The Sudbury Devil

Objectively, this film is incredible via several metrics. For starters, its budget is used so well that you could hardly tell it was made for less than $25,000. That alone should put this film into the realm of Indie cult classics, but it's further supported by the wealth of acting talent and the well-thought-out, historically accurate script. Overall, it's a fantastic historical film that gives great insight into the mindsets of the average New Englanders during the Puritan era.

All of that being said, it's MOST DEFINITELY NOT FOR EVERYONE. Personally, I'd say I'm one of those people. The vibe of the film was, in my opinion, too occult, too sexual, too gory, and too esoteric for my taste. It's a film that's most certainly not for the under-18 crowd, but that being said, the vibe doesn't take away from the fact that it's very well made.

I finally decided to watch it after being a fan of Atun Shei Films for years, in particular his Checkmate Lincolnites series. I've been a massive fan of his for all that time, so going into the movie, I generally knew what to expect, in that I sort of knew it would probably not be a film that I loved. I was correct in that assumption. I didn't love it, but I was intrigued nonetheless.

It's not a movie for the faint of heart, and it's not a movie for the Karen crowd, but if you're looking to expand your horizons, I guarantee you that even if you don't love it, you'll at least be able to appreciate it for how impressive it is.

So while it's not the film for me, it may very well be the perfect film for you.

If you're wondering if you should watch this movie the answer is an emphatic yes!

The Sudbury Devil is a wild experience that waste no time immersing you into the world of late 17th century New England. Writer/Director Andrew Rakich's deep knowledge of this period is evident in every frame, for me his commitment to the setting alone makes it worth the watch. That being said, I came for the history but the story and performances had me gripped to the screen. The Sudbury Devil delves deep into New England lore to craft a narrative filled with complicated characters and has you watch as they come to reckon with their own personal convictions. Fed by stellar performances and an amazing score, The Sudbury Devil will take you on a disturbing little trip into the world of Puritan New England.

I sincerely recommend you check it out!

First off, This movie is not good. The cinematography looks nice, and that is pretty much it.

I'm not biased by politics and I will actually explain the faults in this movie.

Directing: Oh god what can I even say, It's just the most flat boring Directing I've ever seen, "Inspired" by Robert Eggers, Andrew Rakich just does his best Impression of a Robert Eggers movie, but he's only ever seen screenshots of 'the lighthouse'.

It's just intensified continuity but it holds on shots longer, it barely ever frames dialogue with more than 1 character in the shot and there is ZERO blocking.

Here's a little tip that every good filmmaker knows, For a shot to be visually interesting, it either has to be spectacular (Big beautiful spectacle) which this movie fails at, or have movement.

Movement of actors, Movement of the camera, it doesn't really matter, but when you do a 30 second long shot with no movement whatsoever of a mundane subject, It's just BORING.

Directing overview: Stop doing other director's styles, you're supposed to do your own. And stop taking the audience for granted, There are better things I can do with my time than watching this.

Writing: For writing I will do 3 categories: Dialogue, Characters, And plot/story/structure.

Dialogue: I understand they should speak Old English but you still need to make it clear and interesting, It doesn't matter if it's "More historically accurate" for them to speak how they do, but between the boring directing and the boring Dialogue, you can guess how the movie feels. And not to mention that the dialogue is just so empty and bland with NO depth or subtext behind it, if characters just say what they mean all the time (like this) then the dialogue is bad.

Characters: The characters all just feel like cardboard cutouts of how you'd describe them in one word (Christian, Evil, Weird, etc.) with NONE of them having ANY actual depth. Now this is related to dialogue but just listen, If you want to test whether or not your Characters / Dialogue works: imagine a blind viewer watching the movie, without being told what character is saying what, Will they still be able to tell who's who by the dialogue? If not (like this movie) then rewrite your script and give personality to your characters.

Plot/Structure: Just a generic plot, really just nothing special.

Extra Writing Category (Another reason this movie sucks): The School of Resentment.

If you don't know what the school of resentment film theory is, go google it real quick but it's pretty simple, Movies and Cinema is slowly being transformed into political messages, they only make movies to state their Political opinions, they barely care for the actual art of making a movie or it's story, They just want to give their opinions. This movie suffers from this, STRONGLY, the entire movie Is just Overly political, and If you don't believe me, believe what the cast is saying: Said by Kendra Unique which plays Flora (The demonic woman who falls in love with Fletcher)

"Not only is it about the glory of Satan, but also freedom to be who you are. It's stepping out boldly against this white, Christian colonialist society and saying f*** you".

It doesn't get much more political than that, and movies who are purely about politics have no place in Cinema.

Writing Overview: Overly Political, Boring 'Characters', Shallow deep dialogue and a generic story.

The "Look": This one I'll divide to Lighting, Framing, Movement and Visual Storytelling.

Lighting: Now this is one Area which I actually can praise, the lighting is simple yet quite atmospheric and pleasing to look at. The highlights are exposed a lot of the time due to the color grading (Which is ok but you don't have to Emulate film, not every movie needs to look like it was shot on film).

Framing: Yet another area which I can say some good things about, the framing is often quite nice, WHEN IT'S NOT A CLOSEUP, STOP FRAMING ALL THE DIALOUGE IN CLOSEUPS, YOU CAN USE WIDESHOTS FOR THOSE TOO!!

Movement :None, except for a shaky cam and some rare instances, you're gonna be looking at a still shot, in a non moving world, with non moving characters.

Visual storytelling: Once again, None, I don't have much to say, every shot just shows you one simple thing without ever hinting or indirectly revealing anything.

The "Look" Overview: It looks nice but It never does more than one thing at a time and often hold on shots for much too long.

Other Things:

G0re and S*x: To a point where it gets tiring to watch.

The Acting: Oh Geez, this REALLY REALLY breaks the movie, because at least if the acting was good it would be scary, but instead it's honestly just silly: The actress I mentioned earlier, Kendra Unique, Is the worst actress I've ever seen, no I'm not exaggerating, She honestly acts like a 6 year old girl who's just been told to "Act like an Evil witch" and she's only ever seen Disney movies.

The actress that plays Patience, (yes there is a character named patience) Shows NO emotion, not in a scary demonic uncanny kind of way, but it's just like her face and voice can't express any emotion other than boredom and slight confusion, she delivers her lines and that's just it.

The actor who plays Goodenow, Matthew Van Gessel, is supposed to act like a possessed man the entire movie, instead I just kind of found myself thinking he's doing an offensive impression of a ret4rded man, I don't know what I'm supposed to tell you that's just how It felt like.

All the other acting is okay, I will say Josh Popa (Awesome name) who plays Josiah, does deliver a pretty good performance, especially the Physical acting, not blocking because the Director doesn't know how to do that, but just how he constantly manages to express his character's emotions through how he stands, sits or just looks at things despite the director not giving him ANY blocking, I cannot stress this enough, NO BLOCKING.

The Horror: Damn I forgot this was a horror movie, well that's okay so did everybody else who made it, It is never ONCE scary, I don't even think they were trying.

CGI/VFK: They look bad, that's it.

Overall: An all-politics-no-story boring script with lifeless characters and a basic plot directed in the Laziest way it can be with a youtuber's fanbase that'll just eat up whatever he shits out. Looks nice though.

If a history is grotesque, so too should be its depictive art. The Sudbury Devil is a visually and auditorily striking ride from start to finish.

Writer/Director Andrew Rakich draws on his knowledge of the history of the American colonies, their fears, their hangups, their desires and their treatment of the indigenous peoples of this continent to tell a story of the birth of a monster. His attention to detail is evident, and for those that catch everything that he does right, this film is a feast of historical context done right.

Dillon DeRosa's work on the score is simply immaculate. Subtle, communicative, and as otherworldly as the forces at work within the visual narrative. Music is a language that speaks to the quiet and pattern-reading parts of our mind, and DeRosa has written us something wonderful and eerie.

The cast in this movie is relatively small, but every performance is given with delightful fervor. In particular, the work done by actors Benton Guinness, and Matthew Van Gessel stood out to me personally for their roles as John Fletcher and Isaac Goodenow, respectively. (Bonus points to actress Linnea Gregg however, for speaking the truth and message of the movie most plainly, in certain lines.)

All in all, I enjoyed this movie immensely. It is worth pointing out that it will *not* be to everyone's tastes. It follows a reasonably straightforward narrative, but watcher beware, strangeness abounds. There are many parts of this movie which are undeniably surreal, and markedly uncomfortable to watch. This, I believe, is by design. It's not a movie's obligation to keep a watcher comfortable, and given the subject matter at hand, that caveat applies doubly.

From me, ten stars. It's not the most approachable film, but it is a FANTASTIC religious/historical horror experience. Do not watch it with your parents.

...then you need to brush up on your American history or your media analysis. This is a fun movie and while history nerds like myself can find many small details to appreciate, I watched it with a large group of friends who had never even heard of King Phillips War before watching this who enjoyed dissecting the meaning and appreciated the plot of this film.

Not a friend of the creator or even knew about his youtube presence before watching this. Learned about it when looking for more movies like The Witch.

Are there some flaws? Sure. But this movie didn't have millions in budget so idk what you were looking for but there are no technical or stylist choices so bad you can't watch it like some low budget films.

Once again, highly recommend!