John’s Horror Corner: Beezel (2024), a quasi-found footage, documentsry-style, monstrous witch movie.

MY CALL: This is much less a witch movie, and much more a monstrous, ogre-like hag movie. Your satisfaction will be much more visual than cerebral, as the writing could use some work to complement the solid monstrous and witchy imagery. MORE MOVIES LIKE Beezel: Well, for higher budgeted ogre-witches, consider Barbarian (2022) and Blair Witch (2016).

A quirky but very polite man, Harold (Bob Gallagher) hires documentarian Apollo (LeJon Woods; The Hangman, The North Witch, Ouija Witch) tell help him tell his story. Years ago Harold’s first wife and child were killed, found partially eaten and dismembered and covered in bite marks, and he has been scandalously presumed to be their unconvicted murderer. When Harold shares some disturbing footage of his deceased wife never seen by the police, Apollo realizes he is in over his head. But it’s already too late. Harold is a zealot in service to a generations-old monstrous witch which feeds slowly on the flesh of the living. He wasn’t the first to serve this flesh-eating hag, and he won’t be the last.

The gore is decent! Better than I expected. Some wince-worthy eyeball scenes, a head torn from its shoulders, some rough oral sex mutilation, a disturbing scene with a newborn baby… not bad.

Our monstrous crone looks pretty cool, smacking of Mag Mucklebones from Legend (1985) or the she-ogre from Barbarian (2022), and moving with a rigor-mortis-like rigidity in the legs and spine. Some of the witchy imagery is also great. We enjoy top-notch gross drooling, weird slow eye-rolling, and corpse-like staggered movement. There are some fun jumpscares as well.

This film’s better qualities are somewhat outweighed by its shortcomings in pacing, resolution, storytelling. Watching this, you repeatedly see something cool or gross or scary, get psyched and very hopeful, and never find any proper greater payoff. Things just don’t build as the filmmakers intended. This movie has some very good visuals, fewer good overall scenes, and never really finds any synthesis to make the film work. However, it’s concepts and satisfying visuals give me hope for director and co-writer Aaron Fradkin (Bloody Bites, Val) and his future work.