At the Devil's Door
(VI)
(2014)
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Watch Trailer 0Share... |
At the Devil's Door
(VI)
(2014)
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|
Watch Trailer 0Share... |
Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Ashley Rickards | ... |
Hannah
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Nick Eversman | ... |
Calvin
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Michael Massee | ... |
Uncle Mike
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Mark Steger | ... |
Thin Man
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Catalina Sandino Moreno | ... |
Leigh
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Naya Rivera | ... |
Vera
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Wyatt Russell | ... |
Sam
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Daniel Roebuck | ... |
Chuck
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Jan Broberg | ... |
Royanna
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Arshad Aslam | ... |
Seth
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Kelsey Heller | ... |
Young Lori
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Kent Faulcon | ... |
Davis
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Bresha Webb | ... |
Becky
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Assaf Cohen | ... |
Dr. Aranda
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Shaun O'Hagan | ... |
Detective
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When ambitious young real estate agent Leigh is asked to sell a house with a checkered past, she crosses paths with a disturbed girl whom she believes is the runaway daughter of the couple selling the property. When Leigh tries to intervene and help her, she becomes entangled with a supernatural force that soon pulls Leigh's artist sister Vera into its web - and has sinister plans for both of them. Written by Production
I liked The Pact, director and screenwriter Nicholas McCarthy's first film, very much, and that's why I was very interested in watching At the Devil's Door, his following movie. And even though At the Devil's Door is very inferior to The Pact, McCarthy's ability to create suspense and terror with efficiency and elegance keeps being noticed. At the Devil's Door offers a growing tension, some good shocks and a constant sensation of anxiety. Unfortunately, the screenplay changes its course with too much frequency and it can't decide itself for a concrete direction. Everything starts with an enigmatic prologue in which the young Hannah participates on a strange ritual, something which brings context to Leigh's story and her difficulty to sell a "haunted house" (or whatever it is). Then, we witness long flashbacks of Hannah and the consequences of the ritual; then, the focus of attention switches to Leigh's sister; then, the story jumps 8 months; afterwards, 6 years... and well, that's enough to describe the confusing structure of At the Devil's Door, which includes enough tangents to fill in three movies. But with so much material compressed in an hour and a half, it's difficult for us to integrate into the story. On the positive side, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Naya Rivera and Ashley Rickards bring solid performances in their roles. To sum up, At the Devil's Door is very far from the level of The Pact, but at least, it confirms McCarthy's ability to handle the tools of horror; unfortunately, his work as a screenwriter wasn't totally satisfactory in this case. Nevertheless, that doesn't avoid me from giving a moderate recommendation to At the Devil's Door as a decent horror film.