The reviews for The Beasts are warm and closely grouped, with no outright dissent. Most critics take it as a slow-burning rural thriller about a French couple at odds with their Galician neighbours, and the praise clusters in two places: the handling of tension, built through small incidents and long takes rather than sudden shocks, and the performances, above all Marina Foïs, whom several reviews credit with carrying the film once it shifts its attention from the men to the women. Luis Zahera’s antagonist is singled out almost as often, and many critics admire the refusal to make either side simply right.
The reservations are about the back half. Time Out finds the tension dissipates in the third act, The Skinny thinks the later stretch turns more conventional, and Slant Magazine objects to a reliance on plot and some static visuals. Nobody calls it a failure; the question is how well it holds its nerve.