The Bottom Line
Pros
- Good acting
- Intelligent
- Good sense of humor
- Twist ending
Cons
- Cheap-looking special effects
Description
- Starring Andrew Howard, Elize du Toit, David Gant, Louise Griffiths, Matt Berry, Pollyanna Rose
- Directed by Adam Mason
- Not Rated
- DVD Release Date: October 7, 2008
Guide Review - 'The Devil's Chair' DVD Review
In this modestly budgeted British production from the director of the survival horror flick Broken, young couple Nick and Sammy break into the abandoned Blackwater Asylum and find an old electric chair-type thing. High on acid, Sammy sits down, and before she knows it, the chair locks her in, piercing her wrists and neck. Somehow, she disappears, and Nick, too high to know what happened, is left to take the fall.
He's locked in a hospital for the criminally insane for four years before a psychiatrist, Dr. Willard, signs him out in order to investigate what happened to Sammy. He wants to take Nick back to the asylum where it all happened because he's discovered Dr. Blackwater's journal. Willard finds out that Blackwater used the asylum to conduct experiments on patients in order to prove the existence of the human soul. Blackwater believed that the chair was a portal to another realm -- one that could separate the soul from the body -- and Willard wants to prove it.
So, off Willard and a reluctant Nick go, along with three of Willard's assistants. Of course, since this is a horror movie, someone ends up sitting in the chair, and soon enough, everyone is transported to an alternate world occupied by a demon that feeds on blood. Bad things happen.
The Devil's Chair takes a pedestrian horror plot and injects life into it with creative manipulation of genre conventions, a wry sense of humor and a brutal and uncompromising ending. With the juxtaposition of horrific violence with a sarcastic, fourth wall-busting voiceover from Nick (who looks like a poor man's Jason Statham), the movie feels like Hellraiser as directed by Guy Ritchie. It's imaginative, well-acted and a great showcase for what can be done on a meager budget.
The DVD
Special features include commentary and a behind-the-scenes featurette.
Movie: B
DVD: C+
