Review of Bedeviled (2017) by Bill S — 11 Jan 2018

Strengths: It's not a big budget film, yet it looks very good. The directors did well to make everything look realistic, which you don't always get in horror movies. The idea of an app haunting people is interesting in this day and age. It feels kind of like a more modern variation of The Ring. Cody (Mitchell Edwards) was a fun character that stole the show throughout. He fired off some good lines and got some funny moments. Another strong point was just how creepy some of the app's incarnations looked. Mr. Bedeviled himself looks really good. Lastly, I give them props for paying homage to several older horror films and tropes.

Weaknesses: While there's a good idea behind the film, a lot of it gets lost in a muddled plot. The dialogue is a major issue. At some points, it beats you over the head with stuff, and other times, it's full of cringe. Saxon Sharbino (Alice) plays the lead and she's very average throughout. It's not a bad performance, just one that doesn't stand out in any way. Several characters do idiotic things or they just cower instead of ever trying to fight. Also, paying homage to classics is one thing, but the villain praying on fears and having weird, long fingers, was a bit too much of an on-the-nose nod at Freddy Kruger. My biggest issue with the film was that it often just seemed to move from one scene to other in a way that felt more like a compilation than cohesive movie.

Overall: A fun, harmless little horror movie. There are definitely plot problems, the dialogue is ridiculous and some scenes don't click at all. Yet, there's a charm to this that keeps me from considering it a bad film.