The Restaurant

Take a film with no scares, no humor, bad dialogue, bad acting, no money, a stupid story and you have The Devil's Restaurant. Blows my mind that people may have actually spent time working on this. Time for a new job or hobby or whatever this was....

Horribel movie, maybe the worst made, the director should never be allowed to do another movie.

I actually rather enjoyed this film. Did it have its flaws? Yes. Do I wish it was gorier? Absolutely. But the overall film works, even with the minuscule budget it had.

It never fails to amaze me...after I see a film that I consider moderately enjoyable, I then read reviews that say it's the worst film in the world, or in this case, the worst director in the world. I found the directing to be smart, taking advantage of specific elements (eg lighting & sound) to hide some of the shortcomings in fx due to budget constraints. The premise is interesting and the cast does an above average job at conveying their respective characters. Much of the dialog feels a bit broken and over the top, but I have absolutely zero doubt that the director cast the film with this in mind. While not an over the top comedy/horror, the film does indeed have a fair amount of black comedy throughout.

My personal wishes would have been:

• loads of gore. The premise is perfect for a full-on gorefest, especially with the black humor portrayed by characters and the script.
• a little more development and story behind the demon. We get some, but not much. It certainly isn't needed, but it could have assisted in adding depth to the story.

The 85 minutes went by very quickly and I was entertained the entire time. The film moves quickly, adding just enough character development and backstory to provide the minimum amount of knowledge necessary for the tale being told. This is no Oscar winner, nor will it be one most people would even watch a second time, but I enjoyed it.

For fans of:

• horror
• black comedy
• demonic stories

It is worth RESTATING...this is a low budget indie film. If you go in to this expecting tons of great fx, loads of gore, and jump-scares, this film is not for you. If you like a moderately paced dramatic horror film with dark humor, and done on an indie budget, give it a shot. It's on Prime right now (11/2019) so it's worth the price.

A horror movie that is also trying to be funny. I can see that this feels problematic. That it touches nerves. This plays almost entirely in one location, which made shooting obviously easier and the budget wasn't that big either (at least partially financed through Kickstarter as I read in an Interview). You may not like what the director decided to do with the main idea and you may find some dialog awful, but overall this is more than a decent effort to entertain the viewer.

It has blood, it has jokes and it is as over the top as it needs to be. Not to everyones liking as I already stated, but that is not a reason to declare the director talentless. If you have a heart for independent movies and the humor touches home, you will have quite some fun with this. I know I had

THE RESTAURANT AKA THE DEVIL'S RESTAURANT tells the story of a Faustian Bargain between the manager of a Restaurant and a demon. The terms of the deal are that the demon makes the restaurant successful by sending it lots of guests, many of whom will never be missed if they disappeared, and in return the manager feeds some of those to the demon.

Based on this premise, a script for a horror-comedy would seem to almost write itself: many aspects of the restaurant industry can be mined for scenes of situational humor, not to mention that food itself is a ripe subject for entertainment.

Alas, this movie felt very much like the script needed to be rewritten a few more times. After an awesome prologue during the opening credits, by far the best part of the film, it gets progressively sillier and worse. By the time the movie ends, one feels disappointment at just how short this fell of its potential.

The main characters cannot be blamed. Mark Robert Turner and Anthony Misiano did well, the best job in the cast. Turner's character reminded me a bit of John Cleese's character in the TV series FAWLTY TOWERS, and Misiano seems to be a natural comedian.

The production design was okay. The exterior of the restaurant looked kind of shabby compared to what a fine dining Italian restaurant is expected to look like, but that may well have been the point: it would take the demon's powers to attract lots of people to this place.

Some of the cinematography gave this away as a low budget affair, but this does not set the movie back nearly as much as the screenplay. The premise was good, some aspects of the story were innovative, some of the gags landed, but it all felt like it should have been allowed to stew a little more before being served up for realization.