It
was Baudelaire who wrote the original form of the quote warning readers the Devil’s
greatest trick was persuading us he does not exist, before it was paraphrased
by The Usual Suspects. Yet, it was
Charles Beaumont who really made hay with the idea with his short story “The
Howling Man,” and his subsequent adaptation for a fan-favorite Twilight Zone episode.
Director-screenwriter Josh Lobo riffs on Beaumont’s premise in his feature
debut, I Trapped the Devil, which
opens this Friday in New York.
It
was Karen’s idea to visit Matt’s estranged brother Steve on Christmas—and boy,
is he surprised—but not exactly welcoming. Frankly, he wants them out, for
reasons that soon become apparent. He has a pathetic-sounding man locked up in
his basement. Of course, Steve is convinced he has Satan trapped, just like
John Carradine in the Zone. Initially,
Matt and Karen are convinced his brother is barking mad, but she slowly starts
to have her doubts (or rather, she starts to halfway believe).
Despite
what he says, the man in the fortified closet just seems to radiant evil to the
sensitive Karen. She is also unnerved by the constant telephone calls that
Steve believes are coming from the evil one’s minions and worshippers. This is
in fact Lobo’s best innovation on Beaumont, so it is frustrating that he never
really develops it.
Lobo
was part of the art and design team that crafted the visually brilliant Dave Made a Maze, so it is almost shocking
how dingy and prosaic Trapped looks,
but one could argue it is appropriate to the story. Regardless, it sorely lacks
the two advantages the Howling Man episode
had: Beaumont and brevity. Even with a running time under ninety minutes, Lobo’s
is-he-or-isn’t-he guessing game quickly runs out of steam. The truth is
glaringly obvious and Matt’s utter lack of intuition really starts to try our
patience.
AJ
Bowen has been one of the most reliable thesps regularly appearing in genre
films for the last decade or so, but he cannot do much to engage with the
audience as the rather plodding Matt. In contrast, Scott Poythress is a bundle
of neuroses as Steve, but in ways that are tragically and acutely human. Susan
Burke also convincingly takes Karen on a character development arc to Hell.
As
viewers watch Trapped, they are
likely to start feeling a claustrophobic sensation, but not in the right way. If
you openly invoke a television and short fiction classic, you really should
bring your A-game, but this is just some warmed-over demonic porridge. Not recommended,
I Trapped the Devil opens this Friday
(4/26) in New York, at the IFC Center.