All Rise...

Judge Gordon Sullivan sleeps on the Devil's sunporch.

The Charge

It's looking for a home.

The Case

There are, throughout history, an almost incalculable number of stories and traditions about the Devil. Some of them date to biblical times with the old gods that were absorbed into the myth of Ol' Scratch. And then there are later stories, like Milton's Paradise Lost, that don't really have their origin in biblical materials. The tradition continues today, with lots of stories about selling one's soul—usually at a crossroads—and the Devil being about the world trying to have a baby. Unsurprisingly, all this means that the Devil is a convenient figure when horror films need someone to blame. Enter At the Devil's Door, a mystery/possession/haunted house film that doesn't offer enough pleasures for viewers to put up with all the expectations.

Hannah (Ashley Rickards, Awkward) is having a summer romance with Calvin (Nick Eversman, The Runaways), who convinces her to go see "Uncle Mike," a guy who performs a three-card monte style trick. Hannah, however, isn't fooled by his fast hands, and Mike tells her she's chosen. This leads Hannah to be possessed. Meanwhile, Leigh (Catalina Sandina Moreno, Maria Full of Grace) is a realtor trying to unload a property for some clients who can't swing their mortgage. While inspecting the property, Leigh runs into a young girl and spooky things start to happen around the house.

Ever horror film relies on a sense of mystery. For some—take Rosemary's Baby—there's a certain existential mystery to what's happening (or not happening, maybe) to Rosemary and her baby. This builds up until the final, horrific reveal, and without the preceding mystery that reveal wouldn't be as powerful. And, of course, if the reveal were less interesting, then the mystery would only annoy us. Other horror, however, relies on a more specific form of mystery; when you're watching your two-dozenth camp slasher, it's not much of a mystery who's doing the killing or why. Rather, the moment-to-moment mystery of who's going to be killed next and where the killer is generates the actual scares.

The problem with At the Devil's Door is that it has way too much mystery and not nearly enough pay-off. At the Devil's Door suffers from a severe identity crisis. The opening suggests a backwoods devil story, or a trailer-park tale of trading souls for meth. But no, At the Devil's Door just uses that to establish the main story of Leigh and her sister. Then, the film kinda plays out like it's going to be a haunted house film, but with some possession elements establish by the early scenes. As viewers, we never know quite what's happening or how the different threads of the film are related.

It might have all hung together were it not for two fatal flaws. The first is that At the Devil's Door isn't just a film that can't decide on a genre, but also a film that borrows the same tired old elements from those genres we've seen before—all the same "wandering in the weird house" scenes and "weird rural creepers" scenes. The jump scares are all there too. More significantly, all these trite scenes leave no room for character development or providing any reason why we should care about anything that happens to them. Just as significantly, all the standard moments keep the film from building a story of its own, which means the ending has to go nonsensical places to wrap everything up, and it's far from satisfying.

At least At the Devil's Door gets a solid Blu-ray release. I must say that the film is probably one of the more challenging I've seen in terms of creating a solid digital transfer. Other than Bay-style effects monsters, the frequent darkness of a film like At the Devil's Door seems to present the most difficulties. The 2.40:1/1080p HD transfer largely handles them well. Detail is pretty strong, both in well-lit close-ups and the darker scenes with shadow detail. Colors are well saturated, with a strong palette despite the film's overall darkness. The main issue with the transfer is the presence of banding in some of the darker sequences. It's not horrifying in itself, but purists might be distracted by its occasional appearance. The DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track is on par with the transfer. It's got a lot of oomph in the low end, and has some decent surround activity and directionality. Dialogue is always clean and clear, but overall the mix might be a bit too aggressive for a feature trying to create this delicate an atmosphere.

Extras, however, are extensive. They start with a commentary by writer/director Nicholas McCarthy. He's very candid about his process and reasons for making the film the way that it is. He's unapologetic about his intent and goes into a lot of detail in how he achieved his vision. McCarthy also shows up for a making-of featurette that also talks to the film's case. He's there again for 12 minutes of deleted scenes with optional commentary. Finally, the film's trailer is also included.

One thing this Blu-ray highlights is that McCarthy has a strong eye and his own vision. Though it shares a lot of elements of other films, At the Devil's Door does at least try a few new things. Individual scenes also tend to work, establishing a creepy atmosphere and making the jump scares count.

I certainly admire Nicholas McCarthy for putting his vision on screen. This was the film he wanted to make, and I'm sure there's an audience out there for it. However, most viewers are going to see a messy film full of jump scares and little characterization, even if McCarthy has a solid eye. The extras make this one easy to recommend to the intrigued, but most can skip it.

The Verdict

Guilty of being convoluted.

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