Devilreaux

I still remember back in 1990 in my hometown, i was at one of the local video stores with my friends André and his brother Marcus. We used to play arcade games here since they had a second floor that was a pool hall and an arcade hall combined, and the first floor was the video rental store. After we have played some Double Dragon and Altered Beast and finished our candy bags, we went downstairs to check out the VHS shelves. We were all three just 13 years old and we were not be allowed to rent anything that said 15 years old, but Marcus just borrowed the phone at the VHS rental store to tell his father Janne to come down. And he did, and we could basically pick out any films we wanted to see. I didn´t pick most of the films, André and Marcus did. But there was one horror film that caught my attention called De Sju Makterna ( english title The Believers ). Janne had not seen the film and he could tell i was fascinated by the VHS cover, so we rented this one as well. It turned out to be a voodoo inspired horror film with none other than legendary actor Martin Sheen in the lead role. Based on the 1982 novel The Religion by author Nicholas Conde, the 1987 film The Believers starts off with psychologist Cal Jamison ( Martin Sheen ) coming home from a jogging round. As he takes a shower his wife Lisa Jamison ( Janet-Laine Green ) dies from an accidental electrocution. After the death of his wife, Cal make the decision to move from Minneapolis to New York, with his young son, Chris Jamison ( Harley Cross ). Cal begins to work in New York as a police psychologist for the New York City Police Department. The city have been plagued by a series of brutal, ritualistic child murders. While enjoying a day at the park together, Chris find a sea shell with a different look. It turns out that this sea shell is an object that is connected to the rituals, and Chris is now in danger. The Believers may not be the most effective voodoo inspired horror film i have seen, but i have to say that actor Malick Bowens as the voodoo priest Palo is quite an effective character in this film. It is also nice to see legendary actor Martin Sheen do a horror film, something we are not used to see him do. If you enjoy 80´s horror films i would recommend this film, it does have an interesting story surrounding voodoo. Speaking of voodoo i have been curious about a film called Devilreaux, not only because it is supposed to be a voodoo inspired film but also includes legendary actor Tony Todd ( yes indeed, the original Candyman ). Voodoo inspired horror films are always interesting to watch, so is this film Devilreaux a horror film that manage to work with the voodoo influences or is it just as bad as the 1999 studio album Europop by electronic dance band Eiffel 65?

Lt. Bobbie Briggs ( Krista Grotte Saxon ) is investigating what happened to murdered teenagers by the only survivor Lexy Allen ( Monaye Moyes ) lying at the hospital. During her investigation she constatly get connections to an urban legend known as Devilreaux ( Vincent M. Ward ) from the 1800´s who was beaten to death. After Lexy ressurect him while using an Ouija Board, Devilreaux walks again to kill anyone who crosses his path.

I might as well be honest and say i do not know much about voodoo in general, so when i go into a film such as Devilreaux i have no idea if the film capture any correct voodoo influences but i do like the character of Devilreaux. Before we talk about the horror character i have to dive into some thoughts about one of the main actors known as Krista Grotte Saxon ( who some of you might remember from the 2019 independent biker action film Nation´s Fire ). I have seen her act before in Nation´s Fire but i have to say she have stepped up her acting ability a bit. She actually have improved herself as an actor in this film as the character Lt. Bobbie Briggs. You can sense that she is better at delivering dialogue in this film and that she feels more natural on screen than in Nation´s Fire. That doesn´t mean she will win an Oscar any time soon, but i am pleasantly surprised how she have managed to improve her acting skills. Legendary actor Tony Todd as the character Leonard is of course the highlight of this film. Whenever he have screen time in a film you know he will deliver, no matter what character he does. What about the rest of the cast? For the most part i can accept some bad acting from certain actors, while a few others at least try to act. I wouldn´t say the character development is good in this film, but the acting works better than i expected. The horror character Devilreaux ( played by actor Vincent M. Ward from The Walking Dead ) looks pretty cool. and i do appreciate certain scenes where he attack people with his voodoo outfit. Now to some of the issues i have with this film. Some of the killing scenes are not very effective and when you have a character like Devilreaux you want him to kill people so you can actually see guts and blood coming out. We don´t get to see much of that unfortunately, especially any cool ritual killings. The voodoo influences in this film are not very strong and i think they missed a very important detail by doing this. If they really wanted a voodoo inspired killer looking good on the big screen, they should have matched him better with the voodoo influences. We shall now go back to some positive notes again instead, and i have to say this is the best looking film so far from director Thomas J. Churchill. He clearly made an effort to make the quality of the scenes look more professional than in the previous films i have seen in his catalogue. Devilreaux could have been stronger on the voodoo influences but the acting in this film is better than i expected and the film looks good. For me that´s enought to recommend Devilreaux if you are a fan of independent horror films. I might need Devilreaux to take care of a neighbor of mine, im sure he would make him talk less.

Rating: DDD