The mother-daughter horror film that will keep you up at night.
By Amberlyn Negron
*Spoiler alerts in this article*
The Beldham, directed by Angela Gulner, had its USA Premiere at the 31st Austin Film Festival. This mother-daughter horror film brings real life into the paranormal that leaves you hanging on the edge of your seat.
The film follows young mom Harper (Katie Parker) as she helps her mother, Sadie (Patricia Heaton), move out of the home she was restoring. While nothing seems out of place to everyone else, Harper comes across a historic entity, haunting the home and must do what it takes to save her baby – while trying to convince her family of the creature’s existence.
Gulner said this film draws on her personal experience with her mom and how navigating through the real-world can be a terrifying experience for women, of any age. While not giving away too much of the ending, the film’s closing focuses on how generational trauma seeps its way into every family relationship. Gulner was afraid of her closest relatives’ reactions because of how raw the ending would be for her family to watch and, essentially, relive.
“I was really nervous for my mom to watch it because I was like if the ending doesn’t land, I’ve really messed up my relationship with my mother,” Gulner said. “But she loved it. She really did.”
The Beldham is a film you can easily connect to if you’re a woman. Being a woman can be scary. When a woman’s fear is represented on the big screen in a way for everyone to understand, it feels liberating.
To watch Harper plead with her family to trust her that something wasn’t right and be coddled as if she was unbelievable is a takeaway that left me screaming at the screen. There is something wrong! Something very wrong with this home! And Harper knows it. Often women are dismissed when their concerns are brought up, and that’s a horror no man can understand, without walking in the shoes of a woman.
Parker said bringing Harper to life was an experience that kept her on edge most of the time while filming.
“Like I had a lot of resistance to playing the character. I’ve played a lot of women that are losing their minds and it’s not fun,” Parker said.
Despite the uncomfortable nature of her role, Parker was able to find herself in the character and learn how far she could go to deliver a scene. What made the experience better, she said, was her co-workers.
“I was really lucky to be with these two as well… I mean Patty’s been in this industry a really long time,” Parker said. “I always go to actors who have worked and worked and worked through many different decades of how do you keep doing this and how do you be a person, a mother, a wife? Then Emma (Fitzpatrick) like she’s kind of…the heart of the movie and like the stability of it. So that was really comforting.”
And this brings us to the best part of The Beldham – the cast. These three ladies have a chemistry on and off screen that makes the movie feel real. Every interaction between Harper (Katie Parker), Sadie (Patricia Heaton) and Bette (Emma Fitzpatrick) was as if you were watching a real family interact with each other. This allowed connection to the characters and for the audience to feel for the situations each was dealing with during the film.
“(Parker, Heaton and Fitzpatrick) just had such instant chemistry,” Gulner said.
Unfortunately for viewers, their dynamism was captured in a scene that did not make the final edit of the film. But it was a moment where you could see the trio play a family in almost any scenario.
“The beautiful scene where it’s steady cam. That we had to cut because the energy is like too good like, too warm,” Gulner said. “But I was like, God, I love there’s a different movie with these three women here that’s lighter.”
The Beldham exceeded my expectations for a horror movie, by showcasing a deep understanding of a woman’s lived experience. It feels impossible to guess what will happen next and that’s the beauty of the unexpected nature of the film. For every horror connoisseur, The Beldham is a must have on your watch list.