What’s Good: No one said fatherhood was easy... especially when your son is a werewolf. That’s the premise behind The Beast, the latest effort from short film specialist Peter Dukes (A Goblin’s Tale, The New World.) The Beast takes place on the night of a full moon where Michel (Bill Oberst Jr.) enlists the help of pal Douglas (Peter Le Bas) in holding son Jacob at bay... at least until morning. This means tying him to a tree in the middle of the woods... dark, scary woods. After an ominous observation ‘Tie it right this time’ you get the feeling something’s bound to happen. Before you start thinking Lon Chaney Jr., realize this is more about a father’s choice than it is claws and fangs.

What’s Not: It’s hard to pick at a short film, but press me and I’d take pause with the relatively tiny stature of the werewolf... at least from a distance. Close-up, Jacob’s wolf looks and sounds scary but that first look left me wanting more.

Special Kudos: Given its small budget, you don’t expect much in terms of sound and visuals, but Dukes sets an effectively eerie mood with striking shots of a pending full moon, accompanied by a feature-quality soundtrack. Good stuff!

They Said It: What’s a good way to make someone untie you from a tree? Jacob (Alexander Le Bas) comes up with ‘Don’t make me wet myself Dad.’ How can you say no to that?

What’s the Grade? I continue to be impressed with Dukes and eagerly await his next project. While sufficiently scary, The Beast mixes things up by focusing on a moral dilemma... Namely, can you kill your own son (even if he is a werewolf: Nobody’s perfect, right?) Oberst is fascinating to look at (I kept thinking Daniel Craig without 007’s bells and whistles) and proves more than capable of carrying the film all by himself.