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Released by Lionsgate
Released on: March 10, 2015
Directed by: Jason Cuadrado
Cast: Corri English, Van Hansis, Traci Lords, Tyler Mane, Traci Perez
Year: 2013
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The Movie:
It is the final night at the current Here to Help suicide prevention call-in center. The organization is moving to a new building and for the original location's last hurrah a skeleton crew is operating the phones. Among the final four employees in the building are new hire, Jess (Van Hansis), resident cat lover, Val (Traci Lords), secretary, Jules (Traci Perez) and the departing Sam (Corri English), who happens to be blind. Sam has a troubled past and she feels this helps her communicate more clearly with the callers. One such caller is John (Tyler Maine). He is a regular caller and always asks for Sam by name. John has come to depend on her to help him with his violent outbursts. Everything at the call center is running smoothly until John accidently learns his favorite chatting friend is leaving her job. This news drives John to his most extreme outburst yet.
Watching Devil May Call I could not help but be distracted by how dumb writer/director Jason Cuadrado made his characters. The call-in center appeared to be located in a populated downtown area. When John entered the building with intent to kill, it would have been easy for Sam, Jess, and Val to escape to a somewhat busy street for safety. However, for some reason the trio felt it would have been better to hang around and wait for John to strike. This logic gap was not the only head scratcher in the film. A previously never-before-mentioned security guard shows up more than halfway through the film. Cuadrado dropped this character into the film out of nowhere for three reason, to create a false scare, to have an extra kill, and to extend the length of the film. This is just lazy filmmaking. While these incidents were bothersome, the film had a couple redeeming values.
For the most part, the acting was better than expected. Neither English nor Hansis have long, bright futures ahead of them, but both were very watchable. In fact, English was quite good as the blind hero. She was not strong enough to make us care about her ordeal but she was believable as a blind person. It was great fun to see Lords show up. She, as a cat lady, was what counted for comedy relief in the film and she handled the part pretty well. She was a more polished performer and possessed a professionalism the other actors lacked. Mane has a great look and could have been a great horror heavy 25 to 30 years ago. He is a strong, intimidating presence, perfect for a horror film.
Unfortunately Cuadrado's horrible dialogue was working against all the actors. Social critic Hannah Arendt once noted Nazi Adolf Eichmann spoke only in clichés, Cuadrado writes his characters in the same way. Their dialogue was straight out of a screenwriting 101 class. John must have called humanity insects at least 100 times. Another positive for the film was the deserted call-in center. This location provides a reasonable explanation for the characters to be in an empty building with limited props and lighting. The setting also gave Devil May Call an Assault on Precinct 13 vibe which was really appreciated.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Lions Gate's DVD release of Devil May Call showcases the film in an anamorphic 1.78:1 presentation. The image quality is decent, but unremarkable. The film's cinematography is rather uninspired and that creates a bland, and occasionally ugly, picture. The DVD is given a 5.1 Dolby Digital audio option. The mix was pretty poor with the music overpowering the dialogue. Luckily, English and Spanish subtitle options were offered.
Surprisingly, the DVD was given a handful of extras. The primary extra is an audio commentary track with Cuadrado. This is a basic track with the director giving background information on the film. Also included is Monstrous Nature, a short film by Cuadrado. This film, like the main feature, was pretty dumb and had a pretentious ending. The short focuses on a nun and werewolfesque creature having a conversation in the woods. The best extra is a three minute piece on the film's score with the composer Nicholas Pike playing the main theme on a wheel harp. The score seems to work best when it is divorced from the film's visuals. The extras are rounded out by the film's trailer.
The Final Word:
A nice location and decent acting is brought down by a poorly written script. The film is only 84 minutes and probably would have been better at half the length. There just was not enough there to warrant the running time. Devil May Call is slow moving and too long. Jason Cuadrado should have asked for help on a script rewrite.
