Devil’s Due – review

Devil’s Due is an okay movie.  It’s entertaining and the acting is great, but it has several plot holes that add to its list of faults. The movie is also fairly cliché in its delivery.  Still, at the very least this movie is entertaining considering it is a mild thriller about the antichrist.

Newlyweds Zach and Samantha McCall, played by Zach Gilford and Allison Miller, take their honeymoon to the Dominican Republic. They meet a cab driver that takes them to a “special” club. After the two are drugged, they pass out and a ritual is performed on Samantha so that she is impregnated and will eventually give birth to the antichrist.  As the pregnancy develops it changes Samantha. Will this birth bring forth the antichrist?

The best part of this film is that the acting. Allison Miller has a lot of range and shows a great deal of vulnerability.  Zach Gilford’s character is also well done. His struggle to come to terms with the truth as he unlocks the conspiracy is pretty fascinating.  They seem like good people so it’s a damn shame when the misfortune happens to them.

A lot of Devil’s Due could have been prevented with common sense.  Avoid non-tourist areas in third world countries; don’t trust a cab driver who wont take you to your destination; don’t drink free booze you are unsure of; turn on the lights in a dark house; things of that nature.  The characters were arguably doomed to begin with on account of their poor judgment.  There are several other plot holes as well. For example, how the hell would the police think Zach caused the damage that was done to his house when his wife was throwing a telekinetic fit? How could no one have heard of the new doctor assigned to the young couple when there would have been mounds of paper work from billing and insurance, not to mention the assistants and nurses who helped with the amniotic fluid test?

Plot holes aside, Devil’s Due is not a bad movie. While not a great movie, it is certainly worth a rental if the horror genre is usually your taste. It keeps a good pace but did not need to be a P.O.V. movie to tell its story. It was entertaining at the very least and sometimes that is all we need from our movies.