Beezel — Beezel( Blu Ray)

Beezel is a 2024  horror film regarding a soul-sucking & flesh-eating Witch. The film's story is told over a time frame of sixty years- blending together filmed and found footage. The picture nicely blends a sense of hovering dreading, with moments of both creepiness & darting horror,  and a few neat touches of shock ‘n’ gore.  Here from Epic Pictures is a Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in a short making of, and two short films by the picture's makers

Beezel is directed & co-written by Western Massachusetts-born Aaron Fradkin,  with his wife Victoria co-written/starring in it.  He has a total of twenty-eight directing credits to his name- taking in four features, and a selection of  twenty  four shorts/ TV episodes. His other feature lengths are adventure comedy-drama 15 North ( 2013), dating app-themed comedy Electric Love (2018), and comedy horror Val (2021).

Beezel is shot/ based in a detached house on a small patch of land- in the house basement is a seemingly blind witch, who preys on the souls and the flesh of those stepping into the house. It’s told between the 1960s and the present day- with us being introduced to four sets of characters. These move from a family with a small boy whose mother is seemingly locked -up in the basement. a middle-aged man who wants to clear his name of murder and employs a videographer to help. An infirmed and bed-bound lady, whose careers keep disappearing. And a thirty-something couple who want to sell the house.

The one-hour and twenty-two-minute film shifts well between unnerving Super Eight family films, though to shot on film shooting, onto VHS and digitally filmed with these elements mixed & blended together in a creative manner. Throughout we only see darting footage of the blind witch, and around this we get a good mix of dread, moments of creepiness, horror, and sudden spurts of gore/violence. The four storylines/characters are linked together- with for the most part the acting being between good to fine, I’d say there’s only one male actor in the last segment who was overtly bad. The film's score is extremely sparse/ at points non-existence, being based around the malevolent sawing/ droning element.

All in all, I must say I was rather impressed with Beezel- as it told its story in a distinctive way- with creative use of different film media, and a good even blend of dread, creep factor, horror, and fleeting gore. With the blind witch been a great horror character, which ins’t overplayed/ over shown

The region-free Blu-Ray features three things- a making of, and two short films by the director each of these lasts around the eight-minute mark.

So in finishing Beezel is a great recent horror film- using genre tropes and expectations in a rewarding/ creative manner. I’ll most certainly be keeping a eye out for what Mr and Mrs Fradkin do next…it’d be great to see a follow up to this film, as they’ve certainly left it open, and I’m most keen to see what that blind, soul-sucking, and limb munching witch does next.