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Devil's Due


Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (2014)
Starring: Allison Miller, Zach Gilford, Sam Anderson
Find it: IMDB

The only thing more predictable than me whining about found footage movies is me watching a half-decent one and saying 'actually, that one was alright, y'know.' Devil's Due is actually alright (y'know), although I preferred it when it was called Rosemary's Baby, wasn't found footage and was a classic horror film.

Devil's Due is no classic, but at least it tries harder than a lot of found footage movies do these days. This it achieves by having a real plot, some variation in its gimmickry, and the good grace to not save all of its action for the last five minutes. If you must watch a found footage horror film about a couple expecting an evil baby, you'd be better off with the recent Delivery: The Beast Within, but you could do far worse than this.

Returning from honeymoon, a pair of cute young newlyweds are surprised by Samantha's unexpected pregnancy, coming in the wake of a night on the tiles neither of them can quite remember (like The Hangover, except with a cult and Satanic rape, probably). As the baby in Sam's belly grows, it becomes clear to worried hubby Zach that something isn't quite right - particularly when she starts punching out car windows, causing the local priest's stroke (an appreciated wee role for Bernard from off've LOST's Rose and Bernard) and chowing down on raw lamb in the supermarket. Not quite the sort of thing they cover in ante natal classes, then.

However, while Devil's Due is pretty good in places, it doesn't even attempt to justify its use of the found footage format. I can't think of a single reason why this should have been filmed the way it was, beyond that being what all the cool kids are doing these days.

If Paranormal Activity jumped off a cliff, would you jump off a cliff too, Devil's Due? Well? WELL?

As this sort of thing goes, Devil's Due is perfectly above average. It's short and sweet enough with just the right amount of variation preventing boredom from ever setting in. On occasions, it even reaches a V/H/S level of entertainment (the first one, that is - not the superior sequel, or the terrible third one) with a sky-high bit of carnage reminiscent of that first film's most memorable segment. It's no [REC], V/H/S 2 or Cannibal Holocaust (the gold standard of found footage) but Devil's Due is actually alright, y'know.

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