Inspired by the darkness lurking in Victoria U Bell’s own past, Heir of the Witch (2023) is a solidly told tale of witchcraft, love, class and destiny. Drawing on her own experiences and family stories, Bell directed this feature and wrote the script with the added task of starring as its lead. A deeply intimate project, you get a sense of personal investment as well as a creative journey through folklore and both gothic and supernatural horror elements. It effectively creates an eerie atmosphere and a story of witchcraft from a lesser explored region of the world. Working with love, the burdens of womanhood, and the fear of trying to outrun the blood in your veins, Heir of the Witch tells a winning tale of shadowy, familial bonds which truly cannot be broken.
In Moldovan folklore, witches are creatures born of a “bad death,” cursed to reawaken from the grave and torment their living relatives until they perish. This curse is passed exclusively through female blood, and the young and willing are to pick up and wield the power that comes with this curse, but others choose to reject their destiny. Awoken from a nightmare about her mother, Anna (Victoria U Bell), calls out for her. Plagued with more visions out of bed, more demonic in nature, her trance is interrupted as she hears someone calling to her and we see Anna is caretaker to her bedridden aunt, Rosie (Vanessa Neff). Anna fearfully tells her aunt that “she” is back, and her aunt says she’s aware; this malevolent female entity is growing stronger as Rosie weakens, and the two fear at Anna’s readiness to confront it.
We swap scenes to a manicured, upper-class birthday party for “friend” and client Chloe (Deanna Rashell). The setting causes Anna to have flashbacks to her own lonely birthday party, where an old, cloaked woman gifted her a pair of scissors. Awkward and under-dressed now, Anna hasn’t yet made an impression on high society for anything except her work as a seamstress, and the women at the party have a cruel attitude towards her, while the men later prove they see her as just a plaything. Awkwardly interacting with Chloe’s husband Nicholas (Ben Holtzmuller), Anna is goaded into a dance with him, where he explains the couple’s connection to old money, as he is a wealth manager. The couple later discusses setting Anna up with Nicholas’ business partner. Themes like this class divide provide a more interesting, realistic aspect to Anna’s story and make her a player in life, just as much as she is a pawn in this curse. Anna departs the celebration, encountering a cloaked woman on the road asking for change, her voice and appearance suddenly morphing into a something sinister, warning that someone is coming for Anna before the woman disappears.
The next day, while working at her sewing machine, Anna is interrupted by Rosie calling to her, looking quite frail. She urges Anna to stay strong in the lord as a shadow approaches the room, and for a moment it appears Rose may have slipped away, until a pounding at the door startles them both back to reality. The visitor is surprisingly Nicholas, asking about tailoring clothes for men, and as he and Anna talk, we see a cloaked visitor slip in to visit Rose. Nicholas notices a strange family photo where Anna’s grandmother’s face is covered: she apparently never wanted to have her photo taken, and it’s revealed Anna’s mother passed when she was only 14. Anna later finds herself daydreaming of kissing Nicholas during their fitting, eventually sitting to talk with him more and entertaining his proposal of a dinner setup. Leaving to pick up a friend’s children, Anna sees the entity again in her car mirror, and it seems there’s something getting closer to her by the day.
Cleanly shot and smartly lit, this film is a pleasure to look at and without breaking the bank on effects ,still manages to sting you with some creepy imagery and some bloody surprises. Victoria U Bell throws herself into this passion project completely as the earnest, frightened but determined Anna and gives a performance that pays homage to her own story with her own voice, portrayed as she intended. The overarching themes such as class and womanhood help create a more complex narrative to Anna’s life, making her a flesh and blood person affected by the world she can touch, just as much as she’s affected by the ethereal darkness she can’t. This human touch is certainly a product of Bell’s own feelings of being attached to darkness, and her sense of heaviness and dread she’s said she carried for some time.
The witches and the curse itself are malevolent, delivering some well-crafted frights and designing a disturbing façade to fit the demonic sorceress bill. This shapeshifting omnipresent feminine force of will comes from mysterious origins from a country hardly mentioned, Moldova, and traces interesting bloodlines back to an early and interesting culture. Anna’s origins are unravelled slowly as her choices shape her destiny and the fates of those she comes into contact with, sometimes damning them to the witch’s wrath. With stunning revelations revealed and an ending, this is equal parts terrifying and tragic. This dense story of love and burden has all its loose ends tied up fittingly as though it were done by a seamstress.
A salient debut for Bell’s directorial talents, her cathartic piece carves out pieces of her own history while telling the story of long growing evil: it is perfectly effective while still harboring surprises. Make sure to screen this fresh piece on witchcraft and be ready to follow many threads to a shocking but fitting release.
Heir of the Witch (2023) is available now.