No matter how bombastic the story turns out to be, confronting family trauma is no new thing for a horror film to do. Turning into our parents, succumbing to a generational curse — you name it, someone’s probably covered it. But that doesn’t mean that new movies can't take a fresh approach to it. We’ve been telling the same five stories since Shakespeare’s time, as the old joke goes, but with the right filmmaker, they can still come to light in a new and fresh way, as is the case with director Danny Villanueva Jr.’s What Happened to Dorothy Bell.
Premiering at this year’s Fantastic Fest, the film follows young Ozzie Gray (Asya Meadows) as she returns to her hometown to confront grave truths about her past and the death of her grandmother, which she feels inextricably tied to. The found footage film is primarily chronicled through her video diaries on the subject as she attempts to process her trauma and her family becoming part of an urban legend — the Witch Librarian of Spellbound. This is supposedly the ghost of her grandmother who haunts the library where she worked until she lashed out and took her own life, scarring Ozzie both physically and mentally in the process.
From there, it’s a journey through Ozzie’s process of grieving, as she convinces a janitor to let her hang out in the library after hours, and attends therapy sessions during the day. Meadows holds the audience’s entire focus, with only small interruptions from other actors, and it’s a remarkable feat for a young actress with few credits to her name. But when she discovers that there might actually be some truth behind the horrific rumors about her grandmother, that’s when things really kick into gear, and Meadows’ full potential in the genre comes to light.
'What Happened to Dorothy Bell' Makes Good Use of a Worn-Out Format
It’s certainly not the most dynamic use of found footage I’ve ever seen — as a person with vision issues that affect how I see a theater screen, static black-and-white security shots don’t seem like the most effective way to create tension. But there’s some creativity within the format nonetheless, particularly in the choice to make Ozzie’s online therapy sessions a part of the story. Combining the format with the idea of an urban legend is a rather inspired choice, especially when it gives the film an excuse to use Google, YouTube, and other extraneous websites as sources to pull from, rather than just Ozzie’s video diaries.
Ozzie’s own connection to the urban legend also keeps the momentum going where it might have dragged otherwise. While the mental health aspect of things is less explored than it perhaps should have been, her own personal stakes elevate a format that I otherwise tend to shy away from, making you yearn for some kind of closure rather than just waiting for the next in a series of scares. No spoilers here but the scares that do come along are very well-placed and effective for what they are.
‘What Happened to Dorothy Bell?’ Does a Lot With Its Short Runtime
At a lean 80 minutes, there’s certainly more that could have been done to buff out What Happened to Dorothy Bell to more effectively tie the story together, rather than ramping things up in the last ten minutes out of nowhere. There are gaps filled with nothing but silence; still, for a no-budget indie, it’s still constructed rather competently. It’s got the strongest core of any of the films I’ve seen out of Fantastic Fest, a wholly original idea rather than pieces cherry-picked from older, more popular titles in an attempt at gaining traction.
So, while not everything in Dorothy Bell sticks its landing, it’s easy to appreciate what Villanueva Jr. is attempting to do with it, warts and all. He’s not trying to hide behind the format or use it to cover up any holes in his story. It’s merely a vehicle for a much deeper reflection on legacy, mental health, and family, and the found-footage approach is the perfect vessel for it. It’s an encouraging sign for the writer-director's future in cinema, having such a clear and present central focus — after all, it’s not all about how nice your film looks, or what kinds of digital trickery you can pull off in an age where practically anything is possible in the movies. It’s about telling the story living so deep in your brain and your heart that you can’t ever get rid of it, which is exactly what he — and Ozzie too, really — is doing.
What Happened to Dorothy Bell? premiered at 2024's Fantastic Fest.
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