Director Kiah Roache-Turner Talks Shark Survival Thriller BEAST OF WAR
- creepykingdom
- 18 hours ago
- 5 min read
By Shannon McGrew
In the shark thriller BEAST OF WAR, from director Kiah Roache-Turner, when a boat is sunk while crossing the Timor Sea during World War II, a young troop of Australian soldiers must find a way to survive the harsh seas on a quickly shrinking life raft. Hundreds of miles from anywhere, they must confront interpersonal conflicts, enemy attacks, and the advances of one very large, very hungry great white shark.
For the release of BEAST OF WAR, Creepy Kingdom’s Shannon McGrew spoke with writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood, Sting). During their chat, they discussed everything from the real-life events that inspired the story to the film’s blend of horror and adventure, and why Roache-Turner believes humor still has a place in modern horror.
Thank you so much for speaking with me today, Kiah. In researching this film, I learned that it was slightly based on a true story. Can you tell me a bit about that?
Kiah Roache-Turner: I was inspired originally by the USS Indianapolis scene from JAWS, where Quint does his amazing monologue. We’ve all been waiting for somebody to make THAT movie [Laughs]. I very quickly googled some stuff, and I found this true, very harrowing event that happened in 1942, where the HMS Armidale was sunk halfway between Darwin and Timor, sunk by Japanese Zero fighters, and hundreds of soldiers went into the water, and a lot of them got eaten by sharks. I’m like, okay, I can be inspired by that. So, I read up extensively about that and the amazing bravery and horror and heroism that these poor, young Australian soldiers had to go through. And very quickly, I was like, I can’t base it on that, it would be disrespectful, and it would be too depressing, so I’m going to do my own sort of fun indie summer blockbuster version of that. That story’ll inspire me, but I’ll really make a film that skews a little bit more towards something like JAWS mixed with The Descent.
What really elevates this film is the ensemble cast, who are terrific. I thought it was essential to portray them as humans with flaws, even as they struggle to survive the unimaginable.
Kiah Roache-Turner: That’s true. You’ve got the central guy, Leo (Mark Coles Smith), whose ulterior motive is to somehow get over the guilt of allowing his brother to be eaten by a shark. We have that little flashback sequence where you realize there’s a [figurative] demon shark in his head, and he feels guilt for the loss of his brother. There are two sharks that he’s fighting. He’s sort of locked onto Will (Joel Nankervis), this younger guy who’s a 17-year-old kind of brother figure to him. To him, he couldn’t save his brother, but he might be able to save this brother and then overcome the guilt.
The 17-year-old Australian's ulterior motive is to get through this and be brave. He’s 17, in a war, and is terrified. So, he’s got this baptism by fire going on. Then there is the other tough guy, Des (Sam Delich), but at his core, he’s a traumatized guy working through some daddy issues, and he’s a horrific racist. Our lead guy is this amazing indigenous, good-looking, big hero type of guy, and that is this other guy’s worst nightmare. He’s up against this indigenous person of color who is so much more heroic than he is, and he’s got to work through his own racist issues. Everybody’s got their thing on that raft.
When it came to casting for the roles, what was that process like? Were you thinking of specific individuals?
Kiah Roache-Turner: I wrote Leo for Mark Coles Smith. I’d wanted to work with him for years, so I wrote it and hoped that he’d say yes, because if he didn’t, I’d be stuffed. If this film succeeds, it’s 50% on Mark; he carries the film, he’s a total star. He’s a Gary Cooper type. To cast the young 17-year-old, there needed to be vulnerability, potential strength, intelligence, and the ability to act. That was very hard, and I was very happy when we found Joel. He really pulled it off beautifully. He’s got an old school vibe to him. He looked like somebody who’d be serving coffee in “Mad Men.” [Laughs].
In your films, I noticed that you inject moments of subtle humor when you wouldn’t think there’d be any. Can you discuss incorporating those more humorous moments into the film?
Kiah Roache-Turner: I think it’s really important. There has been a trend in horror over the last 10 years or so towards bleak realism. It’s just bleak, bleak, horror, horror, scare, tension, trauma, and then the film ends, and I feel like I need to see a therapist now. It’s like, why can’t it be fun? JAWS is an adventure movie. It’s got horror and terror, but it’s an adventure movie. It’s horrific and terrifying with so much tension, but it’s hilarious. I just like a bit of fun, and to me it should be an emotional rollercoaster. It should be a mix of laughter, tears, horror, and tension.
I think humor is a big part of that because if you’ve got all this horror and tension and crying and fear, then you’ve gotta laugh because it breaks the tension, and you need that release sometimes. We’ve got maybe 3-5 solid pieces of good laughter throughout the film. I like that kind of fairytale adventure aspect of storytelling, whether it’s horror or whatever, I think you can always have a bit of that, you know? With horror and comedy, you are working towards getting a physical or oral reaction from the audience. One’s a scream and one’s a laugh, but you need the audience to do something. A jumpscare is the same as a punchline, so you can seamlessly go from horror to comedy. That’s why so many comedians, like Jordan Peele, are brilliant horror filmmakers.
Outside of JAWS, do you have a favorite shark movie that you try to watch every summer?
Kiah Roache-Turner: Not really, JAWS is JAWS, man [Laughs]. It’s a perfect movie, like Jurassic Park. It’s perfection. Nobody does summer blockbusters better than Spielberg. There are very good shark movies, don’t get me wrong. I like The Shallows and 47 Meters Down, and I've heard that Dangerous Animals is amazing, but what they don’t have is this epic adventure. JAWS is the perfect adventure, and it’s sort of two different movies in one. One is this amazing look at the nature of violent capitalism, where the mayor of this small town is allowing people to be eaten so he can make money. Then the second half is just three men on a boat on a mission, the treasure of Sierra Marre, where the treasure is a shark. It’s also shot like Lawrence of Arabia. Nobody does that like Spielberg. He knows how to give you a really good rollercoaster ride. Cinema is in his blood, so you’re getting art and adventure at the same time in a way that no other filmmaker could deliver.
BEAST OF WAR is now in theaters and available on Digital.
