Devil’s Den (2005)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C-     Feature: C-

 

 

A pair of young men go to a club with sexy dancers, though they expect much less when there is no cover charge.  When they get in for free, they think it will be fat women, but they get supernatural flesh-eating killers in the extremely predictable 2005 Andrew Dunt exercise Devil’s Den that essentially follows too much of the plotting of the first Blade film for its own god, then tries to add John Carpenter for good measure, but it turns out to be a bad move.

 

We can also add Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, since this takes place in Mexico and also wants to be From Dusk Till Dawn, but it never, ever works.  As a matter of fact, this is so bad that spotting all the rip-offs was the only thing that kept this critic from going to sleep.  Kelly Hu and Ken Foree are known to genre fans, but most are more likely to find them as unrecognizable as Devon Sawa.  To make us think we are getting more, they try to come up with a new hybrid monster (and excuse for “homage”?) that never works and it is all very laughable.  Sad thing is, if they and the Mitch Gould script had been more ambitious, this could have been entertaining.  Too bad they got caught up in lists of better films.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image looks like it was shot in HD and is nothing special.  The shooting by Viorel Sergovici is pedestrian and looks like a million other generic cable broadcasts.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 mixes are limited in surrounds and lack punch or warmth.  Extras include a DVD-ROM version of the script (ugh), stills, bloopers, making of piece and odd audio commentary track.  This is a title that should be left in the title location where no one has to watch it.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo