Oh the irony. I am a true horror fan from way back. I love it all except for the rage of "found footage" "hand cam" horror. The Blair Witch Project was brilliant and since then film makers have been beating this style of film to death and beyond. I am sick of it quite frankly. I won't even go out of my way to watch one and usually when I find out a horror flick is "found footage" it gets shut off. But I wanted to see this one through. The irony is how poorly this is scored on IMDb. I thought this was world's better than the awful Paranormal Activity: Marked Ones and the truly unfortunate thing is if they had bothered to make this just a regular old horror film it could have been terrifying and thrilling and a possible ten because the performances in the movie border on excellent believe it or not. The story is stale...I will agree with many others. We have seen this story done again and again and again (thank you Rosemary's Baby and The Omen.) However, for being same old it is well written and follows the necessary predictable recipe. It actually got to the point where I was literally saying out loud what was going to happen next. This sounds like ear mark of a terrible movie but it wasn't terrible. I wanted to know where the story was going, what was going to happen with this young, formerly happy couple and I did feel some heart palpitations with some scenes so bravo to them for that. I am certain if you switch the lights out and sit back you'll be at least a little scared.
Part of the reason I think the film was so much better than it should have been was our lead cast and couple. Allison Miller is excellent as Samantha, the mother to be. We are introduced to her the night before her wedding so by the time the changes take effect we sort of see how different she is. She seems like such a happy and normal woman who you can relate to. She plays it very down to earth making her transformation terrifying and she really does a great job. Its a shame she's wasted on an uber-generic found footage horror. Not to be outdone in any way Zach Gilford is also very good as her doting husband. Gilford gets less scenes in front of the camera because he is often behind it filming (how irritatingly stupid.) He also does a terrific job and his intensity in the later scenes really holds the film together. The two of them have truly outstanding chemistry and it really gives this film a lot of credibility to have them in it. There isn't a big supporting cast and no one stands out amongst them but I will mention I love character actor Sam Anderson who has a small and very creepy role as Father Thomas.
Honestly, they could have made this one of the best horror films of 2014 if they just filmed it like your every day movie. Every scene I kept thinking this would be so much better, more terrifying and just more fun to watch if it weren't through the supposed eyes of a home movie camera. It shouldn't surprise me though that the directors behind this were also the people responsible for V/H/S a movie I gave a total of ten minutes too before I shut it off. This is superior to V/H/S but they also got a much bigger budget. The only other glaring issue with Devil's Due is it goes on too long. It is the average movie length but you begin to feel like the same thing is happening over and over again. Even during the climatic scenes when all hell breaks loose (pun fully intended) it seems to just keep going when it should get to the point. Still the ending is not disappointing and I found myself wide eyed more than once. Finally when the baby is born...well it's all kinds of messed up and the scene is more than disturbing. Devil's Due is different from something like Paranormal Activity because I don't think they're trying to make you feel like its real. There are some pretty outrageous scenes of telekinetic ability and devil possession that would have best suited a regular horror film (I'm never going to let it go.) Still if you are a fan of the found footage genre...first of all...I'm sorry that you are but this one is of a much better quality than the other junk out there. You could do far worse and while I would never watch it again I enjoyed my first viewing. 6.5/10
Part of the reason I think the film was so much better than it should have been was our lead cast and couple. Allison Miller is excellent as Samantha, the mother to be. We are introduced to her the night before her wedding so by the time the changes take effect we sort of see how different she is. She seems like such a happy and normal woman who you can relate to. She plays it very down to earth making her transformation terrifying and she really does a great job. Its a shame she's wasted on an uber-generic found footage horror. Not to be outdone in any way Zach Gilford is also very good as her doting husband. Gilford gets less scenes in front of the camera because he is often behind it filming (how irritatingly stupid.) He also does a terrific job and his intensity in the later scenes really holds the film together. The two of them have truly outstanding chemistry and it really gives this film a lot of credibility to have them in it. There isn't a big supporting cast and no one stands out amongst them but I will mention I love character actor Sam Anderson who has a small and very creepy role as Father Thomas.
Honestly, they could have made this one of the best horror films of 2014 if they just filmed it like your every day movie. Every scene I kept thinking this would be so much better, more terrifying and just more fun to watch if it weren't through the supposed eyes of a home movie camera. It shouldn't surprise me though that the directors behind this were also the people responsible for V/H/S a movie I gave a total of ten minutes too before I shut it off. This is superior to V/H/S but they also got a much bigger budget. The only other glaring issue with Devil's Due is it goes on too long. It is the average movie length but you begin to feel like the same thing is happening over and over again. Even during the climatic scenes when all hell breaks loose (pun fully intended) it seems to just keep going when it should get to the point. Still the ending is not disappointing and I found myself wide eyed more than once. Finally when the baby is born...well it's all kinds of messed up and the scene is more than disturbing. Devil's Due is different from something like Paranormal Activity because I don't think they're trying to make you feel like its real. There are some pretty outrageous scenes of telekinetic ability and devil possession that would have best suited a regular horror film (I'm never going to let it go.) Still if you are a fan of the found footage genre...first of all...I'm sorry that you are but this one is of a much better quality than the other junk out there. You could do far worse and while I would never watch it again I enjoyed my first viewing. 6.5/10