Beezel Cast & Crew Discuss Witch Horror Film Origins and Production

I am here with Erin, Nicholas, Victoria. We're talking about Beezle. So where did the idea, Victoria and Erin, where did the idea come from? Well, we knew that we were going to do this connective tissue of story all about a witch. We felt really strongly that it worked for the location we were looking at, which was Erin's childhood home. You know, it's set in Western Massachusetts, land of the history of witches.

So I think all of that really started to fit into itself when we knew where we were filming and we knew we were able to shoot over the course of the winter and just a witch that lived in the basement. It also brought back some childhood trauma for him from living in this spooky house. And yeah, that's where Beezle was born. It was a very unconventional way to make a movie.

We, uh... Okay. Over the last few years, starting during the pandemic, really, Vic and I started to make short horror films for our YouTube channel, Social House Films. And so we had this short film written about a night nurse caring for this sickly woman. And we went to Massachusetts to film this short film, which was supposed to be part of an anthology.

But when I came back to LA, I cut it and the feedback was so resoundingly positive from everyone. everybody that we showed it to, it kind of galvanized us to then write the story of what happened before and what happened after. So we ended up going right back to Massachusetts and we completed filming this feature length story. And it just, it sort of turned into this very unique way of telling a story that takes place over 60 years.

And Nicholas, when did you get involved with this process? I got it. We shot, I believe we shot in February, right? End of February? Sounds like a call. Yeah, into March. And I, yeah, and I got involved in January, right? Yeah. Yeah, I got a call. I got a call from Aaron in Victoria about this movie. And just before that, I had an accident with a horse.

And yeah, and I was like, oh my God. You know, and my, and my head was like, you know, was smashed and everything. And, and I got this call and I was like, well, I, I probably am a little dumber now. So that's, that's the right time to, you know, to go forward and try to do something new. And yeah, I, I, I knew Aaron's work and Victoria's work for many years.

And when I got this opportunity, I felt really lucky. And I was like, yeah, let's go, let's go to Massachusetts and try to do good work. Right. And also they know that I'm from the West of France, you know, where there's ghosts and dwarves and, you know, witches. So I guess I was the right part for it. Yeah, this is it. So where does the name Beazle actually come from?

Because it's not your typical witch name, so to speak. Not that there is one, but this one's a little odd. Sure. So that was a playoff of Beazlebub and Beazle being an ancient creature herself. It felt like she had been around and likely entwined with the devil itself. And Beazle would be an offspring of that. And it just felt very natural. Once we, we kind of tried it out, tried some different spellings and eventually people would just kind of react like, ooh, Beazle, and it had the right fit that we were looking for.

And that was it. Beazle was, was sealed into the script. So, Erin, you mentioned this was your childhood home and that, you know, Western Massachusetts or Massachusetts as a whole is known for witches and scary type stories and things like that. So how much of your childhood imagination went into this script and this idea? Oh, a hell of a lot. I mean, a lot of the scares, you know, it's not like it went down exactly that way in, you know, when I was growing up, but, you know, as, as a six-year-old in this terrifying one-story long sprawling stone house in the middle of winter, I mean, it's pretty terrifying.

And, you know, we have a, we have a boiler downstairs that would always just creak and make all of these noises. And my bedroom was right above this, and I would just go down to the basement and write, you know, if you go to take the stairs down the basement, there's a little crawl space door that leads in between the walls and it, and just goes the entire length of the house.

I would hear noises from down, from down there. And it was, it was scary. And so it wasn't, it wasn't too much a stretch of the imagination when writing this to imagine, you know, what that could have been. And the great part about that is that when the cast, and crew were there, the crew, we were, we were staying at the house as well. And the crew on the other side of the house would be like, next morning, do you guys, do you guys hear a lot of stuff in the night in the house?

And we were like, yeah. I was like, I've been telling people for years. Actually, actually at the end of the shoot, I was just walking around with the, with the microphone and I was just capturing, I just told everyone to be quiet. I was just capturing the sounds of the house. Really? A lot of the foley that you hear, a lot of the sound effects, most of it, it's actually just the creaking house sounds.

There was another really terrifying moment, you know, where in the middle of the night at around 2 a.m., a giant tree branch fell in the middle. It was like 2 a.m. during a snowstorm. This is a tree branch that had probably been there since I moved in. Wow. It nearly fell on the roof. I mean, it came within maybe a couple feet of the house and almost caved the roof in.

We were so, so lucky that it didn't actually land on the house or hurt anyone. But we ended up getting that in the film. I also feel that it's also about the energy in the house during the shooting, right? Because I remember the bedroom I was sleeping in, which was great. We had like two closets, right? And after the scenes we did, so I was sleeping in this bedroom.

And at night. I remember one night I was like, I'm just going to check, you know, just to make sure that there's nothing in there. And like it happened to me like two or three times. I didn't tell you guys, but now you know. Yeah. I was going to ask both you and Victoria, the setting, how much did that play into your characters and the feel of the film?

Oh, my gosh. I have been just I believe that this house was haunted for a very long time. So for me, it was a very natural reaction in the house. The house, it doesn't for me, it didn't feel like a sinister presence, but a presence nonetheless. So and that works for my character because my character actually, you know, has her own relationship with what goes on there.

And so I thought that that really worked well that I didn't find the house to be malicious, but I found it to be something that gets under your skin. And that just worked really well for me. To feed ourselves with that energy and yeah, vibes. Yeah. I think it kind of kind of comes across and I think you did pick a really great setting and certainly being in western Massachusetts in the middle of winter.

Not an ideal setting, but certainly one for this film. Aaron, I got to ask you, do you have siblings? I don't. I'm an only child. Oh, okay. Well, I was going to say. I'm a foster father. That way. And what did your parents feel about you filming in the house? Yeah. I mean, you know, I was in the house and making a horror film, no less. They were very, you know, they were very, very supportive.

At the end of the shoot, we actually left some bloodstains, you know, bloodstains, of course, on the basement floor and on the wall of my parents' bedroom. We tried everything to get them out, but this type just stained or maybe the cement was more porous than I was expecting. I don't know. I will tell you, this is actually the first time I'm even publicly saying this.

It was a very, very, very, very, very important scene. I think it's a really, really important scene. It's the most important scene. I think it's the most important scene. Thank you.