Beezel, a new film from the horror duo Aaron Fradkin and Victoria Fratz Fradkin, opens with a montage of mostly wholesome yet slightly haunting home video clips overlayed with overtly ominous music. The vibes are set immediately – this is going to be an unrelenting movie.
Following various visitors and inhabitants of an otherwise quaint New England home over a time spanning about 60 years, we watch as they all come face to face with the sinister witch Beezel who calls the house her home. Each vignette longer than the last, expands on the drama while occasionally skimping on the scares.
The first and shortest of the stories follows a child who finds his mother, rather peculiarly, asking for food from beneath the bathroom sink. Spoiler – the witch gets his ass.
Years later a documentary filmmaker named Apollo (LeJon Woods) arrives to record the story of the boy’s father who was accused of the boy’s death. Apollo and the father, Mr. Weems (Bob Gallagher), both meet their demise. Mr. Weems’ wife (Kimberly Salditt Poulin) survives the encounter and lives out her remaining years at that same house, where her young nurse caregiver (Caroline Quigley) finds out about the house’s dark secret.
Our final story picks up when Mrs. Weems’ son and daughter in law (Nicolas Robin and Victoria Fratz Fradkin) arrive at the house with the hopes of selling it. Their story unfolds with more extensive ongoing torment from the witch, rather than the single horrific encounter that each of the prior stories revolve around. While it allows for more expression from Fradkin as a director and Fratz Fradkin as a performer, it hinders the film’s ability to maximize scares.
Building dread towards the witch’s inevitable attacks remains one of the film’s strongest aspects. From the moment we meet a new character, we know they will ultimately meet their demise at the hands (or mouth) of Beezel. This impending doom makes for fun sequences of characters trying to unsuccessfully slip away from their unfortunate fates.
The second and third stories maximize this dread with an intriguing juxtaposition. Apollo is a seemingly strong and resilient man, while Naomi (the nurse) is played as a frightened and helpless young lady. How violence is perpetrated against each of the characters feels quite particular based on their aforementioned characterizations. It’s a playful look at how horror archetypes are treated across the genre.
The film’s most fascinating element is examining the evolution of home video recording. From 8mm film cameras to camcorders and digital video, our methods for capturing images of our lives constantly change. However, Beezel is there through it all. The scary witch will continue to haunt and torment the changing cast of characters no matter what video tech they’re using or what year it is.
It serves as a sort of meta-commentary on the genre. We continue to evolve the ways that we tell the stories, yet the stories themselves stay the same. There ain’t nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s probably what makes horror movies so fun and worthy of constant revisiting.
Beezel began a limited theater run on September 20, 2024, and is available to rent or purchase on video-on-demand (VOD) now.
