Beautiful Creatures

I watched this movie on my laptop while my neighbor spent three hours trying to parallel park a U-Haul outside my window, and the real-life tension of watching him hit the curb actually synced up perfectly with the "Claiming" ritual on screen. It’s funny how a little bit of atmospheric chaos helps when you’re diving back into the early 2010s—an era when every studio in Hollywood was desperately rummaging through the "Young Adult" bargain bin, hoping to find the next Twilight or Harry Potter.

Beautiful Creatures arrived in 2013, right at the tail end of that gold rush. Looking back, it’s a fascinating artifact. It didn't launch a massive franchise, and it certainly didn't set the box office on fire, but it has something most of its contemporaries lacked: a pulse.

Southern Gothic with a Side of Ham

Set in the fictional, moss-draped town of Gatlin, South Carolina, the film follows Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), a kid who reads banned books and dreams of escaping his small-town existence. Enter Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), the "mysterious new girl" who happens to be a Caster (don’t call them witches). On her 16th birthday, her nature—Light or Dark—will be "claimed" by forces beyond her control.

What I love about this movie is how it leans into the Southern Gothic aesthetic. It’s humid, it’s lush, and the production design is genuinely gorgeous. Director Richard LaGravenese clearly wasn't interested in the muted, blue-tinted gloom of the Twilight films. Instead, we get a world that feels like it’s vibrating with old magic and older grudges.

Alden Ehrenreich is the secret weapon here. Before he was Solo or stealing scenes in Oppenheimer, he was proving that a YA protagonist could actually have a personality. He’s charming, fast-talking, and has a weird, dorky energy that makes the romance feel earned. The chemistry between Alden and Alice makes the Twilight leads look like two wet planks of wood. You actually believe these two like each other, which is a low bar that many films in this genre still fail to clear.

A Cast Far Too Good for a YA Flop

If the leads are the heart, the supporting cast is the entire nervous system, and they are dialed up to eleven. Jeremy Irons shows up as Lena’s uncle, Macon Ravenwood, and he is doing work. He’s wearing linen suits, sunglasses indoors, and playing his role with a level of theatricality that suggests he’s in a different movie entirely. Jeremy Irons plays his role like he’s trying to win a bet about how much scenery a human can chew without choking.

Then you have Viola Davis as Amma, who brings a grounded, spiritual weight to the film that it probably doesn't deserve but desperately needs. And let’s talk about Emmy Rossum as the "Siren" cousin, Ridley. She enters the movie in a sheer black dress and a wide-brimmed hat, looking like she wandered off the set of a high-fashion noir. Apparently, the production had to move fast; the famous dinner table scene, where the room spins violently as the family argues, was achieved using a massive gimbal. It’s a practical effect that holds up way better than the CGI "caster storms" that populate the climax.

It turns out that Alice Englert is actually the daughter of legendary director Jane Campion, which explains why she feels so much more comfortable with the heavy, emotional beats than your average teen star. There's a pedigree here that you don't usually find in "supernatural romance #42."

The Curse of the Post-Twilight Gold Rush

So, why didn't it work? In 2013, the market was over-saturated. Between The Mortal Instruments, Divergent, and The Host, audiences were starting to feel the "chosen one" fatigue. Beautiful Creatures also suffered from an identity crisis. It’s a bit too smart and cynical for the hardcore "Team Edward" crowd, but a bit too melodramatic for the indie-loving film nerds.

The effects in the final act reveal the era’s limitations. While the practical sets and costumes are top-tier, the digital "light shows" during the supernatural battles look like early-2010s screen savers. It was a time when CGI was becoming the default solution for every climax, often at the expense of the grounded drama that made the first hour so engaging.

Interestingly, Alden Ehrenreich wasn't even the first choice for Ethan; Jack O'Connell was originally cast but had to drop out due to scheduling. I can't imagine the movie with O'Connell's rougher edge. Alden's "puppy dog with a library card" vibe is what makes the Southern charm work.

Despite its flaws—and the ending is admittedly a bit of a muddled mess of sacrifices and memory wipes—I find myself returning to this one. It’s a "cult classic" in the truest sense: a film that failed to meet studio expectations but found a second life on DVD and streaming because it has an actual soul. It’s a reminder of a specific window in Hollywood history where they were still trying to figure out how to make "digital" feel "magical."

Beautiful Creatures is better than you remember, mostly because it refuses to take itself as seriously as its peers. It’s a lush, over-acted, and wonderfully weird slice of Southern Gothic fantasy. If you can forgive some dated CGI and a plot that occasionally trips over its own shoelaces, you’ll find a romance that actually has some heat behind it. Plus, watching Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson (who plays the villain with the subtlety of a hurricane) go toe-to-toe is worth the price of admission alone.