Belzebuth (2017) A possession movie with real bite and ambition (Review)

Lock up your son’s, here comes a possession movie with real bite and ambition. There’s something special about horror movies set in Latin America. Something about the mix of religious fervour and oppression, poverty, superstition and hot weather blend together so well to set the scene for pseudo-religious spooky going’s on. It’s a good move then that director Emilio Portes, in his first foray into horror, with Belzebuth, used Mexico as a location and took full advantage of this environment to provide some of the film’s most innovative scares.

The film opens with Emmanuel Ritter, played by Joaquín Cosío, and his wife welcoming a newborn son in a sunny maternity ward. In this type of film, it’s obvious that this domestic bliss will be shattered, but Portes doesn’t just shatter it, he takes a sledgehammer and grinds it to dust, as a maternity nurse slays not only Ritter’s but all the newborn’s and herself moments later. This sucker punch sets the scene for a brave premise, it appears children are the target of seemingly random mass murders. Following the tragedy, Ritter becomes our standard broken policeman, his life ruined by the event which is why it’s odd that his boss seems determined to put him in charge of every child mass murder case in town as they increase with frightening frequency.

A bespectacled Ivan Franco (played by Tate Ellington) soon arrives, an ex-priest now representing the paranormal police, introducing evidence of occult rituals and, somewhat frustratingly, the English language to the film as everyone starts to speak English fluently around him (and inevitably, each other). Ritter has little
choice but to accept the paranormal elements of the murders relatively quickly and after a few detours and some decent jump scares, the odd couple are careering towards tackling tattooed holy man Vasilio Canetti (played by Saw’s Tobin Bell – he must feel somewhat typecast) who appears to be at the center of the mystery surrounding the child murders and recent abductions. Following a well-played out chase scene, the film culminates in an interesting mix of possession and oppression with a big dollop of religious doctrine thrown
in for good measure.

Cosío is a great big craggy-faced mountain of a man and he shines as Ritter in a role that would traditionally belong to a handsome, angst-ridden younger actor. Quick shout out to his pot-bellied deputy Demetrio (José Sefami) who stands wide-eyed beside Ritter throughout most of the film adding some welcome comedic moments. The arrival of Ellington as Franco rather steals his thunder as he becomes Ritter’s cop buddy and the
decision for him to be American and not speak Spanish feels unnecessary – Spanish dialogue only adds to the heady, sweaty atmosphere Portes creates for Ritter and the story. Tobin as Canetti the ‘crazy priest’ plays to type – quiet, controlled and menacing, but again unable to speak the local language which sits oddly.

Some of the set pieces look a little budgetarily constrained while others look fantastic, and CGI is used here with great effect in a lengthy sequence that’s probably the films scariest and will evoke shades of the Conjuring universe to those who know it. Subtle messaging about Mexico’s oppressed status alongside its U.S. neighbour get lost and are largely unnecessary – there’s enough in the demonology and religious overtones to chew on without having to throw global economics into the mix. Belzebuth is an ambitious addition to the possession category and as a first step for the director into the horror genre, it’s promising. It whets the appetite for some more LATAM-based religious horror, but hopefully brave enough to be in the native language this time.

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THANKS FOR READING DAVID’S REVIEW OF BELZEBUTH

Reportedly drummer Dave Rowntree still finds this film unwatchable; Graham and Ewan are a little more generous. That said, the film’s main asset is the one director Matthew Longfellow barely seems to notice: it depicts the band on the verge of releasing Modern Life is Rubbish, an album which saved them from one-hit wonder status and set the agenda for the next decade of British rock music. EXCLUSIVE TO PATREON

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