From ScreenRant.com
Sometimes, trailers give their movies away by showing off
too much footage, but the above clip for upcoming found footage horror story
Devil’s Due shows off just enough to paint the film as broad and very, very
borrowed. One part Paranormal Activity (the entire series, really), several
parts Rosemary’s Baby, and with a dash of off-brand fare like The House of the
Devil and The Last Exorcism (1 and 2) sprinkled in for good measure, it’s
obvious that Devil’s Due is the sort of genre movie that’s totally unafraid to
blatantly wear its influences on its sleeve.
The problem is that none of them look like they mesh very
well. The basic conceit here revolves around a newlywed couple (Allison Miller
and Zach Gilford) who, upon returning from their honeymoon, find themselves
expecting a bouncing bundle of joy much sooner than they’d anticipated; as the
pregnancy progresses, signs suggest that their child has far more sinister
origins than they realize, while a mysterious cult takes a vested interest in
the baby’s birth from afar.
In other words, the set-up is pretty standard. Maybe the
clip intentionally doesn’t hint at some major script development that turns the
entire premise on its ear, but at a glance, Devil’s Due looks about as rote and
by-the-numbers as possible, with the added twist of being completely
nonsensical to boot. Sure, hubby wants to capture his pregnant wife on tape for
memories and posterity, but when she starts going berserk in parking lots and
doing physical harm to herself, you’d think he’d catch the hint and put his
camera down.
Devil’s Due comes to us courtesy of Fox and filmmaker Matt
Bettinelli-Olpin, who genre aficionados may recognize as twenty five percent of
directing quartet Radio Silence. If that name rings a bell, then you’ve
probably seen 2012′s horror omnibus V/H/S - to which Radio Silence contributed
the final segment, titled “10/31/98.” In the whole of that film, their skit
easily ranks as one of the best, but none of the inventive panache that makes
it so good appears to have made it into Devil’s Due at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment