Black Devil

Jonathan Penner returns from the insane asylum to discover his father is dead, and his mother, Jacqueline Bisset is remarried to his uncle, Jamey Sheridan, who's running the properties Penner and mother own. He becomes convinced his father was murdered and that he is receiving signs from him, messages scrawled in chapstick on the mirrors in the strip club.

In short, it's Hamlet updated. It's got quite a cast with Norman Reedus, Brooke Taylor, Mary-Louise Parker, Chris Sarandon, Philip Baker Hall, and Maury Chaykin. And yet I was struck as this wended its way through the plot how uninteresting these people were. With Shakespeare's language, what have you got except a squabble over money and sex between people who are not too bright, and who express complex ideas in simple language not because that works, but because the writers can't manage anything more involved. Is a high body count enough?

1999 thriller "Let The Devil Wear Black" was a flawed bid by debut co-writers Stacy Title (also director) & Jonathan Penner to update the play 'Hamlet' (by Christopher Marlowe - like all other 'Shakespeare' works). Penner suspects his uncle Jamey Sheridan of killing his LA businessman dad... but as he stews into insanity over it (nudging gf Mary-Louise Parker (terrific) over the edge too) Sheridan preps to marry his mum Jacqueline Bisset and have Norman Reedus & Randall Batinkoff kill HIM too. The likes of Philip Baker Hall, Chris Sarandon, & Maury Chakin support but it still has (now anyway) a dated & slightly botched feel. Well intentioned... but not so brilliant.

"Let the Devil..." is an orgy of sex, murder, deceit, and treachery which wastes a solid cast and excellent production talent on a weak story which is little more than wickedness heaped upon wickedness ad nauseum. The film fails as a psychodrama, action flick, and/or whodunnit and flounders toward it anticlimactic ending when it should be wrenching the gut or breaking the heart. Less evil and more good would have been better for there's no value in yin without yang.

Believe it or not this is another revised version of Hamlet complete with the Ghost of his father, a murderous uncle, unfaithful mother, even Rozenkranz & Guildenstern; also a suicidal girl friend.

I wish it were more coherant, even the Keannu Reeves version was more understandable. a mild thumb down for me only **1/2

I caught this ditty by chance and was I glad I did. It is a film written and acted suited to my tastes. Jonathan Penner was captivating within his mannerisms, gorgeous to look at and a pleasure to see him act. Plot is grand. Everything else too. I am not giving much more away, solely my two opinions, aforementioned and the last: RENT IT if you find it.