Nightmare Fuel / Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Moments subpages are Spoilers Off.

Darker and Edgier can and does fit into one of the most heartwarming love stories ever made.

---

• Gaston. Unlike the Boisterous Bruiser of the original film, this Gaston is a Sociopathic Soldier (or ex-soldier, but one still with fond memories of the war he'd fought in) who is lot more malicious and callous. He mentions that he has no qualms of doing inhumane hunting methods and puts Maurice in the woods to get either frozen or become wolf food. He's much more villainous than before and it's quite frightening.
  • Gaston spends much of the movie all smiles and very much cheerful, which is quite unsettling as it is more than obvious his actual feelings are anything but cheery. As his patience starts to thin, his mood starts to snap in disturbing ways - culminating in the very creepy mood swing and grin he gives Maurice just before Maurice presses his berserk button, resulting in Gaston leaving him to get eaten by wolves as mentioned above.
  Gaston: I am done playing this game of yours! Where is Belle?
  Maurice: The Beast took her and she...
  Gaston: (trying very hard not to lose his temper) There are no such things as beasts! Or talking teacups! Or magic! But there are wolves, frostbite, and starvation!
  LeFou: (stands up) Deep breaths, Gaston. Deep breaths.
  [Gaston breathes deeply, then turns to Maurice]
  Gaston: So, why don't we just turn around, go back to Villeneuve? I'm sure Belle is at home, cooking up a lovely dinner.
  Maurice: If you think I've made all this up, then why did you offer to help?
  Gaston: Because I want to marry your daughter!... Now, let's go home.
  Maurice: Belle is not at home! She is with the—
  Gaston: You say "beast" one more time, I WILL FEED YOU TO THE WOLVES!
  LeFou: [tries to stop him] Gaston! Stop it! Breathe, think happy thoughts. Go back to the war! Blood, explosions, countless widows.
  Gaston: Widows...
  LeFou: Yes, yes. That's it... That's it.
  [Gaston calms down. He turns to Maurice, smiling. Maurice recoils]
  Gaston: Maurice! Please forgive me, old bean. That's no way to talk to my future father-in-law, now is it?
  Maurice: Future father-in-law?
  Gaston: Yeah.
  Maurice: You. Will never. Marry. My daughter.
  [Gaston furiously punches Maurice in the face, knocking him out]
  LeFou: I saw that coming.
  [Cut to Gaston tying Maurice to a tree.]
  Gaston: If Maurice won't give me his blessing, then he's in my way. Once the wolves are finished with him, Belle will have no one to take care of her but ME!
  LeFou: Uh, for the sake of exhausting all of our options, do we maybe wanna consider a slightly less... gruesome alternative?
  Gaston: Are you coming?
  (LeFou gulps and quickly and hesitantly climbs back into the carriage)
  • During the climax, after Belle steals and breaks his arrows, Gaston tells her that he's going to force her to marry him and mount the Beast's head on their wall. Since he certainly has some clue about her feelings for the Beast at that point, the level of sadism is unspeakable.
  Gaston: [tosses his bow aside, then slowly reaches into his jacket] When we return to the village, YOU will marry me! [pulls out his pistol] And that Beast's head will be hanging on OUR wall!!
  • Hints about Gaston's nature as a Blood Knight are built up over the course of the film - he misses the war and hunts for sport because he desires to have things he can kill and a "hero" reputation to gain from it. When Belle shows all the villagers the Beast in the magic looking glass, rather than respond solely to evidence that Belle has feelings for the Beast, Gaston immediately starts riling up the villagers and painting the Beast as a danger that has to be killed. It's not even just about being in Gaston's way of marrying Belle here - Gaston just really really wants someone to kill and uses the Beast as the target for his homicidal urges.
    • If you still think Gaston is ever just the same as he was in the animated movie, then his uncalled for punching Maurice will be ever a surprise. Aside from losing any remaining charm he had to begin with, it's shocking to see Gaston reach a whole new level of monstrous. LeFou's unsurprised reaction to this is ironic because most viewers didn't actually see it coming.
      LeFou: I saw that coming.
  • It's subtle compared to the others, but when Maurice calls upon LeFou as a witness to the attack, Gaston preys upon LeFou's feelings for him, abusing his friend on a whole new level, just to preserve his own skin.
    • Really, Gaston using his charisma to manipulate the villagers and LeFou into dismissing Maurice as a madman just to save his own skin is rather chilling. This is true of most sociopaths in life, as they often use charisma to get away with every horrible deed they do.
    • He later threatens to throw Le Fou in the asylum cart with Belle & Maurice when he tries to protest. Since Le Fou is canonically gay in this version, there's the possible subtext that Gaston is threatening to out his own best friend and have him committed for his sexuality. If Gaston didn't cross the Moral Event Horizon when he left Maurice to die in the woods, he definitely does right there.
      LeFou: Gaston, with all due respect...
      Gaston: Do you want to be NEXT?! [LeFou is shocked into silence] Fetch my horse...
  • In "The Mob Song", the utter venom in Gaston's voice as he sings and rallies the villager is nothing short of terrifying. He's truly become a monster out for blood.
  • In the climax, Gaston shoots Beast three times. It's not offscreen, there's no cut away. Gaston outright shoots the Beast in cold blood. Gaston's cold, emotionless expression during his cruel act makes this even more nightmare-inducing.
    • Belle at one point actually pleads for him to stop as he loads up for his final round.
  • As you'd expect when it comes to Gaston's demise, we get the standard Disney Villain Death. But this time, we actually hear him land.
• Mrs. Potts' fear of Chip breaking is pretty valid. Her son is a fragile little teacup, a body hardly suited for such a lively, rambunctious child who "runs" wherever he goes. Her fear almost comes true during the scene where they're turning inanimate.
• True to form, the Beast's temper is nothing short of intimidating. Especially when Belle rejects his invitation to dinner.
  • And speaking of Belle rejecting the Beast's invitation to dinner, when she says "And I told you no!", the way she is shot camera-wise and her expressions as she says this line can make Belle a bit intimidating herself in her own way. Kudos to Emma Watson for bringing power into the character!
• The West Wing:
  • When Lumière and Cogsworth drop the subject about the West Wing, we pan out to see an unsettling gargoyle from the West Wing, icicles hanging down its fangs.
  • Belle's exploration of the Beast's room. She finds a nest of torn bedding and bones...
  • The portrait of The Prince's family, covered in claw marks. If one didn't know better, this would look like the Beast had killed the family and moved in.
  • The Jump Scare of the Beast landing just as Belle is about to touch the rose.
• The movie adds a rather disturbing subplot regarding the servants: If no one declares their love for the Beast before the last rose petal falls, not only will they never be human again, but they won't even be Animate Inanimate Objects anymore...they'll become ordinary lifeless objects.
  • Regarding the same subplot with the cursed servants—Also imagine knowing that your loved ones in the village and any other family outside the castle forgot that you even existed. On top of it, the people outside were probably aging while you were not.
• The wolves are even scarier here. One of them succeeds in biting Philippe's leg during Belle's escape, and their alpha appears to have only one eye and is grizzled. He looks like a wolf version of the 2016 Shere Khan, and on that note makes you dread the forthcoming live action realization of Scar and the hyenas.
  • They also do not sound like actual wolves. Wolves mostly snarl and growl. During scenes where they are chasing characters, they sound like monsters straight out of hell itself. These wolves roar.
  • This is probably how people thought of wolves back in that time period. Terrifying hell hounds that relentlessly chase and devour their prey as a pack.
  • Those poor wolves must be starving. Only desperate wolves try to eat people. You can see how ill-kempt they are. Belle and the Prince ought to introduce some game into those woods.
  • Beast vs. Wolfpack was terrifying enough in the animated film. And if you've played Kingdom Hearts, you know that the Beast's roar alone can shatter Darkballs, and his arms can break concrete. Put both of those elements in a Live-Action adaptation that defies Bloodless Carnage and you start panicking.
• It's a small one that borders alongside funny and heartwarming, but it's nothing short of Black Comedy when the tomato soup on the Beast's face resembles blood.
• To anyone who is Terrified of Germs, it's blood-chilling when it is revealed Belle's mother died of The Plague. It raises a lot of Fridge Horror about whether or not Belle and the Beast should be in a place that may well have been quarantined.
  • The plague doctor. Everything from his cold garb to his period-appropriate beaked mask to his cold, no-nonsense tone just oozes dread, and he's only onscreen for about five seconds!
• As Gaston prepares to kill the broken-spirited Beast, the poor Beast is standing stock still. He doesn't dare look behind him, just waits for the end. It has all the suspenseful elements of a public execution!
• The villagers' angry mob to see Maurice off to the asylum is more frightening to see in live action with real people. They also partially ransack their own village to prepare weapons for their raid on the Beast's castle, and we later get a shot of a tremendous line of torches, as the entire village seems to join in the assault.
  • Which makes "The Mob Song" even more chilling. The lyrics are kept intact from the animated feature, with references to "fifty strong, and fifty Frenchmen can't be wrong." Despite that, there's clearly more than fifty people marching on the castle...and it's not just the men: practically every adult in the village is ready to kill the Beast.
  • One of the new lyrics in "The Mob Song" is even more scary, because not only does it emphasize Gaston's manipulations, it also reminds us of how blindly trusting dictators can lead to war.
    Call it war, Call it threat
    You can bet they all will follow
    For in times like this, they'll do just as I say!
• Tom, Dick, and Stanley manage to be more menacing in this version, and they initially fare the best out of the villagers during the assault on the castle. When Cogsworth and the books attack the villagers, they simply look up at him with one hell of a Kubrick Stare, causing Cogsworth to cower and retreat. It's reduced a bit as they immediately suffer a humiliating defeat at Garderobe's hands (besides Stanley, who liked the dress and makeup he got).
• When the curse deadline has arrived, the servants can do nothing but panic as they become objects forever. Mrs. Potts's last moments are screaming to find Chip, and Cogsworth desperately chokes to Lumière that he can't speak as he goes.
• We see the Prince being cursed; it looks exceptionally painful judging by the Prince's screams as the rest of the transformation takes place in the shadows. The servants almost shit themselves at the sight of it.
  • Worse, they may be especially frightened because they sense somehow they're next!
  • For a moment, we see Chip trying to get into the ballroom while this is transpiring, no doubt curious as to what everyone is running from, as Mrs. Potts runs to keep her son away.
  • The one part of the transformation shown in full is a close-up of the Prince's terrified eyes as the brows and cheeks that surround them sprout fur and change shape. Then, during the Shadow Discretion Shot, we seem to hear his vocal chords transforming as his agonized screams turn into a sickly choking sound, and then a beastly roar. The Body Horror is strong.
• We see what actually happens every time a rose petal falls from the magic rose: When it lands on the table, it makes a disproportionate rumble like something heavy falling. It instantly shrivels up dead. And the whole castle shakes, causing some parts of it to fall apart. Oh, and did we forget to mention the enchanted objects become more like objects with each petal?
• Monsieur Toilette (deleted scenes) is a gag, but a pretty dark one. Imagine being cursed to be a living toilet, to be stuck in one location and have your jaws form the cistern... ewww.

---