I Trapped the Devil

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.

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.

"I Trapped the Devil" is an ominous, art-house-like slow-burner with a visibly low budget. The trailer got me intrigued & so did the review by Bloody Disgusting. Was I disappointed? A bit, for I wasn't expecting anything higher than 6/10.

Here's the good things about "I Trapped The Devil" - The atmosphere can be grim when it tries enough, the take on the devil was smart & crafty for a low-budget flick, the little twist at the ending is, in my opinion, quite cool & the performance by Scott Poythress is as good as the flawed script allows him to be.

And here's the slightly bigger amount of the not-so-good things about this flick - The middle portion of the movie is pure filler & also the reason why people describe this movie as a borefest. Pacing is certainly one of the biggest issues here. One thing that caught my eye for one too many times is the lighting - either they went overboard with style or just were too amateur-ish about it. AJ Bowen, about whom I usually don't have any complaints, gave a questionable performance this time. Or maybe it was the stiff lines given to him by the writer. And, of course, the story - I usually like ominosity & obscurism in horror movies, I also liked it about "I Trapped the Devil", but I have to question it for I still can't really put the plot together as the credits are rolling. I mean, it's all there, it's just that some things are not very logical.

Despite all the flaws, I enjoyed this flick. If you're a fan of low-budget indies, obscure art-house flicks or slow-burn horrors, give it a try. As I like all three of those things, I did get a kick out of "I Trapped the Devil". Will I re-watch it? No, most likely never. My rating: 5/10.

This movie was definitely inspired by Rod Serling's 1960 Twilight Zone episode titled, "the Howling Man" (Season 2 Episode 5). It was made more involved with a psychotic gatekeeper, as opposed to a religious zealot keeping Satan under wraps. But, you can see the similarities in the plot.