Based on a novel by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, Beautiful Creatures is a tale of mystery and magic set in the deep south. Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) arrives at school in a small town only to tormented by the popular girls of the school for the rumours of her family’s devil-worshipping past. The bullying is extreme, but Ethan (Aiden Ehrenreich), a young intellectual who wants to escape the small town life, he is intrigued by her. Despite the warnings of her uncle Marcon (Jeremy Irons), he pursues a relationship with her and strange things happen. One of the problems that is coming up is that it is almost Lena’s 16th birthday, and this is when witches (oh, did I mention that? Sorry, they are all magical witched types) find out if they are good or bad. Plus there is a curse. It’s really all too exciting.
I really did not expect to enjoy this film much. I thought there may have been some fun stuff, but I kind of expected the brooding teenage type thing, like all the Twilight things. Delightfully, there is not too much brooding and in fact, there is quite a bit of humour. Some totally unexpected. And then Emma Thompson appears and I am totally won over. It’s still very much a teenage supernatural film, but a good one.