A bewitching horror film | The Beldham (AKA The House at Hallow End) (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts - video Dailymotion

Skip to player Skip to main content

4 days ago

Film Brain reviews this female-led haunted house film, with a mother who thinks a witch is after her baby... or is haunting in a different way?

Category

Transcript

Display full video transcript

00:00Katie Parker thinks that something is after her child in the horror film, The Beldum,

00:04which was released in the UK as the house at Hallow End.

00:08Parker moves back with her realtor mother, Patricia Heaton,

00:10and her new boyfriend, Corbin Bernson, after an incident of postpartum depression.

00:15But Parker soon starts seeing a bird-like witch known as a Beldum,

00:19which she believes is trying to steal her baby,

00:22but everyone around her thinks she's losing her sanity.

00:26The Beldum is the directorial debut of actor and writer Angela Gullner,

00:29and it's pretty solid for a first-time feature,

00:32and Gullner wears her influences fairly proudly.

00:35In particular, it reminded me of Jennifer Kent's The Babadook,

00:38and I'm sure that's no accident.

00:40It's quite a small contained film,

00:42almost entirely set in the one house with a small group of characters,

00:46but part of the reason why the film works so well

00:48is that it's well acted enough that it works as a family drama between the spooky stuff.

00:53There's enough unanswered questions about what's going on to make things intriguing,

00:57like, why is Heaton acting so strange and short-tempered towards Parker?

01:01Is she hiding an illness,

01:03and that's why there's now a living carer, played by Emma Fitzpatrick,

01:06or is it the house itself that's affecting her behaviour?

01:10As much as it's interesting to see sitcom star Heaton play against Ty much better than she did in

01:15Al Pacino Horror The Ritual earlier this year,

01:17really, this is Parker's show,

01:19who does an impressive performance of a woman whose motherly intuition is telling her something is wrong,

01:24but the more she uncovers about the house's dark history,

01:26the less everyone believes her,

01:28and blames her paranoia on her postpartum depression.

01:32But the Beldum stands out because it's a distinctly female take on the Haunted House film,

01:37written, directed, and predominantly starring women about mothers and daughters.

01:42Cormen Bernstein as Heaton's supportive boyfriend

01:44is the only major male character in the film,

01:47and the character is largely peripheral to the proceedings.

01:49It's clear the film is using horror, especially The Witches and Birds, as a metaphor,

01:55and while it has plenty of unsettling imagery and dreamscapes,

01:58it isn't actively scary, despite playing on parental anxieties.

02:02Nevertheless, it is directed with subtlety and intelligence.

02:05Once the film finally reveals itself in the home stretch,

02:08it's a rare third-act rug pull that actually explains and enriches what came before it,

02:13instead of destroying the whole film like it has in so many others of its ilk.

02:17It genuinely surprised me and caught me off guard.

02:21It's rare to describe a horror film as poignant,

02:23but that's the case with the surprisingly moving Beldum

02:26that left me haunted in a different way than I expected.

Be the first to comment

Add your comment

Recommended

For Sale By Exorcist (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | She flips haunted houses!

9 months ago

Presence (Steven Soderbergh) (REVIEW) | Projector | You are the ghost

11 months ago

Home Sweet Home: Where Evil Lives (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | Home alone with sins of the past

1 year ago

The Baby in the Basket (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | How many scares? Nun.

10 months ago

The Deserving (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | Not deserving of my recommendation

1 year ago

Schlitter: Evil in the Woods (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | Jigsaw if he was a French lumberjack

1 year ago

Die Before You Die (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | An influencer gets (six feet) deep

1 year ago

The Ugly Stepsister (REVIEW) | Projector | Cinderella meets The Substance!

8 months ago

Bystanders (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | Predators become the prey

11 months ago

Last Straw (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | Serves a new twist on a familiar recipe

1 year ago

The Moor (Bernard Hill) (REVIEW) | Projector #shorts | Sometimes less is moor

1 year ago

Guy Pearce and the Girl with the Death Touch | Killing Faith (AKA Devil in the Dust) (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts

6 weeks ago

Hallow Road (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys drive into the unknown

6 months ago

Saint Claire (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | Bella Thorne sees ghosts and kills creeps

5 months ago

The Banished (2025) (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | An eerie but puzzling Aussie bush horror

5 months ago

Restless (2025) (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | Neighbours can be a waking nightmare

8 months ago

Azrael (Samara Weaving) (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | Be loud about this wordless horror

1 year ago

Blood Star (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | A sadistic Sheriff is above the law

1 year ago

The Rule of Jenny Pen (John Lithgow) (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | Getting old is terrifying

9 months ago

The Haunted Movie

7 years ago

Witches' Well Movie

2 years ago

(Stephen) King on Screen (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | How does King have so many films?

2 years ago

Hot Milk (Emma Mackey) (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | A hot mess

6 months ago

Frankenweenie Movie Review! Plus New Horror Film Trailer Reviews Just in Time for Halloween!

catherinereitman

9 years ago

Good Boy (2025) (REVIEW) | Projector Shorts | Horror from a dog's POV

2 months ago