BELZEBUTH (2020)
Label: Acorn Media International
Region Code: Region-Free
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Cert. 15
Duration: 113 Minutes
Audio: Spanish and English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Emilio Portes
Cast: Tobin Bell, Joaquín Cosio, Tate Ellington, Jose Sefami
In the Shudder original Belzebuth (2020) Special Agent Emmanuel Ritter (Joaquin Cosio, The Strain) lives in a Mexican border town where he and his wife have just welcomed their first baby, a son. That joy abruptly turns to horror when a nurse goes psycho and stabs all the newborns in the hospital nursery to death with a scalpel, before slicing open her own throat. A year later we catch up with the Ritter, his wife anguished by grief has committed suicide at some point, and he has just been called in to lead an investigation into a mass shooting committed at a local elementary school, where an armed student opened fire on a classroom full of four year-olds, the same age Ritter's son would have been, before shooting himself. While investigating the gruesome case Ritter is teamed-up with a "gringo" paranormal investigator from the Vatican named Ivan Franco (Tate Ellington, The Endless), who says there are religious element to the murders, and it's not long before he starts confiding in Ritter about demonic entities and the second (third, actually according to the movie) coming of Christ, and somehow a mysterious religious zealot Vasilio Canetti (Tobin Bell, Saw) is tangled up in this child murdering mess.
What begins as a horrific police procedural with Ritter and his cop-mate Demetrio (Jose Sefami, Amores Perros) investigating a disturbing series of mass child murders turns into a wild possession/exorcism horror thriller, complete with reincarnated messiahs, crucifixion, demon-possessed porcelain statues of Jesus antagonizing the Ritter and Ivan, and more murders including a mass-electrocution at a recreation center pool filled with screaming kiddos.
It's a well-crafted Mexican horror flick with a great cast and some unsettling violence; I mean right off the bat we have dead infants, then dead toddlers, and adolescents... I am hard pressed to think of another movie that kills off this many kids as this one right here, and thankfully it's not super-graphic, but just the idea and implication is a real stomach-turner, so hats off to co-writer/director Emilio Portes for having the cajones to pull that off. The few small drawbacks for me are some not-up-to-snuff CGI effects that look pretty iffy and that the possession/exorcism stuff, though well-executed is more or less the usual application we've seen before, but I guess the execution of Catholic exorcism has a set playbook, though there is a cool Narcos/Black Magic bent to it here.
The main cast are all great, particularly Joaquin Cosio whose character is put through the emotional, physical and spiritual wringer in this one, as the cop tasked with ensuring that the second coming of Christ on Earth is not stopped by demonic diabolical forces. The flick opens strong with the shocker opening and the police procedural stuff with Ritter, the second half flies of the hinges into a wild demonic possession ride with an exorcism performed in a Narcos drug tunnel that looks great and has some creepy atmosphere and pick-axe eye-gore, but I have to admit that exorcism movies are one of my least favorite sub-genres right now. I thought once they got away from the investigation of the shocking child murders and got into the third coming of Christ stuff it was decidedly less interesting for me. That said, it's a well done movie and I still enjoyed it, thanks in large part to the performance of Cosio and some skilled direction.
Audio/Video: Belzebuth (2017) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Acorn Media International in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. The digital shot film looks' solid in HD with strong black levels, good contrast and shadow detail, and with some excellent detail detail in the close-ups. Audio comes by way of an uncompressed DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track that mixes both English and Spanish throughout. Dialogue sounds great and the 5.1 delivers some creepy action in the surround during the paranormal and demonic scenes, optional English and Spanish subtitles are provided. Sadly, no extras on this one, which is a shame, it's a cool police procedural/exorcism/possession flick and I would have enjoyed some behind-the-scene featurettes or a commentary.
Special Features:
- None
Special Features:
- None
Belzebuth (2017) is a strong flick, it's not perfection, but it is a gruesome, shocking and well-crafted religious horror entry. If you're an exorcism/possession movie fan and dig stuff like the Álex de la Iglesia (Perdita Durango) directed 30 Monedas (30 Coins) I think this is gonna be a solid watch, maybe even a great one; but if you're put off by the murder of children you might have issues with it. The big take away for me is that Joaquín Cosio is always great in everything I have seen him in, and director Emilio Portes is an up and coming new talent to keep an eye on.
Screenshots from the Acorn Media Blu-ray:
