Devil in the Dark

The plot has too many unfinished plots. Even the ending is a unfinished story. Seems it was a movie made with lots of if's and the producer ran out of funds midway.

'Devil in the Dark' drew me into seeing it, with a cool and creepy poster, an intriguing idea with a potentially relatable central relationship and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

Actually found 'Devil in the Dark' fairly watchable, if not an easy film to rate or review. Had to think long and hard about what my thoughts were and how to articulate them. 'Devil in the Dark' is not great, or good, has a fair share of problems (fairly big ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There are however a number of decent, even good, qualities in 'Devil in the Dark', at least it wasn't intelligence insulting or inept (unlike some films seen recently) and the potential is not completely squandered.

Lets start with the positives. The scenery is very atmospheric, likewise with the very nice way it's shot. The music is suitably spooky and doesn't distract at all from the atmosphere, while not exactly enhancing it. The acting is better than average from the whole cast.

There are some scary and suspenseful moments once the film gets going and the central family relationship does have some genuine emotion, with the origin of the conflict being one of the few things agreed made completely clear.

However, the story does feel over-stretched, especially in the first half, and too much of it feels vague, under-explained and gives off the sense of incompletion, with more loose ends than you can count. There is too much overlong exposition and too many extraneous scenes that could have been cut, and the central relationship/family scenes are too heavily focused on in favour of generating more scares.

Dialogue can be stilted while the pace is uneven, especially in the first half where things take too long to get going. Didn't find the ending that scary or surprising and the big reveal was more silly than shocking.

Overall, watchable but not devilish enough. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Devil in the Dark's an interesting little film.

Its actually not an easy one to review either. You can see a lot of familiar tropes on offer here.There are elements reminiscent of The Omen, The Descent, Blair Witch (without the annoying shaky camera thing or a witch), films like Snow Beast (for those of us who remember 70's horror) and no doubt others you can think of.

All of this takes place in a wilderness setting, offering lots of atmosphere, with some genuinely creepy, nighttime scares. What is particularly praiseworthy about this film, is how the stark outdoorsy scares are transported back to civilization in the closing scenes of the film. An interesting final twist that raises the hairs on the back of the neck.

The acting is not too shabby either, with a somewhat predictable back story that establishes the fractious relationship between two brothers.

All in all not a bad little horror flick. I give Devil in the Dark a seven out of ten.

It kept my interest and I really wanted to understand it all. I thought it would all come together and answer all thise unanswered questions. A nice tidy ending. But it didn't. For me that did not make the movie bad. I for one liked this movie and will watch another time to catch somr nuances that i may have missed.

I found some people saying this is is a boring movie but I found it quite the opposite. It's a different kind of horror and thriller - much more of a thriller than horror.

This movie focus a lot on the relationship of the two brothers because they are opposites, complete opposites to each other!

Nobody ever talks about the sound mixing but it is quite good - plus, the musics chosen are really good in my humble opinion.

The end, well, that's the part that gave me more chills and made angry at the same time, to be honest!