AT THE DEVIL'S DOOR (2014)

 
How can you review a movie that you've seen a dozen times, a dozen different ways and always shot either under budget or overly paid by a big name studio. You have to sit back and really think what would I really have to say about a film I have seen before but filmed in a different way and named differently? It's not easy cause when it comes to supernatural event films you've seen them all. Yes, The Exorcist and Amityville Horror have spoiled us horror movies fans to the point that no matter what movie comes out with the eerie feeling of the supernatural we automatically go right back to those two 70's horror classics. I for one went into this filme with an open mind because I know IFC tends to put out a handful of decent horror movies but they also tend to put of a handful of crap as well.
 
 
So I was skeptic going into this movie because not only did it feel like I saw it before, I already didn't feel the cast was right for this film. Don't get me wrong I marked out when I saw Michael Massee in the first few moments of the film but realized that from that point on that was all I was going to see of this actor. The cast if young which is not a shock anymore cause Hollywood has this thing for killing pre-teen, teenagers and young 20-something adults in horror movies lately. As it was pointed out that now former Glee star Naya Rivera became the main character after her sister a real estate agent trying to sell the house a girl went missing from. Daniel Roebuck pops up as the missing girls father but like Massee that's all you get from him one scene and bam its time to save the budget for something else.
So you see where this is going already? You have two names that are synonymous with this genre and they are in the film for a cheap, "Hey I know that guy from such and such.".
 
 
Now as always you have to be told something to flesh out a plot hole that happened so early on in the film but then again you're never really told anything till it happens. Girl gets pregnant by unknown circumstances and it becomes Rosemary's Baby now. Wait what? Seriously this happens in almost every supernatural film. You know what nevermind because if I go into a tirade over the devil needing to produce an evil spawn cause there needs to be an antichrist then shit that's been happening since the 1970's. But anyway as it turns out this storyline becomes true and our main character happens to suffer the same fate as the missing girl who if you guessed it is dead. Sorry for the spoiler and no alert but its obvious now. Girl from Glee gets knocked up and then thrown out a window.....Yeah I even paused the movie after seeing that because why would something even do that? Who knows but eventually she gives up the baby that was inside her and vanished from the scene for six years only to have a heart and try to do the same thing that Damien's father tried in The Omen. You have to kill the evil bastard. But like always in today's horror society you can't do that. Yes again sorry to spoil it but evil lives in the end.
 
 
Now don't get me wrong I've been wrong before about movies but then again I have been correct about a few of them. There are bad movies out there that are getting made just to cash in on the market of some films that make it to the big screen.  My honest feeling toward this movie is that it should've chose a different path and stayed that course. Trying to copy what's already been done before and then try to put a spin on it. Sorry not that great of an idea. This was director Nicholas McCarthy's sophomore film after his directorial debut with The Pact which to me was a better movie than this one. I give the guy credit he can make a horror movie but I really hope that whatever he does next that he does something that will just be a little more along the lines of something I didn't expect to see. I know everyone is expecting me to recommend this but I want you to make that decision on your own. Don't sit there and just hang on my words thinking the movie is entirely crap because its not, the atmosphere of the film is perfectly creepy its just the cast is not the right batch of actors/actresses to carry this film. So if you want to see it go for it, if not then cool. I'm not big on something's about this film but there were moments where I was like that was cool. So who knows you may or may not like it but you need to do yourself a favor and try it. Test the waters of what IFC tends to offer because you won't know until you get into bed with the devil.

         

reviewed by Bucky

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