Life of Belle (2024) Review

Synopsis

In 2018, Annabelle Starnes went missing. York County police released surveillance footage of the home in hopes of new leads.

Life of Belle Good Points

• The film has this strong, quiet, uneasy energy from the off, and immediately pulls you in to its story, staying deliberately small and restrained, which actually helps the tension build instead of diluting it with any unnecessary spectacle.
  
  
• The child performances are pretty strong too and avoid the usual awkward “written dialogue reading” problem we often see.
  
  
• There are moments with the emotional balance of scenes that makes everything feel genuinely uncomfortable.
  
  
• The mix of handheld and security camera footage helps vary the perspective and keeps the visual approach from feeling completely static, with the handheld sections being particularly effective at making the house feel physically inhabited.
  
  
• The sound design is also good, using ordinary noises to create the background tension – footsteps, doors, and the off-screen movements are unsettling at times.
  
  
• It doesn’t overload scenes with too much noise or music, so it lets the silence and subtle audio cues help build the discomfort instead.
  
  
• The atmosphere remains consistently uneasy, where the tension is approached through domestic normality slowly breaking down.
  
  
• The idea of a “normal household that no longer feels normal” is handled effectively and consistently throughout, so nothing feels too jarring.

Life of Belle Bad Points

• The dialogue is sometimes inconsistent, with some lines sounding natural while others feel slightly underwritten, with certain conversations repeating the same beats.
  
  
• Not all of the camera setups evolve with the story, so some visual repetition creeps in.
  
  
• A few narrative threads don’t didn’t really fully resolve in a satisfying way.
  
  
• The ending also felt a bit out of whack and too abrupt.
  
  
• The overall pacing feels a tad too uneven, with strong tension building sections followed by quieter stretches that don’t always flow nicely together.

Final Thoughts on Life of Belle

I was surprised this one had passed me by from last year, but I found it watchable enough, a film that leans into restraint and quiet discomfort rather than trying to over-explain or over-deliver.

Life of Belle Trailer
Life of Belle on IMDB
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