Tuesday, January 28, 2025

The Devil and the Daylong Brothers

When the Devil goes down South, he often enjoys the local Americana roots music. He tuned Robert Johnson’s guitar at the Crossroads and fiddled with Charlie Daniels. Logically, Robert Johnson was a particular inspiration for this blues-rock-flavored horror-movie-musical. Yes, this is a musical and it works. On the other hand, the deal a father made most definitely does not work for his three sons (from different mothers). He shook hands with Old Scratch, but they were the ones who were left to pay in Brandon McCormick’s The Devil and the Daylong Brothers, which releases this Friday in theaters and on VOD.

It was sort of Satanic child abuse when Nehemiah Daylong sold the souls of his future sons, Ishmael, Enoch, and Abraham, rather than his own. Understandably, the Daylong half-siblings rather resent his bargain. Facing damnation, they made their own deal with Clarence, a soul-collecting demon, filling his quota of similarly damned souls in exchange for their father’s location. Theoretically, if they kill him first, he takes their place, voiding their debt.

Unfortunately, trusting Clarence is rather foolish, as most viewers would expect. However, Frankie, a damned soul known to associate with infernal folk, might lead them to their troublesome father. Of course, as a femme fatale with demonic experience, she has a knack for exposing their weaknesses and offering temptations.

One of the titular characters never appears in the film, but the brothers rage and bicker together in almost every scene. As the Daylong trio, Brendan Bradley,
  Nican Robinson, and Jordon Bolden are unnervingly fierce. They are also decent singers, thanks to some help from songwriter and music-and-film producer Nicholas Kirk. Some of the musical numbers feel more like 80’s music videos than Bollywood-style musicals, in that characters might initially breakout into song, but they do not always lip-synch the entire tune, but they mostly flow quite smoothly.

Yet, the film builds to a standout slap-in-the-face musical and dramatic climax featuring Keith Carradine, as old man Nehemiah, singing a stark, soul-searing acoustic rendition of “Burden, Lay Down.” Measure for measure, it is far more soulful and powerful than his chart-topping, Oscar-winning “I’m Easy” from
Nashville. Carradine only appears for one scene, but it lands hard.

Frankly, it is pleasantly surprising just how successfully the music and horror elements come together in concert. McCormick evokes the spookiness of the blues and the lonely Southern backroads. The film also viscerally taps into the archetypal fears surrounding the Devil and his Faustian bargains, which give the temptations that lead men to destruction a sinister agency of their own. Highly recommended as something fresh and different in either the horror or movie musical genres,
The Devil and the Daylong Brothers releases this Friday (1/31) in theaters and on VOD.