Review: Kiah Roache-Turner’s WWII Shark Adventure BEAST OF WAR Has Serious Bite

Posted on October 8, 2025 by Niall Browne in Reviews

Shark movies are ubiquitous—and two or three must be released every year. You can blame the success of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws for that. The thing is, I can’t get enough of them. I’ll watch the good, the bad, and the ugly. Getting a great one, though, is difficult. CGI has made making shark movies easier – but not necessarily better – and there’s a lot of CGI blood being spilled and even more pixelated fins in the water.

Anyway, the good news is that Australian filmmaker Kiah Roache-Turner has managed to deliver a great shark movie – and one which uses practical effects rather than CG. Beast Of War is an against-all-odds WWII war film that also manages to be a top-tier killer shark pic. It delivers the goods on both fronts and surprises in its storytelling – and also in tremendous visuals – no easy feat when 90% of the film features a bunch of men stranded on a raft, adrift at sea.

Kicking off with a boot-camp opening, we meet Leo and Will (Mark Coles Smith and Joel Nankervis), two young soldiers who strike up a friendship during the gruelling training. They’re soon shipped off to war, but things take a turn when their boat is scuppered by enemy fire. Clinging to a raft with a handful of other soldiers, their adulation at surviving is short-lived when they realise that they’re being circled by a very hungry and very agitated shark. However, the shark might just be the least of their problems as man is often his own worst enemy. Thirsty and hungry, the men slowly begin to turn on each other.

A small film in scope, Kiah Roache-Turner took his limitations and grabbed them with both hands, turning them into his greatest asset. Shot in an indoor water tank, Roache-Turner and cinematographer Mark Wareham have delivered sumptuous visuals. Using light, shade, smoke, and silhouette (partly inspired by Coppola’s Dracula), they have presented a visually dynamic film that truly impresses. The practical shark effect is also a great creative choice. The battle-scarred shark is there with the actors and you can feel the danger in the water. That’s difficult to replicate with something created on a computer.

Aside from the genre trappings of the main body of the film, Beast Of War’s opening scenes harken back to the war films of the Australian New Wave of the 70s and 80s. There are hints of Gallipoli and Attack Force Z in these sequences – showing what Kiah Roache-Turner did in preparation for his film.

Beast Of War is a film which really hits the mark. It delivers on the killer shark subplot, while also offering up a whole lot more that you didn’t think you wanted – or even needed.