Review of The Devil's Chair (2007) by Claire T — 31 Oct 2012

This a terribly misguided film. The plots like so, Nick West and his girlfriend go to an abandoned building to take drugs and do various other things. They happen upon an electric chair, at which point something occurs and leads West to be institutionalised. Some time later a doctor at the facility that West is being kept in tells him that he wants to conduct some research. A short time later we find ourselves at the derelict building again with three others in tow. From there things start happening and I'll leave the synopsis at that point.

There is a voice-over that is present at various points throughout. It sounds like a rip off from a British gangster flick like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Incidentally Andrew Howard, who plays West and does the voiceover, looks and sounds like a poor mans Jason Statham. He is a weak lead who rarely convinces. In fact the acting all round is woeful, not helped by the script. The voiceover isn't any exception to this either, in fact it is perhaps the most idiotic thing about this film. It breaks the fourth wall at a few intervals, at one point telling us that "as you can see it all got a bit silly by this point". This was referring to the on screen action about an hour in. The film has actually already become very silly so this was no great revelation. Shortly after this he says; "Look at this poorly written, badly acted bullshit", again referring to the events on screen. I have never seen a film that reviews itself so proficiently, if all films were as courteous as this the world wouldn't need critics! If that outburst isn't laughable enough he then goes rips into the audience, describing us as "deadbeat, midnight freak, geek-witted torture-porn gore whores". It's difficult to fathom just what the point is by this stage. Is this a comedy? Is he being ironic? Or does the film actually have a contempt for both itself and its audience?

I cant answer any of those questions. By the time the final reveal comes around, there are a few, the "geek-witted" among us have probably tuned out anyway. The Devil's Chair is an irritating film that may actually have something of an interesting concept, it's just not realised well at all. It thinks it's clever, in actuality it is far from it.