BEAST OF WAR movie poster | ©2025 Well Go USA Entertainment

Rating: R
Stars: Mark Coles Smith, Joel Nankervis, Sam Delich, Maximillian Johnson, Lee Tiger Halley, Sam Parsonson, Tristan McKinnon, Aswan Reid
Writer: Kiah Roache-Turner
Director: Kiah Roache-Turner
Distributor: Well Go USA Entertainment
Release Date: October 10, 2025

While the title of BEAST OF WAR probably refers to the twenty-foot-long Great White shark harassing a group of shipwrecked Australian soldiers, it may equally indicate extremely capable ANZAC Private Leo Bennett (Mark Coles Smith).

A title card informs us that BEAST OF WAR is “inspired by actual events.” We’re in Australia in 1942, where new troops are going through boot camp. Leo rescues fellow private Will O’Connor (Joel Nankervis) from quicksand and the two become fast friends.

Almost as quickly, Leo, who is Aboriginal, and Will, who is loyal to Leo, become enemies with the appallingly racist Des Kelly (Sam Delich).

When their unit is sent by ship to East Timor, the vessel is blown to literal bits. Leo, Will and Des, along with three others, survive by clambering aboard a piece of the ship that somehow stays afloat.

In addition to the general dangers of hunger, thirst, sunstroke, being fired on by enemy aircraft and being lost, the group is inadvertently threatened by Thompson (Sam Parsonson), whose head wound causes him to not know what he’s doing much of the time.

Then there’s the menace in the water, an enormous Great White that for some reason is following the raft around rather than simply feeding on the multitude of corpses bobbing about after the explosion.

In fairness to a question that will occur to viewers, one of the characters theorizes that the shark must prefer fresh meat. (Nobody wonders why there aren’t more sharks attracted to the bloody wreck, or why one single shark is eating so much, but never mind.)

Writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner structures BEAST OF WAR effectively, devoting the first third to establishing the characters during their basic training. We get a surprising amount of development considering the relatively brief period we have with them before disaster strikes.

After that, BEAST OF WAR moves deftly between attempts at survival strategy, beats of humanity, and shark attacks. The dialogue sounds like what men would say in the situation, and their plans and doubts likewise are plausible.

Smith endows Leo with troubled but powerful integrity, and Nankervis is soulful as Will. Delich makes Des’s hatefulness seem natural and Parsonson gives Thompson’s confusion edges that are both exasperating and poignant.

As shark horror goes, BEAST OF WAR is middling. However, as a film about servicemen bonding, breaking and finding resilience under dire conditions, it’s good.

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