I Trapped The Devil
Cast: Scott Poythress, AJ Bowen, Susan Burke
Director: Josh Lobo
Movie Overview: Christmas is considered a time for peace and joyful family reunion. But when Matt and his wife Karen appear unannounced at his enchanted brother Steve's house to celebrate the holidays, he is greeted with a terrible surprise: a man trapped in the basement. But not to any man. Steve believes that his hostage is none other than Satan himself.
Review: I trapped the devil was written
and directed by Josh Lobo and was put out by IFC midnight last weekend the same day that Avengers end game came out so that's unfortunate for a small
indie horror film and this film tells the story of a man named Steve played by
Scott Poythress who's locked himself away during the holidays in his home and
when his brother unexpectedly arrives this house he begins to question Steve
about his paranoia because he's acting very strange he's holding a revolver he
seems to have a secret about something in his basement and eventually he admits
that he believes he's trapped the devil himself down there and the majority of
the film takes place in this house and Lobo tries to do his best to make use of
all of the rooms in the setting to heighten as much paranoia and read as he can
with a very limited budget now I must be upfront before I get any farther in
the review I do know some members of this production personally and that's not
gonna affect this review at all I told them I would be completely honest with
how I felt and most artists want that they don't want you to sugarcoat things
just because you know them they don't want you to pretend like something they
did was perfect when it wasn't they want you, to be honest, I've seen the film
twice and on first viewing what I appreciated the most about it is that it
relies very much so on Dredd they didn't have a lot at their disposal when it
came to budget this is a very small indie horror film and so they do their best
to build as much suspense as possible this is a very actor friendly film this
is an opportunity for actors to really shine because the movie does kind of
come off like a stage play since it takes place just about entirely in one
house and it's these three characters shifting from room to room and having
paranoid conversations about the other person and whether or not he's insane is
the devil really downstairs in this basement trapped by a cross or has he
kidnapped some poor man off the street this gives the actors a real opportunity
here and Scott Poythress as the lead Steve just Rises to that opportunity he is
by far the best aspect of this movie and I think a real find he's done things
before his IMDB lists him as being supporting characters in various TVshows and
films but these movies are fronts and center Scott Poythress and
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I thought he was
remarkable in the movie and Poythress is really good especially at delivering
exposition and making it feel realistic because he does have to say a few
things to explain just a couple things so we can kind of get up to speed and him
does it with such ease he has this nervous twitchiness to him that just really
sold his characters disposition he's easily my favorite part of the film the
score by Ben Lovett is pretty chilling as well what Josh Lobo does very well
with this movie keeps it as contained as possible and I know the strain he
was under when making it I'm aware of his budgetary restraints I'm aware of the issue she had and getting it made and I also know that he had nine days to shoot
this movie which is insane anyone will tell you that nine days to shoot a feature is that's just horrifying to give you a perspective I shot my short
film auditorium six which ended up being about thirty minutes long in like five
and a half days and even then we felt like we had just enough time so that should
give you an idea of the type of strain that they were under when making this a movie which does affect unfortunately the pacing and some of the scenes because
some aspects of it do feel very rushed there are scenes that take place all in
one take where sometimes that could be really awesome and you can tell it's
what the director wanted here sometimes it feels like it was done out of
necessity like we have to do this all in one take and you guys just please nail
your lines and we'll do this and we'll move on so sometimes the movie can feel
rushed because you can tell them when they were just running out of time there
are also performances that aren't always as on as I think Lobo perhaps would
have wanted them to be because you can only do so many takes and you got to
move on and so that there isn't a lot of leeways really here a film like this
really could have benefited from like a 15 16 day shoot to elongate that and to
give them more breathing room because you can tell that it was
done really quickly which doesn't always work for the movie but what will turn
audience members of the most here is that it is a very slow burn film and the
phrase slow burn
I Trapped The Devil Movie Trailer
I've mentioned in the past can be an insult for boring and
there are scenes in the movie that just don't work as well as they wanted them
to and you can tell that sometimes the payoff just wasn't quite there for things
that was set up at the same time it does seem like they were trying to make a
movie with as little exposition as possible which is Noble but sometimes you do
need that you have it's always a balance it's how much do you put in your movie and how much
do you to trust your audience and Lobo trust the audience completely which can be
hard because a lot of people go to horror movies expecting to be shocked expecting
to be thrilled and this movie isn't interesting in that this film just wants to
be suspenseful it sets up a mystery which I don't see enough of anymore in the horror I don't see enough of this type of filmmaking when you have a story
that sounds cool but there's nothing much else to do with it besides have
characters sit in the house and talk about it during Christmas it automatically
puts you into that niche sub-genre of horror where it's got a Christmas theme
which is rare but at the same time it's like let's get going let's see what
else can happen and audiences can sometimes be disappointed when not a lot
happens you can call this psychological horror and it is in a way but to me
this is more like contemplative horror it's people presented with a scenario
and then they had to figure out what they're going to do and we get to watch
them figure out and hope they do it in a way that's entertaining for the audience that being said this film is not aiming to entertain an audience I
really do not think it is this film is trying and sometimes too hard to be
drastically different from everything else on the market it takes a lot of
risks there isn't a lot of payoffs and a lot of questions are purposefully left unanswered
and that is going to anger the out of some audience members
I feel like this
could be one of those horror films that critics definitely appreciate more than
your average audience member so whether or not you like this film is going to
rely entirely on what you watch a horror movie for in fact in many ways this the movie isn't exactly a horror movie it's more of a dark drama the original title
listed on IMDB is a man in the dark but it was later changed to I trap the devil no doubt for marketing purposes the original title is a lot better than the title speaks the film that actually plays before your eyes way better than I
trap the devil does because that sort of sets you up for this visceral horrific
experience of intensity and that's not the film that Lobo made this is a dark
drama boosted by an incredible performance by Scott Poythress joseline Donaghy
was also in the film very briefly so don't go to the film if you're expecting
just to see her if you're a fan of hers because she's also brilliant but in the
brief times he's in the movie she's excellent as she usually is now some people
have drawn comparisons to the Twilight Zone episode the howling man and you
should it's very similar to that it feels like it's taking that idea the themes
presented in that episode and really expanding upon them whereas that episode was
only about 25 30 minutes long this is feature-length and so it does feel like a
drag sometimes it's the performances though for me that saved the movie the
cinematography and Lobos sense of dread that he knows how to create a sequence
of scenes that make you feel uneasy and that's the type of horror that
sometimes off puts audiences when you go to a film and you just feel kind of
weird when you watch it it's not like an entertaining weird you know what
I
mean like sometimes the film will just make you feel off and you're like whew this
is really cool I feel up right now but this movie is uncomfortable purposefully
and so for some that are not gonna work for me, I like a filmmaker that takes
risks I like a filmmaker that makes a horror film that is absolutely opposed to
the general horror film you see and this film is it has no interest in being
like the other things that are on the market and that's what I liked about it
I'm gonna give I trapped the devil a b-minus it's on VOD right now and in
select theaters I do suggest checking it out especially if you want to support filmmakers
who are trying to make things outside of the box outside of the norm purposely
subversive those are the types of filmmakers I really want to support because
they usually get buried by the big movies, for instance, Avengers endgame which I
love but still nobody really talked about this movie last weekend and I do
think it's important to support filmmakers who are trying to make things different
so guys thank you so much as always for look forward to more reviews very soon
and if you like this you can comments write here and get stuck mine eyes
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