John Henry Patterson has done three things that made his name in history: he participated in the founding of Israel, discovered the giant antelope, and made "cannibals" with his memoir "The Ogre of Tsavo". Beast” (man-eater) became a buzzword.
Paterson's legendary killing of two man-eating lions inspired many hunters or adventure writers to scramble to share with readers the beasts they encountered. The stories of these man-eating lions, tigers and leopards have also become one of the origins of today's animal horror works.
But on the flip side, both Paterson's writings, and those of other followers (such as 1944's The Man-Eating Tigers of Kumaon), often depict the dangers of nature with sensational exaggeration Unpredictable, and the behavior of beasts attacking humans also gave the author a reasonable motivation to kill, but neglected to explore the many factors that caused these animals to develop cannibalism, and the lack of security in the living environment of the victims, which led to the existence of cannibals. Opportunity for social tragedy.
Therefore, after the idea of animal conservation rises, readers enjoy the tension and excitement of cannibal stories on the one hand, but feel a certain "guilt-ridden pleasure" on the other hand.
With this in mind, studios are extremely cautious when dealing with this type of subject matter. Even if they adapt real events, they will deliberately blur the time and place, or avoid the scene where the protagonist shoots the lion.
"Adventures in the Devil's Land" and "The Killer of Mount Kilimanjaro" both mentioned the Tsavo man-eating lions in the 1950s. However, the former simplified the story into the offense and defense of one man and one lion, while the latter Events serve as episodes of the journey. It was not until the 1996 masterpiece " Night Hunting " that the complete incident was finally filmed, as well as the thrilling battle between humans and beasts at the end of the film.
On the other hand, books or films like The Lion and I (Born Free, 1966) remind the audience of another possibility of coexistence and co-prosperity with nature, as long as the basic space of non-aggression is preserved, allowing animals to conform to their instincts Life, human and non-human species understanding each other is not difficult. But reconciliation-promoting films also have examples of self-defeating.
Noye Marshall's "Naughty Animals" (Roar, 1981) was originally a family comedy, trying to dispel the audience's myths about big cats by directing a true story of a family raising lions and other beasts. The series of wounding accidents caused during the filming process has made people alert to the danger of underestimating the aggression of wild animals.
In addition, the dramatic effect of Marshall's calculation is to make the audience mistakenly believe that the protagonist's family was attacked by a lion, and it was later revealed that it was a misunderstanding caused by playfulness. However, the spectacle of beasts presented in "Naughty Animals", as well as the astonishing scene of lions breaking into the owner's house, may be more fear than humor for the audience's instinctive reaction. When people mention this film today, they mostly think it is a self-indulgent exploitation film.
The horror-adventure film "Savage Harvest," released in the same year as "Naughty Animals," seems to be an irony of the former. In the film, there are also scenes of lions wandering around the house, but this time the lions attacked humans because of the drought. This film can be said to be a long-lost man-eating lion theme since the release of "Adventures in the Devil's Land", but it still strictly adheres to the principle of not harming animals, and only allows survivors to escape from the area occupied by lions. The most classic scene in
's "Dangerous Roar" should be the tense scene in which the owner's family transforms the furniture into movable iron cages and confronts the lions head-on with the momentum of the death squad. Although the film is not well-known, it is a rare good work in terms of creativity and horror atmosphere.
Until the 1990s, lion movies were roughly divided into two routes, namely, the peaceful coexistence of humans and lions, and the accident that humans strayed into the lion's territory and were attacked. These works anthropomorphize the behavior of lions and try to avoid the cannibalistic endings that are common in animal horror films after " Jaws ".
If it wasn't a matter of life or death, the movie would keep reminding the audience that they were against nature.Sexual anomalies. The screenwriter of "Night Hunt", William Goting, used the image of a dark demon to describe two cannibal lions representing "absolute evil", making the final battle at the end of the film more like an exorcism ceremony than a simple hunting action.
2007 The former " Bloodthirsty Lion " and the 2016 young "Raging Lion" both inherited this unusual crazy atmosphere. The family of "Bloodthirsty Lions" is suddenly trapped in their car by an unknown lion. The lions are like killing machines, stubbornly chasing down any creature they encounter. The Dutch film "Ferocious Lion" is even more exaggerated. Lions are rampant around Amsterdam, constantly evading police pursuit, but unexpectedly appear around people like serial killers.
used the sci-fi horror film "The Lift" (The Lift), the director of the film industry to make a sensation, and integrated the strong black humor , current affairs satire and plasma violence into the formula of animal disaster films, making this film a lion. Rarely seen in a film of different colors. Interestingly, both of the above movies destroy lions with explosions. The "Beast" released this year by
originally had a similar arrangement, but in the end it subverted everyone's expectations and gave an even more stunning ending. The originality of
"Beast" is actually not high. Its script is like a collection of themes from lion movies over the years, and then they are extracted and refined. Its success lies in the choreographer's ability to strike a perfect balance when dealing with difficult subjects such as animal conservation and animal horror. In fact, 2020's Reloaded to the Rescue: The Division has the same ambition, but the results fell short.
Reloaded to the Rescue is inspired by director M. J. Bassett's research on the poaching of lions, in which lions are both tough warriors and brave mothers. The mercenary captain played by Megan Fox was attacked by a lion during a rescue mission, but finally fought side by side with the lion to deal with the rebels and poachers. This work, which regards the lion as the second protagonist, was originally expected to open up a new situation for this genre, but its dialogue, visual effects and story logic are too crude, and many sections have the illusion of absurd comedy, which makes the audience unable to Focus on the director's serious creative motives.
"Beast" also has a similar educational connotation, but it is relatively easier to enter. The stray male lion who lost his family due to poaching in the film is a rather rare setting of a beast. Losing the restraint of the pride, it becomes solitary, violent, and vengeful against its enemies, making its aggressive behavior convincing.
However, on the other hand, the movie keeps reminding us that it is always an ordinary animal. If there is no accident, it may be like the lions that are close to the protagonist in the title, and maintain a non-aggressive balance with humans. The protagonist cannot regard it as a strange disaster, but must master the opponent's behavior and weaknesses in order to win more chances of survival for himself.
To the credit of The Beast, the ending allows nature to make its own judgments, rather than punishing perceived "bad animals" from a human moral point of view. The out-of-control lion in the film not only affects human beings, but also puts other lions in danger. The protagonist uses the habit of lion protection to relieve the danger, which is not only an ingenious design, but also solves the moral problem of animal disaster films.
As a new milestone in the lion movie, "Beast" can be said to use up all the trump cards in hand to achieve a wonderful game. However, with all the moves out of the way, it may be a new problem how to bring forth the new in future lion movies.
