I Trapped the Devil

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.

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 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.

Not a good one, not very entertaining either.

The rhythm is so slow!

The acting is bad, or at least, the actors are. The one actress is pretty good. But she's not saving anything. Mind you, the script is absolutely terrible. I don't think they could have done anything about it.

It had potential, though. The plot subject is not bad. But it's conducted so horrendously! The motives of the characters are undefined from the beginning to the end. Worse: they literally disappear at times, for sequences of 5, 10 minutes! You just can't figure what, exactly, is happening anymore.

It is incoherent, often absurd, as in "it doesn't making any sense what so ever" until they catch it up for a few more minutes, until the next anecdotal hole. It's a bit as if a 30 minutes plot had been extended with empty lines to fill 90 minutes.

Strangely, the soundtrack is not bad at all. It would have supported a good, mysterious, atmospheric plot line. But in these circumstances, it's a relatively pleasant oddity in the middle of boredom.

I wouldn't call it a total loss. But there are far better flicks out there. Almost anywhere...