Fuji reviews Devil's Due

[Fuji Vice]

Devil’s Due


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After a mysterious, lost night on their honeymoon, a newlywed couple finds themselves dealing with an earlier-than-planned pregnancy. While recording everything for posterity, the husband begins to notice odd behavior in his wife that they initially write off to nerves, but, as the months pass, it becomes evident that the dark changes to her body and mind have a much more sinister origin.

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In sitting down to watch Devil's Due I was hopeful that Radio Silence, directors of one of the better segments in V/H/S, would do something to reinvigorate the found footage genre. Instead, not only did they manage to fail at that, they also miraculously succeeded in creating the worst knock off of Rosemary's Baby that I've ever seen. That's no small feat of suckitude but unfortunately it’s what happened. Even the film's strong points, of which there are precious few, can't save it from the very pit of hell that seems to have spawned the demon child the main character carries inside her belly. Yes, it really is THAT bad, and although I wish it weren't I'm at the point where I've resigned myself to the fact that it’s the rule rather than the exception. If horror was looking for a good start to the year, it died at the blocks with Devil's Due.

"Remember folks, happy moments mean bad things are right around the corner."
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Radio Silence, the stage name of duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, direct the film from a script by Lindsay Devlin. As pretty much everyone here are amateurs when it comes to making movies (Devlin has one documentary to her credit while Radio Silence have a few shorts) I can give them a smidgen of leeway when it comes to criticism. Clearly there’s still room for improvement so I won’t spend a whole lot of time pointing out glaring errors in both the filmmaking technique and the script. Instead I’m going to spend a moment chastising producer John Davis for allowing this film to come out AND still bear his name. In case you don’t know who Davis is, he’s been producing films since 1987’s Predator and has done many other notable works since that time including The Firm, Behind Enemy Lines and Courage Under Fire. Of course he also produced Norbit, so that may explain why he could possibly have imagined it was a good idea to release this piece of crap. In fact, maybe he was trying to get people to realize that Norbit wasn’t that bad compared to Devil’s Due, so in that regard I’d say he’s a winner. Anyhow, poor production decisions aside, the writing and direction are decidedly bland, and while Radio Silence do manage to throw a couple of funky gags into the mix (a character flung high into the air gives off a pretty neat rollercoaster- like feeling) it mostly just seems bush league to me.

"She looks like the cat that at the canary, and then the cat."
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If the direction and writing in the film are uninspired, they still look like Oscar bait when compared to the piss poor performances put on by nearly the entire cast. I'm not exaggerating when I say that wrapping paper, a dog, rain and a car windshield are above and beyond any human starring in this film. Allison Miller, cast in a lead role, has absolutely no business doing anything other than Revlon commercials for the rest of her life; except she's not actually hot enough to get that gig. Zach Gilford, cast as her husband, is equally annoying and just so pathetically bland that I'm amazed either made it through the first round of casting cuts. Seriously, did nobody else want to be in this movie? I guess I can't blame the more intelligent actors who passed on the script because they knew how to tie their shoes properly; after all it saved them the venom I'm spewing right now! There's also a distinct lack of likeability among the leads which makes me wonder whether I'm simply supposed to feel bad for them because they're blithering idiots. The only actor who even attempts to do something with their character is Sam Anderson, but since he’s playing a generic priest it doesn’t really matter. The rest of the actors are just there, not adding or subtracting anything to the overall film and really just coming across as pointless in their existence.

"Talk about a way to ruin your white robes."
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There's no shortage of issues with this film but first and foremost among them is the total lack of creativity from the filmmakers themselves. It's like they just sat and watched every found footage film in existence plus Rosemary's Baby and decided it was better to do the old CTRL+C CTRL+V combo that's been the bane of this genre's existence for years. Don't get me wrong mind you, I feel Radio Silence may still yet have something to offer the horror genre; just not this particular film. Everything about it screams amateur, from the totally obvious set-up, the "priest being affected because she's EVIL" thing and the need for one character to film everything as if their life depended on it. There's even an attempt to trick the audience into thinking they’re not watching your average Paranormal Activity film that fails horribly when you realize basic mathematics can still put 2 and 2 together and come up with 4. I'd spend more time talking about the ridiculously cliché ending to the film as well, but I'm respecting your intelligence more than the filmmakers did by leaving it at that. Suffice to say, this was NOT a good first feature from Radio Silence and I can only hope that diminishing box office returns and critical panning will send them back to the drawing board with renewed fervour instead of bitter hatred. 2/10

"Next time...you won't believe what's on television."
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[Wangman Page]

Well I now know I will not be watching this pile of rubbish. Good review and thanks for the heads up.

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