What if one of those cutesy ‘baby reveal’ video’s on Youtube kept the camera rolling through the whole length of the pregnancy, a pregnancy that is slowly revealed to be not entirely normal? That’s the concept for Devil’s Due the latest highly promoted Found Footage Horror. Although the concept sounds intriguing and (almost) original, the final product is not and Devil’s Due is sadly just another tired Found Footage Horror that won’t bother Oren Peli as he stretches out to sleep on his massive piles of money.
The film follows young newlyweds Zach and Sam as they return home from their Honeymoon in the Dominican Republic and face an unexpected pregnancy which soon takes a dark turn. The stand out problem with Devil’s Due is it’s complete lack of tension, a problem which seems to stem from it’s endless carousel of different set pieces and character’s. If the hallowed Paranormal Activity taught us anything it’s that keeping the supernatural action contained to a small claustrophobic area has the ability to make us fear a door..
Unfortunately the film picks and chooses from found footage techniques and rarely makes a good choice. It’s filming device (Zach’s desire to record every aspect of his wife’s pregnancy) is so clunky and awkward that it often over shadows whole scenes by lumbering through them. The film is fatally patchy and uneven, which is a great shame because Alison Miller and Zach Gilford have impressive chemistry as the doomed newly weds but it is never explored as the camera is too busy switching perspective or literally being flung through the air.
Devil’s Due makes a valiant effort to do its best in a difficult (to say the least) genre but sadly it can not recover from the glaring truth that Its not scary : its tedious and predictable and for a horror film or even a thriller (as it has been occasionally labeled) that’s unforgivable.
