Director Sam Curtain ensures that a title like Beaten to Death delivers on what it promises with unrelenting violence and nihilism. Curtain’s bleak feature, co-written with Benjamin Jung-Clarke, puts its central character and the audience, by extension, through a gauntlet of torture, insanity, and desperation designed for maximum discomfort. Beaten to Death more than succeeds in its aim, making for an intense experience that’ll put you through the wringer.
Beaten to Death opens with Jack (Thomas Roach) getting pummeled to a near pulp by a much larger, angrier man (Justan Wagner) as a woman lays lifeless near the fray. Jack grabs a nearby bottle, breaks it, and violently gets the upper hand just in time to prevent his demise. Stranded in a rural area and devastated to discover his wife (Nicole Tudor) is indeed dead, Jack stumbles out to find help. However, Jack’s encounter with a neighbor, Ned (David Tracy), doesn’t come with salvation but rather the start of an even more harrowing journey that promises to increase his suffering tenfold.
Photo Credit: Welcome Villain Films
Curtain remains unflinching in the punishment he doles out to Jack. From the moment we meet the central character to the end credits, the damage inflicted upon his body in this ultra-violent Australian horror movie is ruthless and often stomach-churning. Curtain and Jung-Clarke ensure the audience never gets desensitized to the violence by telling Jack’s story nonlinearly. The inciting event that prompted Jack’s attack in the opening sequence isn’t immediately apparent until much later, as flashbacks leading up to the event get intercut throughout. Curtain keeps viewers on edge by giving glimpses of the near future Jack, wandering across the rural land in search of aid, lending unpredictability when charting his course. The nonlinear storytelling isn’t always smooth and can occasionally be jarring.
Roach has the Herculean task of sustaining primal, anguished energy as Jack’s body copes with insane physical traumas inflicted upon him. Jack’s suffering and exhaustion become palpable. Not even the scant few moments of Jack in calmer, happier flashbacks can distract from the grueling violence he endures for much of the runtime. Curtain directs with a scrappiness, and Roach matches it with an impressive rawness. It’s not just Roach’s performance that sells the pain, but how Curtain frames it. A cleverly shot moment gives audiences a squirmy front row seat to horrific ocular trauma, made even worse by how drawn out it gets. Curtain isn’t interested in giving his characters a reprieve from the madness.
Photo Credit: Welcome Villain Films
It’s a simple story packed with intensity and smart direction, carried by a tremendous physical performance. Yet its commitment to prolonged suffering eventually does wear thin. So much so that it’ll leave audiences questioning if the payoff warrants the journey. Beaten to Death isn’t meant to offer a satisfying or enjoyable experience. But its ultimate reveal will evoke questions of whether there’s any point besides testing how much the human body can endure and how much the punishments meet the crime. At the very least, it could be read as a PSA for city folks to remain in the city, especially if they venture out into the country for, well, less than ideal reasons.
No matter the response Beaten to Death elicits in its viewer, there’s no question that filmmaker Sam Curtain delivers a discomforting gauntlet of extreme horror.
Beaten to Death premiered at Panic Fest 2023 and will release in select theaters this summer with a digital release to follow.
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