http://www.thedevilschair.com/

While searching for tickets for the Toronto film festival, a little film called the Devil’s Chair caught my eye. I researched more information and came to the conclusion that it’s a creative homage to Hellraiser, at least based on what I read anyways. From what I was told, and what I read I should have been impressed with Adam Mason’s Devil’ Chair. And another thing, I haven’t seen Broken (Adam Mason’s and Simon Boye’s previous film) but who the fuck is Adam Mason? And why do I care that this is his film? What balls he’s got billing the poster with his name. Like anyone really cares. And I don’t mean any disrespect but this film was so poorly marketed it’s a shame. Because had I known that I’d be watching a parody, I probably would have enjoyed it more.

The film opens with a full narration, which continues until the finale. We’re told by Nick West (Andrew Howard) that some shit went down, and he’s been face to face with demons, not his demons, but real demons. He takes us back to where it all started, the abandoned asylum. He and his girlfriend (Polly Brown) went to check out the asylum. Nick decides it’s a good time to take some acid. He slips it into his mouth and into his girlfriends. Afterwards they find what resembles a gothic electric chair. They start making out on it, kissing, masturbating, and showing each other off to one another when Sammy, his girlfriend, disappears. She’s been teleported to another room, where she awaits her death. Nick is charged with the murder and institutionalized. Four years later, he is released on the condition that his doctor (David Gant) takes him back to the scene of the crime to settle everyone once and for all. Nick doesn’t think it’s a good idea, and it isn’t. Will Nick find out what really happened to Sammy, will he survive another night with the Devil’s Chair?

The sad thing is that the first forty to fifty minutes are great, well not great, but good, ok borderline great. It’s got creepy atmosphere, witty and clever narration and great camerawork. That is one good thing that can be said about the entire film, it’s got great camerawork throughout. The problem is that once those fifty minutes are up, the film takes a dive into parody. With ridiculous twists and turns that ends up ruining the somewhat tolerable dialogue. Everyone but Nick West seems to be a caricature of what the characters should be and when the film freezes to add Nick’s clever narration it takes away from what the film should be. Now I’m not one to tell someone how to make their film, but the Devil’s Chair would have been a serious contender for top horror picks around the globe had it picked which one it wanted to be. Sooner or later it will go back to a serious horror film, and when we think were back on track, we get shifted back to black humor; parody. Which I wouldn’t have as much of a problem with if I didn’t spend fifty minutes of my time devoting myself to what I think is a serious film. The ending is just a punch in the face after what you go through to reach it.

Because of this the film isn’t necessarily truthful in its intentions and storytelling. It borders reality and fantasy; they are allowed to bend the rules and do what they want since the bulk of the film is not real. The acting is bad, which doesn’t necessarily hurt the film, but contributes to its fantasy theme. Ultimately, once I found out it was fantasy, which is late into the film, I grew disappointed and bored. Its identity crisis really damages the film and stops it from becoming what the filmmakers wanted it to be. If it stuck to a genre it would have been much better because Adam Mason and Simon Boyes have a real horror movie on their hands. It’s drenched in blood and contains some horrifying scenes, particularly the ending despite its disappointments. The demon is OK, I suppose but I like my demons without robes. I’m more of a Cronenberg kind of guy so I enjoy more skin, more demon skin. The FX work is great. The blood, did I say there is a lot of blood? is not used sparingly. All of the horror elements work very well in this film, if only Mason and Boyes could have found a way to better support them with the script, which is dull and predictable. The dialogue is horrendous and situations are laughable. When the plot moves, it moves like a retarded gimp, it doesn’t know where it’s going or why. And I’ve already told you the acting is bad, but Dr. Willard (David Grant) is awful. The audience was laughing at him, and they shouldn’t have been.

The film looks like it was shot on some kids lunch money and its identity crisis doesn’t help. It’s a disappointing film that I’m sure Mason and Boyes won’t repeat. I hope they won’t repeat because this film showcases enough talent to look forward to their next effort, which I hope wont be a fuck you like this one was. It’s cool that they tried to make their own film that they bent and shaped into their different kind of film but it just doesn’t work.