By GABE THOMAS
Starring Victoria Fratz Fradkin, LeJon Woods and Nicolas Robin
Written and directed by Aaron Fradkin
Epic Pictures
From the nostalgic bewilderment of The Craft to the slow-burn terror of The Witch to the ridiculous fun of The Witches of Eastwick, who doesn’t love a good witch story? There’s something undeniably enchanting about watching these heroines and villainesses take control through magically creative sequences. Unfortunately for BEEZEL, there is a world of difference between a good witch story and the mediocre scares found in this amateur feature.
BEEZEL chronicles six decades in a house where an evil subterranean witch lurks, killing its inhabitants. And there really isn’t much more to it than that. What follows is a middling horror show with a few clever ideas squandered by the constantly awkward execution.
What becomes immediately apparent is poor performances across the board – apart from LeJon Woods, who brings some much-needed charisma to a very thankless role. Any attempt to freak out the audience turns laughable thanks to community theater-level acting and exposition-heavy dialogue. The disrespect to viewers’ intelligence is deeply belaboring, as director Aaron Fradkin feels the need to explain everything to us like children. Nothing about the film is complicated, yet the mishandling of every narrative element transforms it into a confusing mess.
The cinematography and music are equally perplexing. The entire film has a cheap, digital look, excluding some pretty establishing shots. There are a few visual changes as time passes such as a switch to a found-footage style as the narrative moves closer to the modern day. Nevertheless, most of the movie is comprised of very flat, unenticing images. The score is a non-stop barrage of grating violins working too hard to reinforce how afraid you should be. The sound design never adds to the film. It serves solely as a crutch to distract from everything else that’s wrong.
Still, it’s not all bad. One effective set-piece is shot through a camera’s viewfinder that slowly brightens up a dark room, creating a sneaking sense of someone creeping up on you. Other highlights include inserts of grainy ’70s-looking gore and a gruesome beheading. There’s also an entertaining Lights Out-style scene that preys on our collective fear of the dark quite nicely. Occasionally, BEEZEL has a really bright spot, but they’re too few and much too far between.
Ultimately, Fradkin’s film comes off more like a YouTube short stretched to feature length than something deserving of even a streaming release. Strange acting, lifeless cinematography and an overbearing score make BEEZEL a safe alternative to Nyquil but nothing worth spending your precious time on.
