Maybe if I had taken some of the titular hallucinogenics I might have liked this film. Or at least understood what I watched. Devil’s Acid feels like it was written by someone tripping their balls off. Or at least really, really drunk. Director Garrett Kruithof and co-writers Eric Gibson and Finch Nissen seem to have thrown together stuff they thought was scary and/or funny with no attempt at creating a coherent story.
Devil’s Acid is framed as a bedtime story told by a drunken father (Garrett Kruithof) to his two sons played by his real-life sons Julian and Brinon. These segments may well be the high points of the film.
The plot itself involves Johnny (Drew Rin Varick). He’s an annoying little shit, rather literally. The most obnoxious little person this side of Kid Rock’s old sidekick Joe C. Racist, misogynistic, egotistical and everything else bad a person can be. But he’s also rich so he attracts a certain kind of woman.
They all take a hit of the Devil’s Acid, the drugs kick in, Aiesha gets shot “accidentally” and people wander around and have boring hallucinations. Eventually, the Devil (Finch Nissen) shows up but things don’t get any better.
Every year he throws a party, the Haunted Hot Girl Challenge, for himself, several women he’s trying to bed and his mentally challenged brother Luke (Eric Gibson). Along with Jennifer (Jessica Lynn Parsons), Delilah 1 and her alter ego Deliah 2 (twins Kim and Misty Ormiston) and Brittany (Ashley Dulaney) his housekeeper Aiesha (Betty Jeune, $kumbagz) has wrangled an invitation.
The problem is nothing in Devil’s Acid is scary and very little is funny. And everything is tame as hell. For a film whose basis is a horny rich guy trying to score with some gold diggers, even the girl’s outfits are tame. We don’t even get cleavage until one of the kids hijacks the story.
Ninety percent of the film is simply Johnny being an asshole. Threatening to call immigration on his groundskeepers who obviously aren’t Mexican, but since they do landscaping they must be by his logic. That’s where Devil’s Acid has its mindset. You could take the Devil out of the film and not change much. This manages to be an even worse drug film than Climax. At least it had good music and dance numbers. This is just a bad trip.
Devil’s Acid has been kicking about since 2017 and popped up on some streaming platforms last year. For some reason, High Octane Pictures has picked it up and is relaunching it on November 5th. You can find more info on the film’s Facebook page and website.