I Trapped the Devil

The film makers did a lot with very little here as the budget is obviously tiny. The atmosphere quickly becomes quite creepy and a feeling of dread starts to build. I watch horror films regularly and it is rare to find one that creates a real sense of uneasiness and apprehension like this does, for me that is where true horror lies so massive credit to the film makers for that.

Unfortunately there was just not enough information and the script was quite poor. There's a guy in the basement who Steve believes to be the devil: how did he get there? why does he think he's the devil? These questions are not asked by his brother Matt or his wife and this just seems beyond ridiculous. Although there is some hinting at a traumatic incident in the past and Steve's sanity is questioned there is just not enough back story and the dialogue is quite limited so you end up frustrated because there is never any real explanation for how this situation arose.

I appreciate sometimes directors want to leave things open for the viewer to interpret how they want but for me there were just too many unanswered questions which left me unsatisfied at the end.

While I understand critics not loving this movie, for any horror fan, I feel it's worth watching. Atmospheric and eery, it's basicslly a good story of trust and the devil. Not much gore, but I think enjoyed the overall experience.

Essentially the Howling Man episode of the Twilight Zone. However, with 60 years of hindsight and 60 extra minutes of running time this movie doesn't really bring anything extra to the table. Much like when the Twilight Zone double its own runtime, it lost something. When you have a premise, but no real plot you're better off as 30-minute TV show or being a short film instead of a feature. The budget is very low, but they don't try to do anything on screen that would expose that too egregiously. It looks like it was either shot with the camera on auto focus or that they played with the focus a little too much because it was distracting. The acting was good, but a movie like this needed more personality and charisma for its characters and that wasn't there. Whether that falls on the direction, script or actors, it's hard to say. Viewers not familiar with the Twilight Zone will benefit from not knowing as much about the premise those who are however will be disappointed that the movie doesn't do anything fresh with it.

I enjoyed this, and found the concept interesting. It is as the title suggest, a crazy man who "trapped the devil". Or did he!? Anywho, the only reason I dropped a few stars on this film was to to the brothers horrible acting. It was obnoxiously bad in my opinion and distracted me from the ominous erie feel of the film.

Ending was an insult and major letdown, the slow burn just doesn't pay off here at all...I gave 4 stars for the atmosphere and premise, just a bad attempt though all around. Come on IFC, you used to do better than this!