I saw it, too.
Main Cast: Katie Parker, Patricia Heaton
Director: Angela Gulner
I can’t believe they fooled me! I was so close in the beginning to writing this movie off for spoiling the whole monster in the opening when it defines a Beldham as “an old woman. In folklore, a bird-like crone who feeds on the souls of infants. A witch.”
Well, I thought, no surprise there; it’s going to be one of two people in the cast, either the older woman or the younger one who’s not the main character. They’re going to make us believe it’s the older woman, then in the end they’ll reveal it was the younger one all along. Ho hum, I guess. Let’s get this over with.
I was so wrong.
Writer/director Angela Gulner’s 2024 movie THE BELDHAM is about a young mother, Harper (Katie Parker), who, on the heels of some “episode” we’re never given details about, is moving in with her mother, Sadie (Patricia Heaton) while Sadie tries to fix up and sell the family home. With her, Harper has her infant daughter, Christine. Also in the house is Bette (Emma Fitzpatrick), the woman who’s there to help Sadie look after things at the house, and Frank (Corbin Bernsen), Sadie’s live-in boyfriend.
Almost as soon as she gets there, Harper is seeing things, hearing weird noises, and soon becomes convinced her baby is in danger.
Sadie won’t hear of it and soon tries to keep Harper and her baby separate, insisting Harper is a danger to Christine. Bette is sympathetic and offers Harper what support she can, but once Harper is presented with papers making Sadie her legal guardian, there’s not much the younger woman can do.
And all the while, Harper knows the witch that controls the crows is after Christine.
All in all, not a bad setup for a horror movie. Like I said, we’re meant to believe Sadie is either the witch in disguise, or that all the whispering everyone’s doing when Harper isn’t in the room, maybe there is no witch and it’s more of a Rosemary’s Baby type of conspiracy to get Christine away from her mother. And then they lay this third act on us and now I have to go back and watch it again to see if I pick up on any of the clues they must have been dropping all along.
Any and all preconceived notions you go into THE BELDHAM with, you’re already wrong. This isn’t the greatest thing to ever be committed to film, but it’s pretty good, very well-shot and acted, with a very, very unexpected climax and third act. I certainly didn’t see it coming. I’ve been around long enough to know SOMETHING’S coming, it’s the third act of a supernatural horror movie, but if given ten years to try to guess what that something was, I don’t think I ever would have guessed correctly. Well done to all involved.
THE BELDHAM is currently streaming on Paramount+ and is definitely worth the watch. It’s not the scariest thing ever, but it’s got its definite creep moments. Genre aside, though, it’s just a very well-made, atmospheric movie with tons of drama and some really good character moments. I dug the hell out of this one.
C. Dennis Moore is the author of over 60 published short stories and novellas in the speculative fiction genre. Most recent appearances are in the Dark Highlands 2, What Fears Become, Dead Bait 3 and Dark Highways anthologies. His novels are Revelations, and the Angel Hill stories, The Man in the Window, The Third Floor, and The Flip.
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