Bella in the Wych Elm

2017
36m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Folk Horror Crime Fantasy Horror Mystery Short

In 1943 a group of boys wondering the woodland of Hagley Hall discovered the remains of an unknown woman stuffed inside a hollowed-out Wych Elm tree. To this day her identity is still unknow... Read allIn 1943 a group of boys wondering the woodland of Hagley Hall discovered the remains of an unknown woman stuffed inside a hollowed-out Wych Elm tree. To this day her identity is still unknown. In 1944 however, mysterious graffiti began to adorn the walls of the Midlands: Who Put ... Read allIn 1943 a group of boys wondering the woodland of Hagley Hall discovered the remains of an unknown woman stuffed inside a hollowed-out Wych Elm tree. To this day her identity is still unknown. In 1944 however, mysterious graffiti began to adorn the walls of the Midlands: Who Put Bella In The Wych Elm. Somebody knew but who? This curious phantasmagoria investigates the... Read all

Director
- Thomas Lee Rutter
Writers
- W. Byford Jones
- Thomas Lee Rutter
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

YOUR RATING

Director
- Thomas Lee Rutter
Writers
- W. Byford Jones
- Thomas Lee Rutter
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
The film-makers influences ranged from early silent films such as Haxan: Witchcraft through the ages (1922), the works of Guy Maddin, the book and film of Wisconsin Death Trip and exploitation pseudo-documentaries such as Legend of the Witches (1969)

User reviews2

Review

Featured review

8/10

Häxan in the Midlands

Tom Lee Rutter's Bella in The Wych Elm is a film that combines the dreamlike visuals of the 1922 silent film Häxan, with the facts, as known, of a still unsolved murder mystery that occurred just outside of Birmingham during World War II. Without giving too much away, the body of a woman was found stuffed inside a tree in the early 1940s by a group of young boys. The film then goes on to trace the chain of events from the subsequent investigation to the sporadic emergence of nuggets of information over the years. However, the real power of Bella in the Wych Elm lies not in the telling of the tale but in the film's hypnotic and unsettling black and white imagery. Haunting occult visuals collide with panoramas of a harsh English countryside that recalls the folk Horror tales of films such as Blood On Satan's Claw and Witchfinder General. In common with the visuals, the soundtrack equally, both engages and unsettles the viewer. Check out this vignette of Midlands art horror.