Back in 1975, William Shatner starred in The Devil’s Rain. That tale of Satanists and family curses has gone on to become a cult favourite. So when I saw the poster for Devil’s Revenge featuring a shotgun-wielding Shat and some nasty-looking demons I had to check it out. Just two problems, Shatner is barely in the film and director Jared Cohn is no Robert Fuest, (though to be fair those are some big shoes to fill).
John (Jason Brooks) has a problem, his family is cursed. He needs to find The Relic to ward off The Inan and lift the curse. His last attempt to get it ended up with one of his friends meeting a bloody end. Even worse he’s apparently awoken an even worse evil.
So there’s only one thing to do, get his wife Susan (Jeri Ryan, Star Trek: Voyager) and kids Dana (Ciara Hanna, Pernicious) and Eric (Robert Scott Wilson) and ask his dad Hayes (William Shatner, Star Trek, To Your Last Death) for advice. He gets more abuse than advice however and ends up taking his family back to the cave where his friend died to defeat the evil or die trying.
Devil’s Revenge, had the potential to at least be fun. The creatures, designed by Vincent J. Guastini (Art Of The Dead, Havenhurst), look like extras from a GWAR, (or Lordi if you prefer), concert. And Shatner’s overacting is always amusing. But the script lets it down. There are about 45 minutes to an hour’s worth of story dragged out to feature-length. It’s padded out with the same scenes of an ancient massacre and the demons standing around a bonfire, etc.
The family’s trip to the cave goes on seemingly forever. There is some neat nature photography and underground rafting footage but just drags on and on. This is supposed to be a horror film, not a nature show.
Jared Cohn has a long list of credits, most of them low-budget genre films such as The Horde to Halloween Pussy Trap Kill Kill and Atlantic Rim: Resurrection. Even if the scripts are lacking his films are usually at least technically competent. Devil’s Revenge though is full of annoying errors. A chamber deep in a cave is full of shafts of sunlight. Looks good, but it destroys the credibility of the scene. Sarah refers to her daughter by the wrong name. The kind of mistakes somebody with over 30 directorial credits shouldn’t be making.
The only saving grace is that most viewers will probably have checked out before Devil’s Revenge comes to its embarrassingly bad ending.
Cleopatra Entertainment will release Devil’s Revenge to theatres and VOD on October 1st. DVD and Blu Ray will get it on the 22nd. You can find details on its website and Facebook page.