Parallel Encounters

The Beast is an upcoming adult animated psychological drama film directed by RaymanLover, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Zander. The film stars Timothée Chalamet as the titular character.

Set in the early 2000s, the film follows Elijah Zane, a teenage werewolf and failed guitarist, psychologically abused by both society and his father, whose descent into mental illness inspires a mass revolution against the prejudicial society of the fictional Independence City. Elle Fanning, Joaquin Phoenix, Evan Peters and Ben Affleck appear in supporting roles.

Distributed by Touchstone Pictures, The Beast is produced by A24 and Touchstone Pictures in association with Miramax, RaymanLover Studios and EZstudios.

The Beast was released worldwide on October 31, 2024, receiving polarizing reviews from critics, with praise directed at Chalamet's performance, RaymanLover's direction, visual style, editing, score, and cinematography, while critism was largely aimed towards the dark tone, portrayal of mental illness and use of graphic violence.

It is expected to the second film in the RaymanLover Cinematic Multiverse.

Synopsis
Struggling to make people smile in the bleak Independence City of the early 2000s, mentally ill teenager Elijah Zane uses his guitar every day to survive.

Mocked, bullied, and most of all, marginalized, Zane's slippery grip on reality will pave the way for a gradual descent into a dark world of unbridled violence, as his werewolf powers kick in, offering long-awaited release.

Then, the meds stopped working and Elijah's fierce hatred now seems to be the only way out.

Voice cast

 * Timothée Chalamet as Elijah Zane
 * Elle Fanning as Penny Fitzgerald
 * Joaquin Phoenix as Josh Alvine
 * Evan Peters as Bonzo Randall
 * Ben Affleck as Patrick Fitzgerald

Reddit users vs. Eric Zander
During their development on his other project named Minecraft Story Mode: The Rebuilt Trilogy, one of the co-writers for The Beast, Eric Zander, published a image made by another person without permission in order to announce his project on Reddit, however, that did not go right when someone called him out for "stealing".

While stealing is not the case, he still therefore suffered attacks by other Reddit users over accusations that he somewhat "stole" and failed attempts to defend himself misunderstood by the users for death threats.

Development
After Eric was cyberbullied on Reddit, he admitted to one of his friends (who is the director of the film, RaymanLover) that he was feeling immense hatred and anger "so big that he wanted to do something" and he wanted to express it not in a violent way, but in an "artistic" way.

As he said this, both RaymanLover and Eric planned a movie with the aim of making others understand not just Eric's way of being, but also others' way of being. Despite this, Eric recommended RaymanLover for putting in graphic violence and gore to shock the audience in a realistic way.

Eric told to RaymanLover: "We need to put out this type of content to show the world what can happen if a person not only attacks me, but also attacks another person who may have some other condition much worse than mine."

Eric and RaymanLover were primarily inspired by various character studies and psychological drama/thriller films, most notably Joker (2019), Taxi Driver (1976), Requiem for a Dream (2000) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).

Critical response
The critics' response were polarizing, with praise being directed at Chalamet's performance as Elijah Zane, RaymanLover's direction, visual style, editing, score, and cinematography, although the critism was largely aimed towards the dark tone, portrayal of mental illness and use of graphic violence.

Audience response
However, despite the critical response being favorable, public response was overwhelmingly negative. The film was considered intensely graphic by audiences, who even thought that the film glorified both psychopathy and gratuitous violence, therefore the audience also considered that the film deserved to be banned.

The film was also criticized due to Eric's involvement for the script in the project.

Reporters also noted that the film was suffering from bombed online reviews, and that websites such as IMDb in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Brazil and Mexico, and AlloCiné in France added warnings to the film's rating pages about unusual activity.