Devil's Due (2014) - Horror Film Review

I did not have much interest in going to see Devil's Due, I have a stinking cold and a killer headache but due to the limited showings I felt tonight would be the last chance I would get to see it before it was gone. At first the signs seemed hopeful, the cinema was bizarrely packed full of people. As soon as it started my heart sank...another blasted found footage film! I don't know how I managed to miss that fact when I saw the trailer.

Most the film is shown from the perspective of Zach McCall (Zach Gilford) who has filmed himself his whole life (much like Louis Cole of YouTube fame without the fame I guess). Starting off with his marriage to Samantha (Allison Miller) and then chronicling his honeymoon where the newly weds are drugged and Samantha has a strange ritual performed on her. Soon after arriving back to America Samantha finds out she is pregnant which over joys Zach. As the months progress Samantha starts to act more and more out of character, and Zach becomes convinced a strange group are spying on him and his wife...

First off all the fact Zach films his whole life is just plain weird, taking the camera into Dr's appointments, to church, and not even putting it down when alarming stuff with his wife happens. On top of this is the fact that he never bothers checking what he has filmed. The whole Satanic ritual his wife is put through on their last night of the honeymoon is there on camera but he just never feels the urge until far too late into the film to bother seeing just what happened the night they both lost their memories.

To supplement this lots of security camera footage and hidden cameras are used to give plot for when Zach is not there to film. There are quite a few shots obviously not even filmed by anyone at all, yet rather than go for a steady cam the view jiggles up and down like a vibrating hamster on crack (an exaggeration). There is no harm in including traditional camera shots if you must do so.

Now what is there to distinguish this film from the countless other found footage films? It was only last week I saw the latest Paranormal Activity film so this had to do something special to not send me to sleep. Instead for the first hour it does even less than bare bones. It is a real snooze fest with the only exciting scenes happening already spoiled in the trailer so I knew they were coming. There was a fun little violent scene out in woodlands that I enjoyed though. It is only in the last twenty minutes when the pace finally picks up and crazy spooky stuff starts to happen. I did enjoy the last part of the film, but after over an hour of tedium it was far too little too late.

A boring take on the rise of the Antichrist that spent far too much time leading up to anything worth watching. The plot is riddled with holes and the characters are just not interesting with no one to care about. If you can stomach the build up then the final part is kinda fun and some of the special effects are quite cool throughout.

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