Review of The Devil's Chair (2007) by Carmen Y — 24 Nov 2009

My first impression: fuck every other word does not make for good dialogue. I'm not a prude about swearing, but too much and anything you're trying to put across gets swamped and makes you sound like a 14 year old trying to impress his mates and seem 'hard'. Sadly, the fuck-fest was not the worst of my viewing experience.

Even when Nick West was supposed to be somewhat sympathetic, he appeared to be the kind of person I'd cross the street to avoid. I suppose the hideously sexist, angry drivelling rant of over narration (which actually worked quite well at the beginning bar the extreme potty-mouth) was supposed to be a hint to his true nature. The idea is a decent one on paper/in retrospect, but it was pretty horrid to sit through at the time.

The scenes on the 'other side' look effective, but they quickly descend into gore-hound territory and stick there for the duration of their appearance. The dialogue is laughable (seriously), though I suppose the jar between it appearing serious and sounding ridiculous may have been intentional. This was aided by the, ahem, performance, of Matt Berry - star of lovely comedy series such as Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and The IT Crowd. I suppose he had a mortgage to pay.

I found Hostel pretty unpleasant viewing, but this film makes it seem rather inoffensive in comparison.