The Devil's Hand

I'm very torn about this. The idea and the beginning are pretty good, but I expected more mystery and action throughout the film. The poster spoils the ending, and it could be the reason why I was expecting the big reveal to happen earlier in the story rather than in the last 5 minutes.

The hooded figure that goes around killing people is simply too goofy to be scary, and in general the atmosphere is not tense enough. Plus, I'm no expert but I don't think it's a good representation of an Amish community.

I think the acting - I'm looking at you Alycia Debnam-Carey and Jennifer Carpenter - and the ending are what carry this film. I ended up sympathising for the devil!

Side note: weird seeing Alycia Debnam-Carey and Thomas McDonell on screen together again, hehe.

This movie had some promising elements and very good production value. Despite what seems to be a modest budget, the lighting and technical aspects of the filmmaking on display here are all pretty top notch. The young female leads are also pretty strong and the fundamental idea behind the story seems like solid starting point.

Unfortunately, there's really not many more positive things I can think to add. The way the story unfolds is completely predictable and not even slightly interesting on any level. It's pretty much the same old same old that you see in any "powers of the devil"-type horror movie. No new ground is broken.

And while the movie is far from being terrible, it's just as far away from being good and ends up as a textbook example of genre mediocrity.

This movie caught my attention cause of Alycia Debnam Carey and I am not embarrassed to say it!!

Then, being a huge fan of thrillers I thought I would give it a shot. And I was very pleasantly surprised!

A thriller movie first and foremost has to have that eerie, spooky, unpleasant atmosphere that puts you in the mood of "something ain't right here... something must be not what it seems like...". And it succeeded!

Production wise it is just fine. Not a lot of fuss about things that don't' need a lot of fuss. The actors were each good casting for their roles. And Alycia... Ooh man oooh man..That girl can really act and I hope that she makes good choices cause she really does have IT!

Now, this I have to say: The "Trevor" character is the same actor that played Finn in "THE 100". I will not spoil for those of you that haven't seen the movie yet... but this dude is one of the luckiest/unluckiest characters on earth!!!!!!!! Both "Lexa" and "Clarke" man!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? BOTH OF THEM!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

The movie is filled with allegories and symbolism. Very nicely done guys. The whole story and how it ended was as it should have been done to make it worthwhile. Sometimes payback is not "a bitch"... IT IS THE DEVIL HIM/HERSELF!

Prophecy stalks a religious community. The fools! Or are they?

Strong theme and good acting, but the story is rubbish - a disapproving rant about irrational behaviour, yet the end is beyond irrational. No problem with criticism of religious faith, but this was so obviously a caricature that I couldn't believe it, and the final reveal felt cheap. I think it's a case of being so contradictory that you end up agreeing.

The story telling is weak - gaping gaps in the logic, plus several scenes you have to excuse just to keep up with events. It does look great, although the music is too busy. And so coy about the sex and violence - I understand the need to meet standards, but this was disgustingly tame.

There is a saving grace, thanks to the actors. Colm Meany had a cheesy role, but the actresses were beautiful and intense. Pity the story didn't allow them to take over.

I went in to this movie not really thinking it would be all great, Jennifer Carpenter (from TV's Dexter) was the swing-vote why I decided to go ahead with it.

However she was not really why I kept interest, cause frankly she wasn't that great in this one.

Luckily the other cast was slightly better, no Academy award winning performances or anything but decent enough.

I went in to it thinking it would be a horror, and even though the beginning of the movie does fall in line with that and there are horror elements that pop out from time to time in the movie I'd say it's first and foremost a drama.

And even though the horror segments are neatly orchestrated it often just don't feel like it's from the same movie sometimes, characters who at one point are shook up can in the next minute be going on their business like nothing happened, so yeah uneven direction for sure.

It's almost as if someone wrote a somewhat realistic day to day script what life in a cult would be like and then some big shots told someone else to re-write it to a horror instead so they just cut and pasted some horror segments into the script where it could fit.

And the ending is pretty awful.

5/10