsac, Mani and the Marquis - manage to build in the forest in one day and night! A huge cage, a tree studded with spikes and a portcullis, all made from sturdy trees by people who aren't woodcutters used to handling axes.

- Why does Mani use only a battle-axe - and one that looks again like a kitchen axe, instead of those used by real indians - and not bow and arrow, which would not only load faster than either musket or cross-bow, but also would be truer to aim than these muskets? (And I don't quite believe the shooting pumpkins scene, unless the distance is really short, since these guns weren't anywhere as accurate as modern ones). Mani seems to have a bow and arrows, since Fronsac uses them later as fire-arrows on his revenge trip.

- Those indians that put their dead on raised platforms left them for the air and spirits and birds. They wouldn't put fire to the corpse, or scatter the ashes into the sea.

- I doubt a real shaman would give an awareness-raising medicine to a white person (the marquis) whitout any explanation or initiation, ritual cleansing, and so on. Unless the Marquis and his questions were bothering him and he gave him a sleeping pill to shut him up. But then Fronsac would have to build all the traps alone, since Mani was preparing the song for the forest animals.

- I just don't believe that a lionness (I assume this is underneath the armor-mask of the beast, since we see yellow fur around the eye, the male lions have to big a mane and are lazy) can break through the cage made of trees. The cage is too small to allow her much accerleration, and she doesn't have enough mass to break through (500 kg as fronsac speculates, or even a few hundred more, wouldn't be enough.) I think even an elephant would have some problems.

- Likewise, the destruction caused at the small house where Fronsac meets Marianne seems unbelievable, more the CGI than a real animal.

- Not only would training a lionness be extremly hard, why would a cat listen to an ultrasound whistle like dogs do? They don't have superior hearing like dogs.

- I don't believe the armor shown can protect the lionness from the many injuries shown. Around the eyes, the armor looks like woven wicker instead of iron plates. Full iron armor would be too heavy for the cat to move around like that, and wouldn't protect from the impact of the tree with spike, a battle axe and so on. The beast should have collapsed during the chase from the forest clearing.

- The Marquis doesn't look severly wounded - only a hand wound. Why doesn't Fronsac leave him to dress his wounds himself and help Mani to hunt the beastie down?

- When Fronsac finds the cross in the hunting lodge cellar, he has a flash of Mani being tortured. But when Mani was shot during the struggle by Francois, it looked like a lethal shot in the chest. Did the brotherhood torture a corpse? For how long did they keep Mani down there?

- At the end, the healer tells Fronsac that Francois brought back some cubs of unknown animals from africa and kept only the strongest and fiercest. We also see that the eye beneath the mask is orange - no natural eye color. Why not let it be a simple lionness? Why replace a mythic beast with a mythic beast wearing a mask? And if it isn't a lionness (or even if it is) why not keep all the cubs for future breeding? You can't breed from one animal! Francois would have to journey several times to africa, if Sardis plans to use the beasts in other parts of France, too. (True, inbreeding isn't a good idea, either, but for the first three generations, it would probably work.)

- Why does the brotherhood meet in the abandonded templer church, if they are a papal organisation? Yes, Sardis works for himself, as the italian woman tells Fronsac, but the others don't know that and believe in the pope. Why would they agree to meet at a place of heretic and satanic worship? Surely these rich people aren't hurting for a secret meeting place?

- If the brotherhood is papal, why the satanic decoration and accessoires in the hunting lodge when Fronsac ransacks it?

- At the end, the italian woman invites Fronsac to Rome, where she could introduce him. Presumably this means the pope. So, if she is working for the pope, why tell Fronsac all this secret society stuff? He wouldn't need to know this in order to fight and arrest the brotherhood in the templer chapel. She has compromised the pope for no good reason. At first, she said she was working for somebody else, but then she could hardly introduce Fronsac in rome. Or is she a double agent? Even then its still an unwanted and unnecessary breach of secrecy to an outsider.

- The strange bone sword Francois uses at the final battle with Fronsac is a funny weapon I don't think would ever work the way shown, that is, be sturdy enough when Fronsac clashes against it with two steel swords, yet be a long chain too. I think they used two weapons, a sturdy sword and the chain thing, and kept changing them during the takes. It looks very unbelievable to me.

- When Francois advances on Marianne, her behaviour makes him think she doesn't like him. Strangely enough, she never once mentions what a big taboo - even for a freethinker, which she doesn't seem to be - sex between brother and sister would be. I'm not saying it would have worked in keeping him away, but it would have placated his crazy notion that she finds him repulsive.

- I also don't understand why she doesn't defend her honor and virginty much stronger, or try to use the knife against herself. I can believe that it is hard for her to kill someone, esp. her own brother, no matter how horrible a crime he tries to commit, but that she doesn't put up more of a fight, or try to kill herself, considering that virginity was the highest thing a girl in those times had, and how horrible a crime sex between brother and sister would have been at this time, I find hard to believe.

- I also doubt that Marianne would kiss Fronsac openly in front of her old nurse in those times with those moral ideas.

Goofs from the imdb.com page:

Continuity: The young Marquis d'Apcher is wounded on his right arm during the fight with the beast. Later, it is his left arm that is bandaged.

Anachronisms: The first victim of the wolf, at the beginning of the film, is attacked in the 18th century and is wearing a bra.

Miscellaneous: In the English-subtitled version released in the United States, a subtitle says that the Beast "prays" on peasants instead of "preys".

Continuity: When Mani is raised above the crowd, his tattoos are on the wrong shoulder.

Anachronisms: Soldiers in 1766 are shown using a style of breech-loading (rather than muzzle-loading) gun not used until about 90 years later in the American Civil War.

Revealing mistakes: In the "final" fighting scene by the ruins, the wire that makes one of the women "fly" is visible when she lands in the leaves.

Continuity: The young woman in the water pit goes from holding a nubby horned baby goat to holding a lamb (without nubs), then to holding a baby goat again.

Continuity: The body of the young woman which is used as bait for the wolf is that of the shepherdess (the lady with the goat), who isn't killed until about an hour later in the movie. (The shepherdess scene was originally shot to take place much earlier in the film and when it was switched to later, they just hoped no one would notice the body was identical.)

Revealing mistakes: The metal claw weapons wiggle when struck in some shots, revealing that rubber look-alikes have been substituted for those shots.

Interesting movie, but for my taste some scenes were unnecessary gory and bloody and too detailed. Also, I think since matrix and similar movies, most movies overdo the slow-mo fighting scenes.

Yeah, it was a bit overdone, but I loved the scenery.

But mostly, the big gaping plot holes ruined the movie. Besides, I got the impressions when the beast is shown first, its CGI, but later, we see scenes of a real animal. I think it was a bad idea to mix these: why not use a real animal throughout, that would have looked more believable?

I agree - it was also scarier when we never got a good look at the Beast. In terms of plot holes, I'm still not clear on what that whole conspiracy was about. And *who* was François? He was definitely an imposter, or was he? (I didn't think it was incest with him and Marianne since they suggested that he wasn't really her brother... but this makes no sense!)

I think the movie could have used a full rewrite.

That said, it *looks* really good, costumes, scenery, everything. I love the final scene, where the old Marquis is escorted to the guillotine.

Possible historical spoiler: I've seen a documentary on the beast a few months ago and IIRC the real Marquis was saved at the last moment by the local population (where he was very popular) from losing his head. He went into exile to Spain and died there years later.

Josh, In terms of plot holes, I'm still not clear on what that whole conspiracy was about.

As far as I understood it, the secret society was formed by Sardis, with approval from the Pope, to re-establish catholic faith and fight other philosphies. They turned the beast loose when the king allowed free reign to certain philosophers, and also published a small book explaining how these things were interconnected: because of the free-thinking philosophers, faith was relaxing, so "demons" had free roam. Sometime, Sardis didn't want to work for the Pope's aims anymore, but only for his own aims (all this according to what the italian woman said - she may have lied for her own reasons, for all we know). So the brotherhood was one of the many half-secret societies which uses secret methodes, but are tolerated by the Pope.
(Some societies, and the problems with them, still exist today: the Jesuits used a brainwashing-technique for their own people, and there are some Mary-cults, which I can't remember the name of right now, which are also accused of being fundamentalist and brainwashed).

And *who* was François? He was definitely an imposter, or was he? (I didn't think it was incest with him and Marianne since they suggested that he wasn't really her brother... but this makes no sense!)

Where /when/ how was it suggested that Francois wasn't her brother? She maybe said that not her brother, but some beast, came back, but I think she only meant that she was frightened by the terrible, sinful idea of his love for her, and the demented lunatic he was he revealing to her. However, since I got the impression from what he said earlier, he always loved her, and went to Africa because of this love for her, before he could commit a sin towards her, overcome by his lust, maybe loose his passion in this dangerous country, or meet somebody else. However, the attack of the lion, and the recruitment into the brotherhood, with its warped fundamentalism, somehow sent him over the brink into a raging lunatic.

Electron, what documentary was that? What channel, by whom?

No wonder I had trouble following it!

So, if François was her brother, why was he pretending to have only one arm? That part made no sense to me.

I didn't understand the reason for that, either, which is why I listed it as a nit. The only "reason" or motivation I can guess is for this silly "surprise" scene.

In psychology, relationships based on one person being sick, and the other doing the nursing, and both "profiting" from it in some way, are well known. However, francois' behaviour doesn't seem to fit into this category.

So HRTS most likely, which is the reason I agree with you: they should have rewritten the script to make sense. Its a pity to spend so much effort on Special effects for the fighting scenes, and so little effort on gaping plot holes and poor motivation on part of the characters. I really wonder why this movie was praised as a good one and was a relative success.

Silly "surprise" scene indeed. The movie could have been fantastic; as it stands, it seems like a missed opportunity.

I want to see more movies with Emilie Dequenne, though.

Constanze: ZDF - Jungfrauen zum Frühstück
Other links:
La Bete the killing Machine of France, 230 years ago
A course in medieval Gévaudan

Thanks Electron!

Interesting reports and speculations. A crossbreed, which was more aggressive than normal wolves, and a whole litter of them, would explain most facts - the strange appearance, the many and wide-spread attacks as well as the time frame (even if an animal isn't mortally wounded by bullets from cheap guns, it has a natural life cycle.) Maybe the "family" of beasts just died and the killings therefore stopped.
Interesting that the movie concentrated on the religious conspiracy issue, but didn't show the economic and social effects and problems before the arrival of the beast.

I want to call Unfair racial alert on this movie, since Mani dies, but Fronsac lives at the end, when the writers could've let Mani live, too, just as well. (If Fronsac had dragged his heels less...)