Marginalia (2025):
Director: Mark Beal
Screenwriter: Mark Beal
Starring: Jessica Bell, Seraluna Sanchez, Savannah Davi Barrera, Jessica Lemmons, Cory W. Ahre
The Plot: Sister Trista (Jessica Bell), who has taken a vow of silence, is summoned to Karnstein Abbey to serve as a mourner for the suddenly deceased abbess. The outsider soon realizes that all is not as it seems. Could there be evil afoot? What secrets lie in the dead woman’s papers, hidden in the marginalia?
I’ll say this for Amazon: It may be an evil corporation with little regard for human life or morality, but you can find some weird stuff on its streaming service. This ultra-low budget medieval horror film is a prime example, if you’ll forgive the pun. Made for just $5,000, Marginalia features outstanding practical effects and pitch perfect performances. I went in cold, vaguely expecting something silly along the lines of Lake Michigan Monster. While Marginalia has its moments of absurdity, it’s not a comedy. This is a weird, truly creepy horror movie.
Director and screenwriter Mark Beal mostly takes the beliefs of his medieval characters at face value. It’s sort a less self-serious version of Robert Eggers’ (The Witch, Nosferatu) attempts to make horror movies for people from the past. Things that seem funny to modern audiences wouldn’t have felt that way to the residents of Karnstein Abbey. Demons, witches, and hares from Hell all get their due here. The latter especially stuck with me. “Killer bunnies” may call to mind Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but there’s something genuinely malevolent about the felt puppets in this film. A nighttime chase sequence through the darkened Abbey halls has the surreal dread of a childhood nightmare. Other creature designs call to mind Hieronymus Bosch paintings, although maybe it’s more accurate to say that the Beal and the 16th-century Dutch artist were influenced by the same marginalia.
Clocking in at a brisk 60 minutes, everything in the film contributes to the atmosphere or the plot. Exposition and character backstories are delivered with clever efficiency. It’s the work of a filmmaker who knows exactly the movie he wants to make and has chosen his collaborators well. In addition to the impressive effects work, the film features solid set design from David Rock Beal and a fittingly dramatic score from Alexander Hellonius.
Marginalia benefits from a strong cast who are all on the director’s wavelength. Jessica Bell is excellent as Sister Trista, conveying the character’s suspicions and inner turmoil in a mostly silent performance. Savannah Davi Barrerra is a warm presence as the chatty Sister Agna, keeping the character balanced between endearing and pathetic. Seraluna Sanchez and Jessica Lemmons are both adept at suggesting sinister motives without tipping their hands.
The movie is not without its flaws—the sound mixing isn’t always even and the lighting sometimes feels off and not entirely deliberate—but given how much Beal has accomplished on a limited budget, it feels more like nitpicking than insightful film criticism to dwell on them. If you’re interested in independent cinema or if you’ve always thought that weird medieval illustrations would make a good subject for a horror movie, this film may be for you.
Marginalia is currently streaming on Amazon Prime, Plex, and Apple TV.
