Unfortunately for us, Devil's Due was not a very good supernatural Antichrist story at all.
Maybe we're just tired of Found Footage movies in general. Maybe we're just too jaded to fully buy into the "it's all real" conceit that goes along with the films that fit under the umbrella of Cinema Verite. Or maybe the fact that this is a Found Footage flick that the filmmakers tried to pass off as not being a Found Footage flick, that put us off so much.
I guess it doesn't really matter, because in the end, Devil's Due is really more like Devil's Don't.
Zach and Samantha are a recently married couple who are on their Honeymoon in the Dominican Republic. After having a foreboding run-in with a local fortune teller, they find themselves lost in a deserted part of the city, where a suspicious cab driver tells them about a "special party" that they just have to attend. Since he seems so legit, Zach and Samantha head to the mysterious party where they are presumably roofied and raped by the locals, which does nothing for the Caribbean tourism industry.
Record everything, but don't bother to watch any of the footage until it's convenient for the plot. |
They should have let her eat in peace. |
How did Zach not notice this sort of tomfoolery? |
With the premiere of NBC's Rosemary's Baby mini-series though, we thought it time to put our thoughts on the Devil's Due out there, both for posterity's sake, and because this movie tries really hard to be a slick new version of Rosemary's Baby, which makes this review seem more timely and purposeful to us.
"Look |
I know that it's not easy to make a movie these days, and make it feel fresh and original. I also know that most of the people who attempt to do so put in a lot of time and effort on such endeavors, and that it's a hell of an undertaking to make even a truly shitty movie. It really sucks for us when we have to shit all over someones hard work and dreams, but at some point it gets really tough to keep being positive about movies that so blatantly retread such familiar grounds, and do so poorly.
Bernard? |
We do have to admit that the scene where Samantha gets all crazy on some strangers in a park was pretty fun, and some of the visuals towards the end were equally so. Aside from those few instances though, Devil's Due was nothing more than a mess of a movie that may have been best served being a short segment in the next installment of the V/H/S series.
*The Devil Baby promotion that the filmmakers did for the film was vastly more entertaining than the actual film itself, and we would have much preferred to watch 90-minutes of this hilarious awesomeness.
Had Devil's Due come out five years ago, it might have been a more effective experience. Maybe. As it stands though, it's nothing more than a rehash of the exact same Found Footage template that filmmakers have been copying since Paranormal Activity hit it big.
If you really want to see this one and haven't done so yet, you might as well just wait to catch it on HBO or something.
Devil's Due is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD.
D-
Allison Miller is a total QT, and she made this movie a bit more watchable.
im at the point now when if i see the word "devil" in any title of a movie , i dont even bother...this is a good example. i refused to see this because it looked like a repeat , and a bad one at that.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the word "haunting" too. That one usually leads nowhere good too.
ReplyDeleteI went to see this film at the cinemas not expecting too much. And to be fair I though it was decent but it wasn't too great
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