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★☆☆☆☆
7 October 2018
A movie review of MAY THE DEVIL TAKE YOU. |
"I believe now... I'm your servant," Lesmana (Ray Sahetapy)
A man makes a pact with a concubine of the devil. His family suffer. The end.
MAY THE DEVIL TAKE YOU is a woefully inane, hackneyed horror flick. Nothing stands out. So little of it feels original. A big letdown from one of the directors of the fantastic HEADSHOT (2016).
If you're the sort of person who does not like seeing hair stuck to a bar of soap, then maybe watching people eat some hair might make you gag. The rest of the runtime is lazy jump-scares, and characters doing obviously stupid things. Have the filmmakers not watched the excellent, meta THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (2012)?
A man makes a pact with a concubine of the devil. His family suffer. The end.
MAY THE DEVIL TAKE YOU is a woefully inane, hackneyed horror flick. Nothing stands out. So little of it feels original. A big letdown from one of the directors of the fantastic HEADSHOT (2016).
If you're the sort of person who does not like seeing hair stuck to a bar of soap, then maybe watching people eat some hair might make you gag. The rest of the runtime is lazy jump-scares, and characters doing obviously stupid things. Have the filmmakers not watched the excellent, meta THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (2012)?
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Opening on a ritual involving a goat's head, a briefcase with hair and money, and a floating woman in white, Lesmana makes a deal with Satan to acquire a business-empire-building level of cash. Of course, it's a bad deal, stupendously bad. The complete terms and conditions can't have been spelled out. It's not many years before he is bankrupt, covered in pustules and puking blood.
And with vast wealth Lesmana became a cliché, getting a trophy wife and a new family, and jettisoning original spouse, who is now mysteriously deceased. Twenty-something estranged daughter from the first marriage, Alfie (Chelsea Islan), is the focus. Islan has charisma, but her skills are wasted here. The new family has an evil stepmother (Karina Suwandhi) and evil stepsister, a kind but dim stepbrother, and a young stepsister.
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The evil parts of the stepfamily are vultures for the remnants of Lesmana's estate. Of course it's a villa in the middle of nowhere, with sporadic mobile phone reception. Yawn! There's a locked cellar door that obviously shouldn't be opened. Especially at night. Have none of the characters been to the cinema? The supernatural powers are inconsistent. What's the aim of the concubines? Voluntary subservience after being traumatised?
MAY THE DEVIL TAKE YOU lacks substance. What is the film trying to convey? It does not help that it is laughable in places. "Where you're going, you won't be needing legs," Maya (Pevita Pearce). Oh dear! Wait till you get to the crap taxidermy. Tedious and repetitive, there is lots of shouting of each other's names. Pass the time by naming films MAY THE DEVIL TAKE YOU reminds you off, e.g. RINGU (1998), DRAG ME TO HELL (2009), etc.
The bland nonsensical title says it all.
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