Devil's Due (film)

Devil's Due

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
Tyler Gillett
Produced by John Davis
Written by Lindsay Devlin
Starring Allison Miller
Zach Gilford
Sam Anderson
Aimee Carrero
Vanessa Ray
Michael Papajohn
Griff Furst
Cinematography Justin Martinez
Edited by Rod Dean
Production
company
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release dates
  • January 17, 2014
Running time
 89 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $7 million[2]
Box office $36.4 million [2]

Devil's Due is a 2014 American found footage supernatural horror film directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, and written by Lindsay Devlin.[3] The film stars Allison Miller, Zach Gilford, and Sam Anderson. The film was released on January 17, 2014.[4]

Plot

A young couple, Zach and Samantha McCall, have recently married and have gone to the Dominican Republic for their honeymoon. They visit a fortune teller who keeps repeating to Sam, "they've been waiting for you". Afterwards, the couple finds themselves lost on an unknown street they do not remember seeing. Wanting to return to their hotel, they get offered a lift from a pushy cab driver who offers to take them to a local bar. The couple reluctantly accepts. The couple begin partying and both soon pass out drunk. They are both then seemingly taken to an underground chamber in the nightclub where Sam is subject to some kind of ritual by an unseen force. The next morning, Zach and Sam wake in their hotel with no memory of the previous night.

A couple of weeks after the honeymoon, Sam discovers she's pregnant despite claiming to have taken birth control pills "religiously" ever since the wedding. Though shocked, Zach and Samantha are overjoyed and tell their family and friends the news. The couple later attend their first ultrasound scan where the doctor says that the baby looks healthy and Sam is due by the end of March. At that moment, the ultrasound screen goes static but recovers after a moment. Throughout the course of her pregnancy, Sam begins to experience nosebleeds, stomach bruising, cravings for raw meat despite being a vegetarian, super-strength and telekinetic abilities and unexplained feelings of rage whenever she or the baby appear to be threatened. Also, Zach and Sam keep seeing odd-looking people randomly watching their house. Sam becomes convinced something is seriously wrong with the baby. After a second visit to the doctor, a new doctor appears. When it becomes evident that Sam is uncomfortable with having the child, someone (presumably the cult, including the new doctor) places tiny hidden cameras in the McCall's home to monitor her progress and make sure she doesn't hurt the baby.

When Sam is eight months pregnant, the couple attend a holy communion at their church. The priest who officiated Zach and Sam's wedding looks at Sam during the service and begins to violently cough up blood. Later at home, when Zach is reviewing the communion footage he filmed, he sees the mysterious cab driver more often than he should as well as a strange symbol. He visits the priest in the hospital, who explains the symbol is related to summoning the Antichrist. Zach decides to investigate the symbol further and breaks in to an apparently abandoned house at the end of his street where he finds the CCTV footage of his house inside and is almost caught by the house's inhabitants who appear to be performing a ritual. Zach barely manages to escape.

Upon returning home, Zach hears Sam scream and all the glass in the house smashes. He finds Sam in the baby's nursery standing in a trance-like state with a knife to her stomach. Zach screams for her to stop, but she presses the knife to her stomach anyway and there is a violent blast of light. When Zach recovers, he finds Sam lying in her own blood with her stomach cut. She cries and wonders if the baby is alright before dying. Zach breaks down in grief before the cab driver and the second doctor appear. Zach begs the intruders to leave them alone, but the doctor takes the baby regardless. Zach is then arrested and is being interrogated by the police on the death of his wife and disappearance of his child. His fate is left unknown. The ending shows another young couple, on their honeymoon in Paris, where the same cab driver offers a lift.

Cast

Production

On December 18, 2012, Fox announced that Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett would be directing Devil's Due, based upon a script written by Lindsay Devlin.[3] Fox had approached the two directors (who are part of the filmmaking collective Radio Silence) based upon their short 10/31/98 in the 2012 horror anthology V/H/S.[6]

Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett had been approached by several other companies for "haunted house projects" but chose to work on Devil's Due over the other projects because they felt that the script was more character based, a "creepy mood piece" that focused on the relationship between its two main characters.[6] In an interview, the directors said they "focused on Sam & Zach's love story from day one and the horror of watching the person you love degenerate, and being left helpless beyond continuing to love them unconditionally."[7]

The script had been pitched to them as "a found-footage take on Rosemary's Baby," but the directors wanted to find ways to make their movie different from the 1968 film that they both praise and consider a personal favorite.[6] This included instilling "a fun energy throughout" and "a sense of humor into the script."[6]

Along with Allison Miller, Zach Gilford was announced to be in the film, which was shot during April 2013 in the Dominican Republic, New Orleans and Paris.[5]

Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett chose to shoot the film primarily with a Sony PMW-EX3, which they chose so that the film's actors could carry it throughout the film. The Canon 5D, Canon Vixia HF G10 and an iPhone 5 were also used in the production.[8]

Promotion

Fox released its first trailer for the film on October 16, 2013, and a second trailer on December 5, 2013. Whereas the initial marketing campaign focused the intimate thriller aspects of the McCall's love story, later marketing concentrated specifically on the larger horror facets of the film.[9][10]

On January 14, prior to the release of the film, Fox promoted the movie by releasing a video of footage of an animatronic baby carriage and demon baby scaring passers-by in New York City.[11] The video went viral shortly thereafter and has had over 20 million views as of January 17, 2014.[12]

Reception

Critical reception has been negative. The film currently holds a rating of 18% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 49 reviews, with a rating average of 4 out of 10.[13] The film's consensus reads: "Derivative and mostly uninspired, Devil's Due adds little to either the found-footage or horror genres that it's content to mimic."[14] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 34 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews" from critics.[15]

Much of the film's criticism centered upon the film's similarity to other films such as Rosemary's Baby and Paranormal Activity,[16][17] an element that Fearnet reviewer Scott Weinberg remarked was likely more due to decisions by the film's production company than anything else.[18] Weinberg called the movie "a darkly passionate homage to Rosemary's Baby, the similarities are both intentional and affectionate,"[18] and Bloody Disgusting gave the film a favorable review, praising the acting of its lead characters, the sense of humor and drawing positive comparisons to the directors' earlier work on V/H/S.[19]

Director Eli Roth has been vocal in his support of the film and in a series of posts on his official Twitter account, wrote "Don't pre-judge Devil's Due because Rosemary's Baby is a 'holy grail' movie. It's so smart, creative, inventive, and fun. Very very scary. The guys at Radio Silence killed it. Devil's Due is a legit scary, smart, horror film. So many awesome scenes. I loved it."[20][21]

Use of "found footage"

Common criticism aimed is at the film's use of "found footage" and asks the question "who assembled this footage?".[16] However, according to the film's directors this was a deliberate choice, "Audiences are way too smart to have the this is real found footage wool pulled over their eyes anymore,"[22] and much like Chronicle, "Devil's Due doesn't pretend to be footage that anyone has found or compiled, it's simply a story told through cameras that exists in that world. In that sense, it's a bit of an experiment that we were able to have fun with and as the character's lives spiral out of control, we're able to mirror that journey visually by shifting to different POVs."[7]

Soundtrack

The film contains diagetic music from Elvis Presley, The Gaslight Anthem, Alkaline Trio, Brenton Wood, Berlin, General Public, and Laura Stevenson.[23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Devil's Due". British Board of Film Classification. December 10, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Devil's Due (2014)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kit, Borys (18 December 2012). "Fox Developing Female-Fronted Found Footage Movie (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  4. ↑ Uncle Creepy (15 October 2013). "20th Century Fox Breaks Radio Silence and Releases Devil's Due". Dread Central. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Fleming, Mike, Jr. (1 March 2013). "‘Friday Night Lights’ Zach Gilford Lands ‘Devil’s Due’ Lead". Deadline.com. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Working on Devil's Due". Complex. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "'The Bitter Script Reader: A Chat With Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Co-Director of Radio Silence's DEVIL'S DUE (Part One)'". Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  8. ↑ Jimenez, Christopher (8 January 2014). "Radio Silence speaks at 'DEVIL'S DUE' event". Fangoria. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  9. ↑ Anderton, Ethan (5 December 2013). "Second Trailer for Satan's Found Footage Pregnancy in 'Devil's Due'". FirstShowing.net. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  10. ↑ "The Trailer for Horror Thriller Devil's Due". ComingSoon.net. 16 October 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  11. ↑ "Devil Baby Attack". Youtube. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  12. ↑ "Watch: ‘Baby’ terrorises New Yorkers in stunt for horror film Devil’s Due". EuroNews. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  13. ↑ "Devil's Due". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2 February 2014.
  14. ↑ "Devil's Due (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  15. ↑ "Devil's Due Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 MACNAB, GEOFFREY. "Devil's Due: Film review – shock tactics are combined with subtlety and humour". Independent (UK). Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  17. ↑ "Devil's Due, Mother(s)care". Empire Online. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Weinberg, Scott. "Devil's Due (review)". Fearnet. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  19. ↑ "'Devil's Due' Delivers Some Surprisingly Bloody Goods". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 17 January 2014.
  20. ↑ Roth, Eli (6 December 2013). "Don't pre-judge #DevilsDue because Rosemary's Baby is a holy grail movie. It's so smart, creative, inventive, and fun. Very very scary.". Twitter. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  21. ↑ Roth, Eli (6 December 2013). "The guys at @HiRadioSilence killed it. #DevilsDue is a legit scary, smart, horror film. So many awesome scenes. I loved it.". Twitter. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
  22. ↑ "'The Bitter Script Reader: A Chat With Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Co-Director of Radio Silence's DEVIL'S DUE (Part Two)'". Retrieved 14 January 2014.
  23. ↑ Radio Silence (14 January 2014). "we're excited to have music from @gaslightanthem @Alkaline_Trio & @laurastevenson in devil's due! #DevilsDue". Twitter. Retrieved 15 January 2014.

External links