Beyond the Witching Hour

Directed by John Williams

2025

Midlands writer/director John Williams has, with no conjecture, put together one of the scariest feature films I’ve seen in the last few years. That’s not one of the scariest with qualifications due to the minimal budget; not, this is a brilliant effort but the effects, or the performances let it down. No, this is a horror effort worthy to sit alongside the best found footage films.

Darren McAree and John Solomonides play Daz and Jon, two vloggers who head to a village outside of Buxton to explore the legend of Molly McRae, a witch who was handed into the authorities by Daz’s ancestors. The first half of the film plays like a buddy comedy.

The chemistry between the two leads gives it a very natural flow, and there’s a lot of humour derived from the differences shown when people are on camera, as in putting together the vlog, and off-camera, communicating as longtime friends.

During the screening at Derby Quad’s POV: The Found Footage Project, John Williams, along with John Solomonides, explained that they didn’t work from a script, instead they had a 25 page outline, with key points to get across. This encouraged a lot of improvisation, and the director noted that a lot of what we see in the film – at least at the start – was the two actors riffing their way into the characters.

After a night camping outside of the village – shot in Cannock Chase – where we get our first indication that something might be very wrong with their plan of action, Daz and Jon check into an AirBnB located on the site of Molly’s old house.

Taking more than a few cues from The Blair Witch Project, they set about interviewing locals about the witch. To get genuine reactions from the various people interviewed for the film, John Williams used the legend of Molly Leigh, said to roam around Cannock Chase, and asked them about ‘Molly the Witch’ instead of trying to script reactions to a fictional haunting.

Despite some scripted ominous responses from the locals, and a failed, drunken Ouija Board session at Molly’s grave, the action doesn’t really start until they get in the house. At which the tension ramps so quickly and so consistently that you barely have chance to take a breath. During the Q&A session, the director mentioned that he was keen to subvert expectations, and he’s successful here. Jump scares come from the left field; parts of the film where you would expect a scare, or a hint of supernatural activity are left unfulfilled – much like the host of YouTube ghost hunting videos.

It gives the big moments genuine power and combined with the psychological breakdown of the main characters, it’s film that wields its scary moments with a precision rarely seen in the genre. There will be some put off by some of the schlockier gory moments at the late stages, but audience members willing to immerse themselves into the characters and the teased-out lore of the film will find a new favourite here.

★★★★½

4.5 / 5

Matthew Tilt

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