Where to Watch The Beldham
Discover where The Beldham is available to stream, rent or buy across different platforms and countries.
Why I took it off the list:
Like Desdendent, this was another film that premiered at the Sitges Festival that piqued my interest, not least because it features Mike Flanagan regular Katie Parker (The Haunting of Hill House, Absentia) in a rare leading role.
So, let’s dig in!
Review of The Beldham (2024)
The Beldham opens with a shot of a woman hunched over a crib, soothing a baby, as a little girl begs her mother to ‘Be with me’. This is a scene that will be revisited much later in the film, in a surprising way.
As the woman finally concedes to the girl and leads her away, we pan back to the crib, where a shadowy figure with a prominent beak lurks. Onscreen text then informs us of the dictionary definition of Beldham: ‘An old woman; In folklore, a bird-like crone who feeds on the souls of infants; A witch’.
We’re then introduced to Harper (Parker), a young mother who’s bringing her baby Christine to the grand house her mother Sadie (Patricia Heaton) is renovating to help out with the refurbishment.
But it appears that Sadie is not as interested in putting Harper to work as getting her to rest. It’s implied that Harper recently had some sort of episode that led to severe bruising on her side, and Sadie intends to keep a close eye on her, and Christine.
Harper is surprised to discover that Sadie has hired a home help, Bette (Emma Fitzpatrick) as she’s always known her mother to be strong and independent. However, she soon realizes that Bette is there for her benefit, not Sadie’s.
Things immediately get weird when Harper, settling in to her room, opens a drawer only for a crow to fly out. She frantically tries to shoo the bird out of the room, only for it to disappear in a puff of feathers near a sort of air vent in the ceiling.
Then, while having dinner with Sadie and Bette, Harper notices something strange on the baby monitor, a clawed hand reaching into Christine’s crib. She rushes upstairs to find her daughter unharmed, but a crow lurking outside one of the windows.
Soon after, Harper is taking a bath when something dark and squelchy appears out of the tap. Pulling at it, she realizes with horror that it’s a bird’s beak. Scrambling out of the tub, she’s then seemingly attacked by a claw-handed assailant who pushes her head into the mirror, causing a bloody injury.
Harper is then determined to get herself and her daughter out of the house, but her mother insists she needs supervision and support, citing the accident that led to her bruising. Harper is somewhat soothed by Bette, with whom she’s starting to form a strong connection.
But an increasingly paranoid Harper proceeds to cover all the windows in her room with aluminum foil, to “keep the birds away”. Then one night, she sees a full-on apparition of a bird-like old crone. Mesmerized, she accidentally lowers the candle she’s holding too close to the crib, and the sheets go up in flames.
After this incident, Sadie cracks down on Harper’s liberties and her access to Christine, even as Harper continues to insist there’s something insidious in the house coming after her daughter.
A Great Showcase for Parker
In its depiction of depression, in this case postpartum, as a menacing, physical entity, it’s clear that The Beldham owes a lot of debt to The Babadook.
Like that earlier film, the action is largely confined to one claustrophobic location, adding to the increasing sense of entrapment that Harper feels.
However, the film differentiates itself through the unsettling use of bird imagery as a threat (though admittedly not as effectively as Hitchcock!), and the focus on the relationships between the different generations of women (making it something of a companion piece to Relic).
And there’s an interesting last-minute twist that, although it may be hard to swallow for some, recontextualizes the whole film and invites a rewatch.
Although Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond) is given top billing, this is undoubtedly Parker’s show. She’s always been great in her supporting turns, such as the devious ghost Poppy in Hill House and as the innocent Annabel Lee among a pack of vultures in The Fall of the House of Usher.
But the actress really gets to show her range in The Beldham, transitioning from luminous and joyful in the early scenes to a paranoid wreck later in the film.
Final score: 6/10
The Beldham (2024): Worth Watching?
Yes, The Beldham may be derivative, but it’s a solid, atmospheric haunted house flick with an interesting mystery, surprising twist, and fine performances from the female-centric cast, particularly Parker in a meaty leading role.
