Review of The Devil's Rock (2011) by Michael G — 28 Sep 2012

THE DEVIL'S ROCK (2011 - New Zealand).

WRITTEN BY: Paul Finch, Brett Ihaka, Paul Campion.

DIRECTED BY: Paul Campion.

FEATURING: Craig Hall, Matthew Sunderland, Gina Varela, Karlos Drinkwater, Luke Hawker, Jessica Grace Smith, Nick Dunbar.

GENRE: OCCULT, HORROR.

TAGS: drama, adventure, thriller.

RATING: 7 PINTS OF BLOOD.

PLOT: Two opposing soldiers force an uneasy alliance as they struggle with the conundrum of how to control a manacled, captive demon in this offbeat occult thriller by special effects artist Paul Campio.

COMMENTS: With efforts like Dead Snow, and Below, I thought I had had my fill of supernatural WWII movies. I groaned when I read the description for The Devil's Rock. The premise sounded ridiculous.

Wow! Was I ever wrong about this movie. The idea works! Not only do the filmmakers execute the premise in a fresh way, but the movie kept me on the edge of my seat, suitably entertained, creeped-out, and wondering what would come next from start to finish. While several action sequences are framed by a lot of dramatic discourse, the dialogue is all relevant and credible, creating an atmosphere of uneasiness and mounting dread while moving the plot along at a steady pace.

A solid historical WWII backdrop frames the setting for this horrifying adventure/thriller in which two two Kiwi (i.e. New Zealand) commandos, Grogan (Hall) and Tane (Drinkwater) infiltrate a Nazi-occupied Channel Islands fortress to sabotage its artillery emplacements. From the start though, something is clearly amiss. Plaintive shrieks fill the air, emanating from the enemy stronghold as if its occupants are engaged in some kind of horrific torture.

The compound is eerily deserted and then the Allied duo starts to find freshly mutilated bodies of German soliders -lots of them. Beyond The Devil's Rock's accurate historical context, it turns out the Nazis were conducting research into the occult in an attempt to find a strategic military advantage. Boy did they ever succeed!

The Nazi colonel in charge, Meyer (Sunderland), used a book of black magic to raise a demon, one with enough power to easily be used as a weapon of mass destruction. But the dilemma? -how to contain the malevolent abomination so the plan doesn't backfire.

The demon is a crafty, devious shapeshifter (really, are there any other kind?) and it seems the Nazis have a tiger by the tail. A hungry one as it turns out because the demon has slaughtered and eaten the entire crew except for the colonel who has finally managed chain the beast up while by protecting himself with a talisman.

As if the German commander didn't have his hands full enough trying to put the genie back in the bottle, Meyer must defend against the two commandos. He kills Tane and captures Grogan, who he must now convince to help him. A chunk of the plot revolves around these two mutual enemies alternately attempting to kill and trust one another until exigence compels them to confront their mutual predicament logically This entails discursively reckoning their respective goals and why they hate each other with a good dose of exigent pragmatism.

While the drama of their ensuing dialectic could easily be the stuff of stage plays, it doesn't create pretentious drama, cause the tension to lag, or the story to drag. Grogan and Meyer agree to cooperate to send the demon (Varela) back to hell. It's a two man job and involves some black magic.

But the demon has other designs, which include satiating herself on human entrails and achieving spontaneous climaxes from any bloodletting she can provoke between Grogan and Meyer while subverting their agreement. Terrifying, but hellishly beautiful and nude, she alternately assumes the form of Grogan's dead wife Helena, as she attempts to seduce him and derail any attempt to vanquish her.

The Devil's Rock holds its own with three effective plot twists, competent acting, convincing dialogue replete with relevant historical references, and most of all, with memorably creative makeup effects and lots of gore. In fact, one of the first comments by the filmmakers on the induced DVD commentary is lament for not being able to budget even more blood.

With the plethora of oozing entrails and splatter already in the film, I think they did just fine. The Devil's Rock is a rare gem to find in a direct-to-DVD release: a well-shot, captivating, suspenseful horror film with a good plot and its gruesomeness not overdone, but still dripping with gore. I gleefully give it an equally dripping Seven Pints Of Blood rating.