An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 2014’s Devil’s Due.
During a couple’s honeymoon (Zach Gilford and Allison Miller) in the Dominican Republic they get a strange warning from a psychic then party too hard and remember very little the next day. Upon returning home they start experiencing strange demonic things that may be related to their sudden pregnancy.
Detailed Plot:
The movie opens with an ominous quote from the bible, John 2:18, that foretells of many antichrists in the last hour. We cut to a camera feed for 3/30/2013 with one of the main characters, Zach McCall (played by Zach Gilford) in a police station with a head wound and hands covered in dried blood.
A pacing detective attempts to ask him questions but he doesn’t answer simply continuing to fidget with his wedding ring. He finally speaks only to say “I didn’t do it.”
We cut to a camera recording of 6/8/2012 and I just now realized this is a found footage film and I hate myself but let’s carry on. Whoever is controlling the camera takes it up the window of a house and zooms in on one of the girls. We see the cameraman climb the pipes and break in.
The camera man is revealed to be Zach who is breaking in to see his fiancé Samantha (played by Allison Miller). Since it’s the night before their wedding, they weren’t supposed to see each other. But, Zach decided to do “something stupid” so they can look back on it and reminisce in the future.
The following day the two tie the knot and all seems right with the world.
We sit through a bunch of speeches, some dancing, some crying all captured by a shaky camera and adding barely anything to the movie. The married couple go on a honeymoon where we now have to sit through some poorly cut footage of them on the plane, them at the beach, and them wandering around historic sites in the Dominican Republic.
Which brings up the question, if this is found footage who is cutting/editing it and why are they adding random half scenes?
While partying the two go to a fortune teller who reads Samantha’s palm and tells her she is born of death. This understandably causes them to freak out a bit and they leave. On their way back to the hotel they get lost but a taxi pulls up and offers to take them to the hotel. The driver then asks if they want to go to a special place with music and dancing.
Zach is all for it seeing as it’s their last night and since the movie has to start getting interesting at some point, Samantha reluctantly agrees. When they pull up to a seemingly desolate street, it’s clear they made the wrong decision. But, after going through some hidden entrances they arrive at a large club with music and dancing and they proceed to get shit-faced.
While drunk, Samantha tells Zach some men are staring at her but the two think nothing of it she then tells him to put the camera away. The camera turns back on periodically and I assume they are taken to a room with a Latin ritual happening.
We see Samantha laying in the center of the circle as candles go out. Some high pitched ringing starts and a blinding light enters the room in a jump scare (see: very annoying jump scare)
The two wake up with no memory of what happened and head back to the U.S. where the movie gets uninteresting again with them opening gifts, having a barbeque and playing with the dog. None of these scenes add anything to the movie and if they didn’t exist the movie wouldn’t change in any way.
Finally while Zach is playing with the dog, Samantha comes down the staircase and we have the obligatory found footage scene where one character tells the cameraman to stop filming and they don’t. She then tells him she’s pregnant despite taking the pill religiously.
The two celebrate and we next see them at the ultrasound where the machine buzzes a bit because, if you haven’t put it together, she’s carrying the antichrist.
Before the doctor leaves, she tells them the due date is March 30th. If you check a few paragraphs back, is the exact date from the beginning where Zach is all bloody so DUN DUN DUNNNN.
That night while Sam is sleeping, her eyes open wide and grab Zach’s arm, refusing to let go for a few seconds. Zach was recording because her snoring woke him and the dog up. That’s the reason the movie uses to justify this scene.
A couple of weird things happen between some boring scenes, Sam’s nose starts bleeding while at dinner, the dog runs towards the backyard of a home that looks to be rundown but isn’t, and a weird man stares at them from across the street before walking away after being spotted.
Why have I resorted to listing these things? Because the movie essentially does the same thing, putting these weird tidbits in random scenes that aren’t really doing anything for the story.
A few days later while at the supermarket through security cameras, (how did they get this film?) we see Sam shopping and then stopping to stare at meat. After some time she grabs a package, rips it open and begins eating the raw meat. This is extra strange because she was a vegetarian.
A few more weird things happen sprinkled in through scenes, Sam begins having random pains, at a Lamaze class all the other women begin having pain except Sam, and while leaving a store a car almost backs into Sam and she flips the fuck out smashing all windows with her bare hands.
In the car, she doesn’t remember what happened but Zach and Sam decide to head for the hospital as her hand is all cut up from breaking the windows.
Later at the OB/GYN their original doctor, Dr. Ludka is replaced by another doctor who is vague on where Dr. Ludka is but tells them he’ll be their new doctor. We get some history on Sam and we find out Sam’s parents were killed in a car accident and she had to be cut out of the womb.
Meanwhile back at the house someone breaks in and sets up hidden cameras in all different parts of the house. I guess they shared the film with the police after the events of the movie?
A few days later while Sam is sleeping and conveniently when Zach isn’t looking, the antichrist stretches Sam’s stomach.
In February, with one month left to go, the two attend the first communion of a family member. The priest, Father Thomas, who also married the two, starts bleeding in the middle of the service. He then falls to the ground with blood spewing out of his mouth and nose.
The camera pans past Sam who, in a blink and you miss it shot, her eyes are blood red. Though it looks like the priest does see this before he falls to the ground.
When Zach tries to tell her they need to leave, she fights and struggles with him until she snaps out of it. Later at home she tells him she doesn’t remember what happened. After he consoles her, Zach reviews the camera footage and spots their taxi driver from the Dominican Republic sitting in one of the pews.
He reviews the footage from their honeymoon and, FOR THE FIRST TIME, sees the ritual being performed. If you were recording the events of a night where you got blackout drunk and mysteriously returned to your hotel, who wouldn’t wait almost 9 months to watch it for the first time ever?
Shocked at what he’s found, Zach calls a friend to come over so he can show him the tapes but meets him outside first, when they return to the house the tapes are now gone.
Zach then visits Father Thomas and shows him some of the symbols from the ritual that he sketched from memory. Father Thomas starts to recite the John 2:18 text warning him that the antichrist is coming. He then yells at him to leave.
During a baby shower, Sam receives a weird gift that has a hidden blade in it. That night Zach hears a sound coming from the outside and when he investigates, finds piles of ash around the porch. He then finds footprints in ash in the home by the windows. The police come by but all they’re able to do is file a report.
We cut to three teens recording themselves just hanging out in the woods. (HOW DID WE GET THIS FOOTAGE?)
One goes to take a leak and spots a dead deer. Calling his friends over, the three spot Sam carving another deer a few feet away using the blade she got as a gift. They approach her and she goes all super powered demon on them, launching them into the air and killing at least one of them.
The following night Zach spots the car that belongs to the rundown home from earlier watching the house but it leaves before he can approach it. He then calls his sister, Suzie, to come over and watch Sam while he goes to the house.
After he leaves, Suzie goes to check on Sam and finds her scratching at the floor in the baby’s room. Suzie tries to get her to stop but Sam goes full-demon and presumably kills her. We only see the door to the room blasting off its hinges.
We cut back to Zach who has arrived at the house and watches the car leave, using this opportunity to break in. Inside, the home is pretty run down but he finds a room with a bunch of tv’s connected to the hidden cameras in his home.
Before he can leave, someone returns to the house forcing him to hide. He quietly maneuvers around the house finding a group of them chanting in Latin. As he opens the door leading outside, one of the men opens it first and Zach pushes past him, running to his car. He attempts to call 911 while driving back to his house but the call cuts out.
Outside of his home, he sees several of the antichrist team have surrounded it. He runs past them and reaches the front door but is blown back by some force. He breaks into the home and calls out for Sam who is screaming in pain and currently in labor. It appears as if every contraction causes Sam to unleash a powerful force that blows anything in the vicinity back.
Zach gets to Sam but she apologizes before using her force to pin him to the wall. She then gets up and pulls out the knife, using it to cut her stomach open.
Sam falls to the ground and calls out to Zach having no memory of what happened. She tells him she loves him before she dies in his arms. Some of the men from outside enter the home including the taxi driver and their doctor. They take the baby and knock Zach out for good measure.
We cut back to the beginning of the movie with the police questioning Zach. They don’t believe his story despite the fact we just watched recorded footage from multiple cameras, some of which belong to Zach and at no point does he ever say “check the tapes”.
We cut to another couple in Paris who hop into a taxi revealing it to be driven by our friendly international anti-christ taxi driver
Review:
This is a found footage film and my main gripe with this movie and most others in the genre is the contrived ways the characters find to leave cameras recording. Plus, this movie makes it worse by editing together film that wouldn’t have been gathered by whoever is putting the footage together.
Somehow they’re able to get Zach’s footage, the footage from the cult, supermarket security footage, AND police interrogation footage? If you’re going to do that, then don’t make it a found footage film. I honestly believe the film would have been a lot better if they didn’t force the found footage aspect.
The acting is actually good from all characters but because it’s found footage, the story suffers. Every scare has to be created to be caught by a random camera and it ends up feeling like you’re watching boring home videos waiting till the last few seconds where there’s a jump scare.
Unlike The Gallows where you could skip the first 20 minutes and enjoy the movie, this one you can’t even do that.
It’s a hard pass.
Cast IMBD