Feed the Devil

What an odd fish of a film. It is a horror movie which isn't scary. The setting however is chilling and eerie. There is an excellent 'final girl', Ardiss Barrow, who might have been redemptive in terms of the overall film but the scriptwriters Matthew Altman and Max Perrier kill her off two thirds of the way into the film. The micro-budget is well masked right up to the scene where a character is wearing the same distinctive costume worn by another character earlier in the film. And so on it goes. It is my belief that no one sets out to intentionally make a bad movie but director Matthew Altman and his cast and crew test my resolve on this point. The plot, such as it is, sees a drug dealer, Jared Cohen, venturing into the wilderness, always a mistake, with his girlfriend and her sister, for the dope score of a lifetime. He unknowingly enters the territory of a Native American demon and his ghost subordinates. The plot is in its way simple and linear and shouldn't be as confusing as it is. There is a scene when a Native American explains what is going on which might have been included earlier in the film, in some way, so that the viewer has an appreciation of the plot which is unfolding. Cohen stretches credibility to breaking point with regards his ability to survive. It's his incredible good fortune that every piece of rotting rope, every decaying piece of wood he is tied too, every handy route of escape comes his way. The bulk of his dialogue is comprised of a single word, 's..t'. He emotes two acting faces one drunk / stoned the other sees him shouting at whoever is nearby. That's it, drunk or shouting. In fairness he does sometimes mix it up by shouting when acting drunk. He is responsible for one of the funniest scenes captured on film. Shouting he throws a bottle of alcohol at his burning ute. Instead of hitting the ute proper he smashes a window and momentarily completely drops out of character. He does though carry the film being in almost every scene. Cohen's own efforts aside, his character is undermined by the scriptwriters. He is entirely inconsistent. He declares his undying love for his girlfriend played by Victoria Curtain at the same time as he declares his desire to have sex with her younger sister. After verbally abusing, physically hitting and ignoring Stella, the girlfriend, for most of the film, the final third sees him obsessively searching for her because, s..t, he loves her. The soundtrack is effective. The cinematography is solid. (It's difficult to mess up Canada.) The special effects are OK given an obviously tight budget. Props are quite good and there are lashings of gore. I don't regret watching Feed the Devil, but it could have been a lot better if a lot tighter. There is a sloppiness to the project which has nothing to do with the micro-budget. There is a scene were, using stop motion, a ghost is supposed to appear and disappear but in fact the actor is seen sneaking off to hide behind a tree. These few seconds are emblematic of the entire 95 minutes of its running time.

First, I don't see how anyone would have though that such a offensive movie toward people who land was stolen and almost exterminated was a good thing. Then you have the biggest loser around, surviving more than five minute under those conditions. I would have liked this movie a LOT better if the main character hadn't been such a loser. Yeah, sure, a very lousy low level city crook, who gets beaten by his own alcoholic mother, that was in a drunken stupor before beating the guy with a bat, would somehow survive mosquitoes. This movie makes the horror genera even more idiotic than it usually is. (And I'm a horror movie fan.)

So just what exactly do you feed the Devil? Apparently boredom, judging from this movie. I was initially lured in to watch this movie given the movie's cover/poster, because it really did look interesting and I do enjoy horror movies. So naturally I did pick up this movie. But perhaps I should have checked it out on IMDb first... The storyline in "Feed the Devil" was unfathomably boring, and very, very little happened throughout the course of this movie. And whatever did happen here wasn't hardly enough to lift the movie back up on course from the boredom that served as a restrictive anchor around it. I had essentially expected somewhat more from this movie, so I was left mighty high and dry. And I must admit that more than once did my attention drift away from the screen. As for the acting in "Feed the Devil", well all I can say is that I found it to be rigid and wooden, and pretty much fitting to the rest of the movie. "Feed the Devil" is a movie that I doubt that you will ever watch a second time, provided you actually make it through the entire movie the first time.

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