Movie Review: OF THE DEVIL

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: August 19th, 2022 / 11:07 AM

OF THE DEVIL Movie Poster | ©2022 Uncork’d Entertainment

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Jonathan Stoddard, Dani Palavecino, Lucas Sequeira, Robert LaSardo, Vernon Wells, Devanny Pinn, Eileen Dietz, Roslyn Gentle, Vicki Gunvalson, Annabel Barrett, Tarina Pouncy, Colin Koth, Lauren Louis, Clint Carney, Kelton Jones
Writer: Kelton Jones, story by James Cullen Bressack
Director: Kelton Jones
Distributor: Uncork’d Entertainment
Release Date: August 9, 2022

OF THE DEVIL is less than the sum of its initially intriguing parts. The more its tale of a malevolent force progresses, the more we start questioning how it’s all meant to fit together.

At the outset, we see people partying. A young woman is lured downstairs, where she’s restrained on an altar by cultists. One of the cultists ritually cuts something out of the woman, killing her.

In the morning, the “something” cut from the woman seems to have been a cocoon, which has hatched a large blue butterfly.

Then we’re in Southern California suburbia. Young Alex (Lucas Sequeira) is playing in his family’s backyard with his soldier doll and the neighbor’s pug dog.

Alex’s parents, Norma (Dani Palavecino) and Ben (Jonathan Stoddard), are flirting in the kitchen.

The blue butterfly lands on Alex’s finger. Alex has visions of the woman being sacrificed, and he falls to the ground in a seizure.

When Ben and Norma take Alex to the hospital, they learn he has an inoperable brain tumor. Ben is devastated; Norma, desperate, refuses to accept the diagnosis.

In short order, we learn several things. Biologically speaking, Ben is Alex’s uncle rather than his father; Ben married his war hero brother Esai’s widow, Norma, after Esai died. Before this, Ben was a priest.

This all comes out efficiently during a visit from Ben’s old colleague, Father Bennet (Vernon Wells), who offers his support during this trying time.

Neighbor June (Eileen Dietz), owner of the pug, likewise offers her support to Norma. Although Norma considers June to be something of a nuisance, she listens when June mentions that she knows of a surgeon (Robert LaSardo) in Mazatlán, Mexico. His methods are unconventional, but he may be able to save Alex.

Director Kelton Jones, who wrote the screenplay from a story by James Cullen Bressack, has a lot of interesting visual ideas. He creates a few images of true horror. Additionally, the filmmakers provide Ben with a deep back story.

But we don’t get any back story for Norma, beyond her previous marriage to Esai and her love for her son. Given how religious she is, we ought to at least know how she feels about Ben leaving the priesthood in order to marry her, but this goes unmentioned.

At first, we can chalk up some of Norma’s less than rational demands to a mother’s desperation for her child’s survival. As OF THE DEVIL continues, though, when Norma feels the need to be at Alex’s side and when she doesn’t, when she’s willing to countenance some strange behavior and when she’s not, all makes her seem erratic. Worse, we can’t tell whether this is intended or not.

Likewise, we can’t tell, even by the end, how what appears to be a grand plan works. At first, it seems like June knows all about Mazatlán, but later, she seems honestly bewildered and apprehensive. And why is Alex seeing ghosts?

Despite a few good jump scares and disturbing shots, we wind up too many metaphorical butterflies. By the end of OF THE DEVIL, we’re not terrified nor even saddened, just worn out and perhaps slightly annoyed.

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