Devil's Due (film)

Devil's Due is a 2014 American psychological 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]

Devil's Due
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMatt Bettinelli-Olpin
Tyler Gillett
Produced byJohn Davis
Written byLindsay Devlin
StarringAllison Miller
Zach Gilford
CinematographyJustin Martinez
Edited byRod Dean
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • January 17, 2014 (2014-01-17)
Running time
89 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$7 million[2]
Box office$36.9 million[2]

Plot

A young couple, Zach and Samantha McCall, are about to get married when Zach decides he wants to document their life together since Sam was raised in foster homes and doesn't know much about her history or roots. After their wedding, they go to the Dominican Republic for their honeymoon. During Carnival, the couple meet a fortune teller (DeMaris Gordon), who declares Sam was "born from death" and repeats to Sam that "they have been waiting" for her. Creeped out, the couple quickly leave. On their way out, a strange man watches them.

They get lost on the way home and a cab driver (Roger Payano) offers to take them to a local club. There are numerous strange symbols marking the area on their way there. At the club, the same man from the fortune teller's watches them and speaks with the cab driver. Unaware they are being trapped, the couple is drugged and taken to an underground chamber beneath the nightclub where a ritual is performed and an unseen force fills the room.

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 is 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), superhuman strength, 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 watching them from afar. Sam becomes convinced something is seriously wrong with the baby and that they are being watched. After a second visit to the doctor, a new doctor (Robert Aberdeen) appears and performs an amnio after Sam appears nauseous. He has no answer as to the whereabouts of their original doctor and the couple is suspicious.

Before the couple return home, masked men set up hidden cameras inside their home to monitor her progress and make sure she does not hurt the baby.

When Sam is eight months pregnant, the couple attend a holy communion at their church. Their usually friendly niece (Madison Wolfe) is oddly scared of Sam now, and the priest (Sam Anderson) who officiated Zach and Sam's wedding looks at Sam during the service and violently coughs up blood. Later at home, when Zach is reviewing the communion footage he filmed, he sees the mysterious cab driver from their honeymoon sitting in a pew. He visits the priest in the hospital, who explains the symbol is related to summoning the Antichrist. He warns Zach that the symbol is the gateway for the Antichrist, and that the followers of the cult will dress the house in ash to prepare for the arrival. After he finds ash all over his house (and the cops will not do anything), Zach chases the people watching their house and finds out where they are living. He asks his sister Suzie to stay with Sam while he breaks into the supposedly abandoned house at the end of his street where the cult is staying, and there he finds the CCTV footage of his house and the missing ultrasound. He is almost caught by the cult when he goes to leave. Performing the ritual with the other cult members is the McCall's mysterious second doctor, as well as the man who has been watching their house and the cult leader (who they initially saw at the fortune teller's place and later at the club). Zach barely manages to escape.

Meanwhile, Suzie goes to check Sam, only to find that she is drawing the cult symbol before being attacked by an unseen force.

Upon returning home, Zach finds the house surrounded by the masked men who have been watching them all along. Inside, he finds Suzie dead and hears Sam scream as the house is being destroyed by some unseen force. He finds Sam in the baby's nursery standing in a trance-like state with a knife to her stomach (the knife was a mysterious gift at her baby shower). She is standing atop the cult symbol that she has carved into the floor. 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. Sam cries and wonders if the baby is all right before dying in his arms. Zach breaks down in grief before the cab driver and the second doctor arrive. Zach begs the intruders to leave them alone, but the doctor takes the baby regardless. The baby glows a deep red as he takes it from Sam's body. The cult takes his camera and tapes, removing all evidence. Zach is arrested and interrogated by the police about the death of his wife and sister, and disappearance of his child, crimes for which he looks guilty.

Before the credits, the screen shows another young couple, on their honeymoon in Paris, where the same cab driver offers them a lift, hinting that the events are about to repeat all over again.

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 a character based "creepy mood piece" that focused on the deteriorating relationship between its two main characters.[6] In an interview, the directors said they "focused on Zach & Samantha'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 McCalls’ 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]

A collector's edition of the Blu-Ray with cover art by Orlando Arocena was released in 2017 alongside 19 MGM & Fox horror films such as Carrie, Joy Ride and Black Swan.[13]

Reception

Critical reception of Devil's Due was negative. The film currently holds a rating of 18% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 56 reviews, with a rating average of 3.95/10. 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]

However, since initial release the film has found a cult following and 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 the found footage technique 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 [sic] lives spiral out of control, we're able to mirror that journey visually by shifting to different POVs. The movie begins very bright, very intimate and full of movement, but as the watchers close in our couple we shifted to a lot more of the static cameras that exist in the world, like the security cameras, with much wider frames. We hoped to use that distance and coldness to mirror the despair and hopelessness that was tearing the couple apart."[7] The film intentionally breaks many found footage conventions throughout, including the deliberate absence of a framing device (such as "these tapes were found by the police"), the use of an animated opening quote, a recognizable cast, a non-chronological narrative structure and a music cue becoming the end-credits song.

Soundtrack

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

No.TitleWriter(s)PerformerLength
1."Once Upon a Time"Robert BradleyThe Gaslight Anthem 
2."I Belong to You"Leon SilverMallory Sands 
3."Bridal Chorus"Richard Wilhelm Wagner  
4."Love Me Tender"Elvis Presley and Vera MatsonJordan Rippe 
5."No More Words"John CrawfordBerlin 
6."As You Were"Daniel Andriano, Matt Skiba, Glenn PorterAlkaline Trio 
7."Tenderness"Micky Billingham, Roger Charlery, Dave WakelingGeneral Public 
8."Be Mine"Herb Alpert and Frank D'AmicoThe McCall Twins 
9."Quieren Brilla"Manuel Ariel CiprianEl Aria 
10."The Oogum Boogum Song"Alfred SmithBrenton Wood 
11."Devil's Alibaba"Adolfo Guerrero and Aliosha MichelenEdgar Molina 
12."Devil's Batucada"Adolfo Guerrero and Aliosha MichelenEdgar Molina 
13."Nadie Pone Pero"Adolfo Guerrero and Aliosha MichelenAdelobo 
14."Melma"Wilson Padilla AlmonteDi Angelo 
15."Eres Tan Barrial"Wilson Padilla AlmonteDi Angelo 
16."Que Lio"Risa EncarnacionLa Bambola Slow 
17."Wakala"Wilson Padilla AlmonteDi Angelo 
18."Cuckoo"L. StuartBuddy Stuart 
19."Shakin' Hands"Sera CahooneSera Cahoone 
20."Eastern Dawn"Midori  
21."Five Treasures"Christopher Lewis, Gaynor O'Flynn and Sachidanand Rauniyar  
22."Home on the Range"   
23."Beets Untitled"Laura Anne StevensonLaura Stevenson & The Cans 
24."I Like the Way You Love Me"Alfred SmithBrenton Wood 
25."Holy Holy Holy"   
26."Across the Wide Missouri" Cash McCall 
27."Chocolat"Graham D.H. Preskett  
gollark: What? No.
gollark: 3 dumb? 4 dumb?
gollark: That makes sense, since if something is a bomb you will obviously stay as close to it and use it as much as possible.
gollark: `((0 * 4) + +[(a * b), (b * c), (a + 3)])` you.
gollark: osmarkscalculator™ MUST simplify expressions, yet this makes it quite hard to.

See also

References
  1. "Devil's Due". British Board of Film Classification. December 10, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  2. "Devil's Due (2014)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb.
  3. Kit, Borys (December 18, 2012). "Fox Developing Female-Fronted Found Footage Movie (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  4. Uncle Creepy (October 15, 2013). "20th Century Fox Breaks Radio Silence and Releases Devil's Due". Dread Central. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  5. Fleming, Mike, Jr. (March 1, 2013). "'Friday Night Lights' Zach Gilford Lands 'Devil's Due' Lead". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  6. "Working on Devil's Due". Complex. Retrieved January 17, 2014.
  7. "'The Bitter Script Reader: A Chat With Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Co-Director of Radio Silence's DEVIL'S DUE (Part One)'". Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  8. Jimenez, Christopher (January 8, 2014). "Radio Silence speaks at 'DEVIL'S DUE' event". Fangoria. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  9. Anderton, Ethan (December 5, 2013). "Second Trailer for Satan's Found Footage Pregnancy in 'Devil's Due'". FirstShowing.net. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  10. "The Trailer for Horror Thriller Devil's Due". ComingSoon.net. October 16, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2014.
  11. "Devil Baby Attack". Youtube. Retrieved January 17, 2014.
  12. "Watch: 'Baby' terrorises New Yorkers in stunt for horror film Devil's Due". EuroNews. Retrieved January 17, 2014.
  13. Miska, Brad. "Celebrate Halloween Early with Unique Blu-ray and DVD Designs for 19 MGM and Fox Titles'".
  14. "Devil's Due (2014)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved July 19, 2019.
  15. "Devil's Due Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 26, 2014.
  16. MACNAB, GEOFFREY. "Devil's Due: Film review – shock tactics are combined with subtlety and humour". Independent (UK). Retrieved January 17, 2014.
  17. "Devil's Due, Mother(s)care". Empire Online. Retrieved January 17, 2014.
  18. Weinberg, Scott. "Devil's Due (review)". Fearnet. Retrieved January 17, 2014.
  19. "'Devil's Due' Delivers Some Surprisingly Bloody Goods". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved January 17, 2014.
  20. Roth, Eli (December 6, 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 January 15, 2014.
  21. Roth, Eli (December 6, 2013). "The guys at @HiRadioSilence killed it. #DevilsDue is a legit scary, smart, horror film. So many awesome scenes. I loved it". Twitter. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
  22. "'The Bitter Script Reader: A Chat With Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Co-Director of Radio Silence's DEVIL'S DUE (Part Two)'". Retrieved January 14, 2014.
  23. Radio Silence (January 14, 2014). "we're excited to have music from @gaslightanthem @Alkaline_Trio & @laurastevenson in devil's due! #DevilsDue". Twitter. Retrieved January 15, 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.