AMC+’s The Beast Must Die with lead actors Jared Harris and Cush Jumbo are locked in a strange verbal seduction in a chilling exchange on a yacht, although one of them has revenge on their mind.
Monsters & Critics has an extended exclusive clip ahead of the fifth episode airing on AMC that shows how utterly cunning and remorseless Harris’ character George Rattery can be or is this a ruse?
What The Beast Must Die serves up is a grieving mother’s revenge ploy, but things are not as easily sorted, and the journey to the truth is murkier as the story advances.
In the clip, George Rattery and Frances Cairns are locked in an intimate conversation that shows Frances is deceiving George as she tells him she has no children, and in turn reveals that he is attracted to the woman locked into finding the killer of her six-year-old son, Marty, three months after he died in a callous hit and run incident. At the same time, they vacationed on the Isle of Wight.
The six-part series is a standout thanks to the tense cat and mouse between Cush Jumbo and Jared Harris. The writers have cloaked and carefully built a palpable tension that will have you wondering after each episode if Frances is on the right track or not.
About The Beast Must Die
AMC+ Original series The Beast Must Die is yet another feather in the network’s cap, which also turned in the excellent drama, Gangs of London. Both series are tautly acted and written, as BAFTA Award-winning actor Jared Harris and Cush Jumbo are perfect in this revenge thriller that will have you second-guessing everything.
The series is adapted from the novel by Cecil Day-Lewis, the showrunner and writer is Gabby Chiappe and director Dome Karukoski. They focus on Frances’ actions and decisions made while in grief against a world of privilege. It is a mother’s vengeance tale served up in a rarified British setting.
Cairns (Jumbo) lets us know off the bat what she wants in the premiere. “I’m going to kill a man.” Her anger drives the plot as she insinuates herself into the exclusive world of Rattery by way of a lead from a young woman. After Frances demands that the cold case in the Isle of Wight police, overseen by Nigel Strangeways (Billy Howle), be reexamined. Howle’s character also carries a heavy psychic burden.
There are lots of secrets and backstory that unfold at their own pace, with Frances believing that George is indeed the driver who killed her son. It is easy to dislike George Rattery, as Harris is adept at playing a less-than-savory sort who dines on the decadent and skirts boundaries at the expense of his own family, notably his young son, Phil (Barney Sayburn).
Jumbo and Harris are electric in a scene together. This series is one to catch up on this weekend and watch before the sixth and final episode.
The Beast Must Die airs Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on AMC. Episodes are already streaming via AMC+.