Devil's Void

This movie jumps the shark faster than I've ever seen before. We've got a premise and a trailer that shapes this up to be the relatively standard paranormal crew encountering an extreme haunting/demonic possession; the investigators who have wound up debunking all purported hauntings they've visited. This is causing their podcast(?) to sink in the ratings so they are desperate to find a locale where they may find strong indicators that the place is truly haunted. While brainstorming at a bar there just so happens to be a woman who knows of a haunted cottage (that she lives in) and also happens to be a medium.

It doesn't take long after they arrive at the cabin that the story goes off the rails; adding plot points that never wind up being relevant, more characters being thrown in the mix that seem random. All of this culminates into an immensely confusing story that goes from the humble roots of haunting/possession to a struggle of biblical proportions and ultimately in keeping with the nature of the film, a confusing convoluted ending. This movie was insane. I don't know who thought this story could have ever worked presented in the way that it was. It was an ambitious film with nowhere near the depth required to make it work. It would be a fairly fun watch with friends for the entertainment value the absurdity brings, ironically making its multiple gaping flaws and 0 to 100 storyline its only redeeming qualities.

I wish I could rate this higher. It does seem like it had its heart in the right place, and you can make out the bones of a decent story in there.

The biggest hurdle is the directing and editing, both of which jump the story and setting around to the point of being incoherent. Characters are introduced and then forgotten about for large stretches of time. There is an intro scene which confuses things further, and a poorly placed flashback that could have been avoided as the involved character does a better job of just expositing later.

As for writing, as i said the base story seems like it could have been interesting, but the execution leaves much to be desired between a far too obviously telegraphed "twist" and characters reacting strangely, to put it mildly, before falling into the pitfall over overly preachy morality play.

Still, the acting was serviceable, and the writer/director's heart was in the right place. And I've definitely seen worse.