By JENNIFER LEVESQUE
For the Advocate
Beezel is now available to rent or own through all major streaming services
It’s always spooky season when you have a love for horror movies, scary stories and a curiosity of anything dark and morbid. And fall accentuates that spooky feeling for everyone. Finding a new horror series or collection of movies from a director you may not have heard of before can be a great way to celebrate the season. And that’s exactly what I did.
A couple months ago I got an email from a PR company in Burbank, California that I almost sent to my trash until I saw the words “we have Director/Writer Aaron Fradkin, who grew up and shot the film in Northampton, MA.” As horror genre fan, I was intrigued to learn more about Fradkin and his work.
Originally from western Mass, Fradkin remembers watching the original “King Kong” from 1933 as his first horror movie. “Oddly enough, the film itself didn’t scare me all that much until I watched the “Making of King Kong” when I was 6 or 7 years old,” he said. “For some reason, seeing the giant ape come alive actually gave me nightmares.”
The first horror movies that he fell in love with were Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead” and then the third installment of the “Evil Dead” series,“Army of Darkness.” “I was truly shocked that a movie like that could be made,” he said.
After moving to California to pursue filmmaking, Fradkin met his wife, Victoria Fratz Fradkin, and they formed Social House Films. Their love story began in Los Angeles when Victoria auditioned for a film Fradkin was directing. They bonded over their mutual love of filmmaking. “She jumped on board and the rest is history,” Fradkin said. “It wasn’t until several months later that we first kissed on Halloween of all nights.” Now they are married and are expecting a daughter in December.
Social House Films has produced 28 horror shorts, mostly available on YouTube, along with three full-length films, “Electric Love” and “Val,” both available on Tubi, and their latest release, “Beezel,” which was released last month.
Aaron Fradkin and Keelan Carothers finding the shot Victoria Fratz Fradkin photo
Their most popular short, “The Ballerina,” is among many others that have gone viral; as of writing this, the horror short has over 19 million views on YouTube.
Long live the witch
I was lucky enough to get an early release link to view “Beezel” before it hit select theaters. After I spent the week watching all of Social House Films’ shorts and other films, I was excited to have my Friday night movie be their newest. From the film’s first moments, an ominous feeling filled the room.
Without spoiling too much, the film takes place over multiple decades in a house that is haunted by a witch named Beezel. “She calls herself Beezel and she’s lived here long before me,” a character in the film explains.
Over the course of the decades, each of the house’s residents have terrifying interactions with Beezel. The way that the film is shot, along with the sound engineering, makes you feel like you are in the same room as the characters. In one scene, as a character becomes dizzy and nauseated, everything is suddenly muffled and distorted — the effect is successfully disorienting. I can only imagine how it would feel to see it on the big screen.
Keelan Carothers and Aaron Fradkin smile in the cold while filming February, 2023 Victoria Fratz Fradkin photo
(I also have to note the attention to detail: the house’s door is painted purple, which is a symbol to signify that a witch lives there.)
The haunted house in the film is, in reality, the house that Fradkin grew up in. “It was very surreal to see all of these familiar friends and faces I’ve met in Los Angeles all these years, working on a movie in my childhood home,” he said. “Honestly, it just felt right. It’s by far the best filmmaking experience I’ve ever had.” The end credits feature Fradkin’s high school friend Maggie Dion and her family, who are all Northampton residents.
“I knew I had access to the house I grew up in,” Fradkin said of his choice to film here in Northampton. “And from what everybody tells me, the place is most certainly haunted. It only felt right that we shoot something there.”
And everything in the house (except for maybe Beezel) is true to life, including a secret door on the bottom of the sink cabinet in the bathroom. “As a kid, I used to stick my head down there to watch my mom do laundry,” Fradkin explained. “If nobody was downstairs and the lights were off, I wouldn’t dare open that trap door, otherwise I’d be staring down into the dark abyss of a basement.”
From left, Keelan Carothers, Paul Odgren, Victoria Fradkin and Aaron Fradkin watch playback. Courtesy Victoria Fratz Fradkin
Fratz Fradkin plays a role in the film, along with many other roles in the shorts and other films that she and her husband have produced. Her scenes in “Beezel” are especially chilling. Without giving away too much of the film, there was one scene in particular where she looks under the bed like the typical “checking for monsters under the bed” moment, and the visual she sees and the movement made me jump and scream some profanity that I will not repeat here.
I look forward to seeing her in more roles, as I think she is a remarkable actress in the horror genre.
“Beezel” is not the type of movie to get all comfy and cozy on the couch to watch. It’s one that keeps you on edge — literally — I sat at the edge of my couch the entire movie. Extreme horror fans will understand that statement.
The Dion family wrap photo with director, Aaron Fradkin and DP, Keelan Carothers Victoria Fratz Fradkin photo
The childhood home of Fradkin is no longer in the family, but it will live on in “Beezel.”
The filmmaking duo is already looking forward to their next project. “What I can say is our next movie will be absolutely terrifying,” Fradkin teased.
“Beezel” is available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime and many other streaming services.
