the Beast of Gévaudan (based on Brotherhood of the Wolf...sort of)

[John Crichton]

More spoilers, of course...

Its been a while since I've seen it, but I _did_ see it 3x in the theater (no record, I'm sure). I'm pretty sure I remember the eyes NOT being feline. I looked for it. I think they deliberately left the identity of the animal underneath the armor ambiguous.

The eyes were not feline IIRC. I agree with the ambiguity angle. Keeps the mystery alive.