My quick rating - 3.6/10. Beliath begins with the text - “2001. There were several brutal murders in Sussex. The following footage was recovered from a London flea market years later.”
Oh goodie! My favorite kind of horror movie: found footage. No straight face on that comment.
Beliath introduces us to Mark (Evan Emanuel) and Rachel (Caitlin Cameron), two aspiring journalists following the story of a 22-year-old woman whose body has been discovered in the woods. When the police tell them to clear off, naturally, the sensible response is to leave. Just kidding! These geniuses decide they need one more shot of the crime scene. Getting a good angle for the documentary is more important than avoiding becoming the next episode of Unsolved Mysteries. And they get a tasty surprise, which ends up being the best scene in the whole movie.
What begins as a routine crime report soon spirals into eerie folklore, buried cults, and unsettling discoveries that blur the line between journalism and obsession. Sounds promising, right? Unfortunately, the line between journalism and stupidity gets considerably more attention.
There are warning signs everywhere that these three (we never see the camera guy, Martin) are in way over their heads, but that doesn't stop them from making one dumb decision after another. Apparently, common sense didn't make the equipment list. And while I can appreciate characters making mistakes in horror movies, there's a difference between believable human stupidity and deliberately walking into danger because the plot needs another ten minutes.
The acting doesn't do this any favors, either. I'm not blaming Caitlin Cameron, as she's working with what's been written, but Rachel is seriously irritating. Now, all we need is some snotting directly into the camera, and we'll have the complete found-footage experience. Mark, meanwhile, spends enough time staring at walls that I was beginning to wonder whether the walls had a more interesting story to tell. At least he nailed the assignment.
On the plus side, the underground tunnels make for some pretty cool locations. There's an atmosphere here, and the opening genuinely grabbed my attention. Sadly, that initial promise disappears faster than common sense in a horror movie. The ending is predictable, and the cult storyline feels like a massive missed opportunity.
Beliath starts strongly but goes absolutely nowhere interesting. Rather than exploring its folklore and cult mythology, it settles for familiar found-footage nonsense, irritating characters, and an ending you can see coming from miles away. Seriously, if you're going to introduce a creepy cult, do something with it! Instead, we get the equivalent of, “There used to be a cult here. Not anymore. Oh, wait, you mean the cult I'm in? OH, THAT ONE.” Brilliant. Somebody alert the Pulitzer committee.
I've seen worse found-footage movies, but that's hardly a ringing endorsement. Unless you're a die-hard fan of this nauseating genre, I'd give this one a miss. There's a decent horror movie buried somewhere in here. Unfortunately, finding it would probably require a documentary crew, several brutal murders, and a trip to a London flea market.
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