If
Simon Legree were obsessed with The
Hellstrom Chronicle, he would be about as much fun as the notorious “Honey
Baron.” The cruel Brazilian honey plantation owner loved to talk smack about
insect behavior and theories of racial superiority. Eventually, he was killed
by an indigenous shaman during a slave uprising, but his downfall was only possible
through a painful sacrifice. It also requires constant maintenance to keep the
nasty old sod down. Unfortunately, four entitled millennials will interfere
with the true believers tasked with keeping the evil entity at bay in Rodrigo
Gasparini & Dante Vescio’s The Devil Lives Here (trailer
here),
which releases today on DVD, from Artsploitation.
“Control
the queen and you control the hive,” the Baron often tells his much-abused
slave, Bento. The sadist beekeeper took the advice to heart, enslaving and
impregnating Bento’s mother, the high priestess-queen of her people. However,
the old woman uses her dark powers to turn the tables on the Baron, at the cost
of her unborn son.
Apolo
grew up hearing stories about Bento and the Baron, but he always believed the
poor baby got a raw deal. He still does. Somehow, the former caretaker convinced
his parents to leave the house vacant one night, every nine months, so he could
safely perform the booster ritual. After his death, the caretaker’s sons assume
the agreement is still in force, but Apolo intends to free the unborn infant’s
spirit, with the help of his girlfriend Magu (Maria Augusta), her cousin Jorge,
and his girlfriend Alé, whose anti-psychotic meds will not be much help when
the Baron’s malevolent spirit starts messing with her head.
The
way Vescio, Gasparini, and screenwriter Rafael Baliú incorporate Brazilian
folklore, tragic history, and old wives’ tales into its fabric makes Devil eerily potent even when the narrative
is a little murky. Frankly, it is pretty gutsy just for dealing with the
subject of Brazilian slavery as well as the racism that went with it and still lingers
(all those old National Socialists didn’t hide out in Brazil to dance the
Samba).
The
entire ensemble is at least sufficiently competent, while Mariana Cortines
makes quite the impression as Alé the headcase. The manor house and plantation
grounds are also terrifically cinematic and massively suggestive of sinister forces
at work. Cinematographer Kaue Zilli has a knack for capturing the dark side of
sunny, which further reinforces the foreboding. On the downside, the speed at
which the righteous brothers turn into the home invaders from Funny Games is problematic.
