Antonio Campos gives troubled people time to make us uneasy, often with little cutting and plenty of space around them. We value his work with actors, though The Beast in Me shows how readily atmosphere can outlast a story.
Fi1m perspective
Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys test one another in The Beast in Me (2025), and the unease comes from their encounters rather than an investigation moving briskly along. This is territory Antonio Campos knows: troubled people watched closely, with time allowed for discomfort to grow. We felt tense watching those encounters because Danes and Rhys kept the uncertainty between them alive. The difficulty is sustaining that interest across eight parts. Campos is good at making us watch, but this series also exposes the limits of waiting.
His feature debut, Afterschool (2009), established his interest in media and detached observation. Simon Killer (2012) brought a more fluid camera to a troubled protagonist's psychological descent. The broad compositions and stretches with little cutting can make watching these people uncomfortable, though the distance can also become clinical. Christine (2016), about journalist Christine Chubbuck, is also a useful reminder of his skill with actors, whom he gives room to work while making targeted adjustments.
The Devil All the Time (2020) took him into larger-scale storytelling without abandoning troubled characters. Television gave those interests more space, including The Staircase (2022), which he created, wrote and directed. His camera changes with the person being followed, rather than applying the same chilly distance to everyone. That flexibility matters when so much of his work asks us to spend time with people whose motives are uncertain.
In The Beast in Me, he shares directing duties with Lila Neugebauer and Tyne Rafaeli, so the series' strengths and failings cannot simply be assigned to him. Lyle Vincent's cinematography gives the encounters a horror-film unease, and Loren Weeks's production design supplies a glossy finish. The polish is sometimes too comfortable for the threat. Once the relationship stops developing, the careful presentation has less to offer. We wanted the writing to give these performers something new to do, not another carefully prepared encounter.
Try The Beast in Me if a slow psychological thriller appeals, with Danes and Rhys as the reason to persist. There is enough tension in their scenes together to justify some patience of our own. Allow for stretches when the cast has to work harder than the writing.
Biography
Antonio Campos is a Brazilian-American filmmaker and producer. Born on 24 August 1983 in New York City, he co-founded the production company Borderline Films with Sean Durkin and Josh Mond.
He made his feature debut with Afterschool (2008), which premiered at Cannes. Subsequent films include Simon Killer (2012), Christine (2016) and The Devil All the Time (2020), which he also wrote. He has directed episodes of television series including The Sinner (2017–2018), Marvel's The Punisher (2017) and The Staircase (2022), which he created and wrote.
Campos directed four episodes of the Netflix series The Beast in Me (2025), on which he also served as executive producer.
