Movie Review: DEVILREAUX

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: June 30th, 2023 / 12:46 AM

DEVILREAUX movie poster | ©2023 Lionsgate

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Vincent M. Ward, Tony Todd, Krista Grotte Saxon, Monaye Moyes, Meberate Brooks, Jon Briddell
Writer: Thomas J. Churchill, story by Vincent M. Ward
Director: Thomas J. Churchill
Distributor: Lionsgate
Release Date: June 30, 2023

DEVILREAUX fits, very broadly, into the CANDYMAN pantheon of vengeful revenants created by wrongs of the pre-Civil War American South.

An onscreen title informs us that we’re in present-day New Orleans. A nice young couple have what appears to be a tourist-trap magic shop. While they are redecorating, both are killed by a tall black figure in skeleton white-face makeup. This is Devilreaux (Vincent M. Ward).

Then we’re in a hospital, where a young woman, Lexy Allen (Monaye Moyes), is being treated for wounds. Police detective Bobbie Briggs (Krista Grotte Saxon) wants to question Lexy about the disappearance of Lexy’s four friends, who had broken into a historical site together to play a game.

Detective Briggs is so keen on finding out what happened that she insists on administering a lie detector test to Lexy while the young woman is still in the hospital bed, hooked up to the equipment. Lexy claims that she summoned Devileaux, who then killed everyone else, although she managed to escape.

Most people in the audience will be aware that a) a lie detector wouldn’t be considered necessary at this point in the proceedings b) that it wouldn’t be used on someone in Lexy’s current straits in any case, and c) it’s not necessary to the narrative. This, unfortunately, is not going to be the last bit in DEVILREAUX where we break from basic common sense.

Detective Briggs and her boyfriend, Dr. Peter Turner (Jon Briddell), have supper together. Briddell knows a lot of the Devilreaux lore. Devilreaux’s mother was a “voodoo witch” who cast a curse after her son was murdered. Devilreaux was brought back from the dead to wreak vengeance upon the bloodline of his killers, and anyone who disrespects his legend.

Given the skepticism of many characters, that gives Devilreaux a wide pool of potential victims. But if the kids have played the game before, why haven’t they had these catastrophic results sooner? As the curse is set up, how have so many people in the bloodline survived long enough to have descendants in the present? Turner, one of these descendants, is fearful for himself and his son.

We have an extended flashback to 1862, when we meet Devilreaux’s parents, Leonard (Tony Todd) and Sally (Meberate Brooks), slaves on a plantation with a particularly loathsome man of the manor (Dennis W. Hall).

Then we flash forward to 1895, when we meet Devilreaux as a genial young man, whose kindness is betrayed in the worst possible way.

Then we’re back in the present, with Det. Briggs trying to get to the truth.

Todd’s performance as a man who cannot take one more moment of abuse is one of DEVILREAUX’s bright spots. Ward is also good as both the warm-hearted living man and the implacable spirit, and a lot of the settings are suitably creepy.

However, the logic glitches are notable, even by the standards of low-budget ghost films. More problematic is the lack of actual scares.

One wants to believe DEVILREAUX’s heart is in the right place as far as speaking out on the horrors of slavery. Still, there is a line that gets crossed. Slave-era brutality that includes gang rape doesn’t mix well with pop horror, any more than concentration camp drama would. Even if it were a better film, this would still make DEVILREAUX uncomfortable viewing, not because we can’t take seeing the trauma of slavery and racism onscreen, but because in this context, it feels like exploitation.

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