I Trapped the Devil

This movie was definitely inspired by Rod Serling's 1960 Twilight Zone episode titled, "the Howling Man" (Season 2 Episode 5). It was made more involved with a psychotic gatekeeper, as opposed to a religious zealot keeping Satan under wraps. But, you can see the similarities in the plot.

Too long, too still, too monotone. These things need to be measured and have a tempo. Questions needed to be asked that these characters don't. How, why, what led him to this conclusion. He explains this to his own satisfaction, but certainly that shouldn't be enough to the others. Unplugged Tv and telephone ringing could have definitely been used as forces of interruption and movement of the main character, but wasn't enough.

With the calm dialog and quietness set to create a mood of a possible evil held below or sensitive insanity, there needs to be something that moves us along. It was like walking into a quiet house, having a quiet conversation, having a drink waiting for something to happen in a dimly lit place. Could be much better.

"I Trapped the Devil" is an ominous, art-house-like slow-burner with a visibly low budget. The trailer got me intrigued & so did the review by Bloody Disgusting. Was I disappointed? A bit, for I wasn't expecting anything higher than 6/10.

Here's the good things about "I Trapped The Devil" - The atmosphere can be grim when it tries enough, the take on the devil was smart & crafty for a low-budget flick, the little twist at the ending is, in my opinion, quite cool & the performance by Scott Poythress is as good as the flawed script allows him to be.

And here's the slightly bigger amount of the not-so-good things about this flick - The middle portion of the movie is pure filler & also the reason why people describe this movie as a borefest. Pacing is certainly one of the biggest issues here. One thing that caught my eye for one too many times is the lighting - either they went overboard with style or just were too amateur-ish about it. AJ Bowen, about whom I usually don't have any complaints, gave a questionable performance this time. Or maybe it was the stiff lines given to him by the writer. And, of course, the story - I usually like ominosity & obscurism in horror movies, I also liked it about "I Trapped the Devil", but I have to question it for I still can't really put the plot together as the credits are rolling. I mean, it's all there, it's just that some things are not very logical.

Despite all the flaws, I enjoyed this flick. If you're a fan of low-budget indies, obscure art-house flicks or slow-burn horrors, give it a try. As I like all three of those things, I did get a kick out of "I Trapped the Devil". Will I re-watch it? No, most likely never. My rating: 5/10.

Ending was an insult and major letdown, the slow burn just doesn't pay off here at all...I gave 4 stars for the atmosphere and premise, just a bad attempt though all around. Come on IFC, you used to do better than this!

The film makers did a lot with very little here as the budget is obviously tiny. The atmosphere quickly becomes quite creepy and a feeling of dread starts to build. I watch horror films regularly and it is rare to find one that creates a real sense of uneasiness and apprehension like this does, for me that is where true horror lies so massive credit to the film makers for that.

Unfortunately there was just not enough information and the script was quite poor. There's a guy in the basement who Steve believes to be the devil: how did he get there? why does he think he's the devil? These questions are not asked by his brother Matt or his wife and this just seems beyond ridiculous. Although there is some hinting at a traumatic incident in the past and Steve's sanity is questioned there is just not enough back story and the dialogue is quite limited so you end up frustrated because there is never any real explanation for how this situation arose.

I appreciate sometimes directors want to leave things open for the viewer to interpret how they want but for me there were just too many unanswered questions which left me unsatisfied at the end.