If you claim to be even just a mild fan of the horror genre then you probably know about the 'Saw' films by now. From the opening scene in 'Shame the Devil' you'll probably be thinking, 'Oh, this is a Saw rip-off.' And you'd be right. Although, maybe Shame the Devil isn't anything like Saw at all, because the Saw franchise was well-done and successful whereas Shame the Devil is total rubbish.
Sorry to be blunt, but there isn't much going for this film. It's a British version of Saw, only nowhere near as good on any level.
Yes, it's a horror film and anyone who's ever watched one probably isn't expecting amazing performances from the characters. However, the actors here take bad acting to new levels. In fact, sometimes the performances are so bad that you could be excused for thinking that they're a bunch of students, playing at being professionals.
However, maybe I'm being a little unfair on the actors. They really don't get much to work with. Every line they're forced to speak is filled with clichés and sounds like it's been copied and pasted from one generic cop movie or another. With acting and dialogue like this it makes it impossible to care for any of the characters as they sort of bumble about, trying to catch a killer who's hell-bent on making his victims confess to their darkest secrets or murdering them if they lie.
Simple verdict: don't bother. There's absolutely nothing positive about this film at all (with the possible exception of the quite breath-taking establishing shots of London, which I found quite nice!).
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