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Film Review - The Devil Rides Out
6 years ago
While there have been many films based on the stories of HP Lovecraft, most of them are not what you would call Lovecraftian films. There's no paranoia, no cults, no indescribable horrors beyond mans understanding. Instead, most seem to be generic monster movies or student films with Lovecraft's name slapped on the cover.
That said, I have heard there are 3 Lovecraftian films worth checking out. In The Mouth Of Madness, The Ninth Gate, and the subject of this review, The Devil Rides Out.
The film starts Christopher Lee and That Guy You Know From Something But You Can't Remember What. When their third friend doesn't turn up for a reunion, they go to check on him and find that he has picked up a new hobby of devil worship/the occult. And the 2 decide to try to save their friend from this evil cult he's gotten himself up to his neck in.
All of this is established very quick and the film wastes almost no time getting to the good stuff. That quick pace, along with some great acting by the 2 leads, are the highlight of the film.
To give an example what I mean. Rex (the not-Lee character) is understandably skepitical at first, but gives his old friend a reasonable benefit of the doubt, and becomes a believer when paranormal stuff starts happening. There's no time wasted with fake skepticism, showing how these guys were friends back in the day, or setting up how Lee has all this occult knowledge.
I mentally likened these characters to RPG characters. Lee put his points into occult knowledge and mental stats, while Rex put his points into physical stats.
Unfortunately, the film has 2 big problems. One of which are the effects. The sets are great, and the best moments are when it does a lot with surprisingly little, like the old making people disappear in a puff of smoke editing trick, but there's some stuff that is just awful. The scene where they are standing in a circle of protection being assaulted by bad green screen effects and footage of a horse being played backwards and forwards several times in a row kills the mood.
But it's not just the big effects either. Some stuff is bad for seemingly no good reason I can think of. A car trip conversation with rear projection I understand, but when they use it during a car chase it just seems silly. There's also some badly done day-for-night shots, which is a problem in a film where the passage of time is important. On a related note, how much bad luck do you need for your day-for-night shot to be filmed on England's one sunny day of the year?
The second big problem is the film kind of falls apart by the end. You know it's bad when you need a monologue from one of the main characters to explain what just happened. At one point during the film, a character even asks "Why doesn't [the bad guy] just walk in with a gun and shoot us?", and that's handwaved away as the bad guy being too cowardly to put himself in harms way. Except he does put himself in harms way, and he has a cult of loyal followers he could order to do it. Yeah, I know that's the whole "Why doesn't Batman just kill the Joker." argument, but it's still a valid criticism.
I saw Devil Rides Out for nothing on YouTube, but is it worth your time? Eh. Maybe. As I said, the first half cuts a quick pace and has decent atmosphere and good performances despite some questionable effects. The second half is where the film starts to lose me, relying on ropy effects that suck the tension away, and a questionable plot that does the same.
If you like Lovecraftian horror, or games inspired by said horror, then it might be worth a watch. But don't go out of your way to see it. You're not missing out if you don't.
That said, I have heard there are 3 Lovecraftian films worth checking out. In The Mouth Of Madness, The Ninth Gate, and the subject of this review, The Devil Rides Out.
The film starts Christopher Lee and That Guy You Know From Something But You Can't Remember What. When their third friend doesn't turn up for a reunion, they go to check on him and find that he has picked up a new hobby of devil worship/the occult. And the 2 decide to try to save their friend from this evil cult he's gotten himself up to his neck in.
All of this is established very quick and the film wastes almost no time getting to the good stuff. That quick pace, along with some great acting by the 2 leads, are the highlight of the film.
To give an example what I mean. Rex (the not-Lee character) is understandably skepitical at first, but gives his old friend a reasonable benefit of the doubt, and becomes a believer when paranormal stuff starts happening. There's no time wasted with fake skepticism, showing how these guys were friends back in the day, or setting up how Lee has all this occult knowledge.
I mentally likened these characters to RPG characters. Lee put his points into occult knowledge and mental stats, while Rex put his points into physical stats.
Unfortunately, the film has 2 big problems. One of which are the effects. The sets are great, and the best moments are when it does a lot with surprisingly little, like the old making people disappear in a puff of smoke editing trick, but there's some stuff that is just awful. The scene where they are standing in a circle of protection being assaulted by bad green screen effects and footage of a horse being played backwards and forwards several times in a row kills the mood.
But it's not just the big effects either. Some stuff is bad for seemingly no good reason I can think of. A car trip conversation with rear projection I understand, but when they use it during a car chase it just seems silly. There's also some badly done day-for-night shots, which is a problem in a film where the passage of time is important. On a related note, how much bad luck do you need for your day-for-night shot to be filmed on England's one sunny day of the year?
The second big problem is the film kind of falls apart by the end. You know it's bad when you need a monologue from one of the main characters to explain what just happened. At one point during the film, a character even asks "Why doesn't [the bad guy] just walk in with a gun and shoot us?", and that's handwaved away as the bad guy being too cowardly to put himself in harms way. Except he does put himself in harms way, and he has a cult of loyal followers he could order to do it. Yeah, I know that's the whole "Why doesn't Batman just kill the Joker." argument, but it's still a valid criticism.
I saw Devil Rides Out for nothing on YouTube, but is it worth your time? Eh. Maybe. As I said, the first half cuts a quick pace and has decent atmosphere and good performances despite some questionable effects. The second half is where the film starts to lose me, relying on ropy effects that suck the tension away, and a questionable plot that does the same.
If you like Lovecraftian horror, or games inspired by said horror, then it might be worth a watch. But don't go out of your way to see it. You're not missing out if you don't.
