“Evil is whatever hurts you the most.”
There are two kinds of horror movies – well, wait, that’s not even remotely true; there’s about a hundred different kinds of horror movies. But for the sake of discussion, let’s boil it down to two: the kind where the terror happens on screen, and the kind where it happens off screen. I Trapped the Devil – what a title! – is decidedly one of the latter films. It’s less of a “horror film” and more of a “film about horror,” and if that sounds appealing to you, you’ll likely enjoy this film quite a bit. It’s a slow burn, but ultimately worth it.
Matt and his wife, Karen, are making an unannounced visit to Matt’s brother, Steve, who has become a paranoid recluse as he grapples with grief over the death of his wife. Steve is edgy and unwelcoming; shortly after Matt and Karen’s arrival, Steve tells them they can’t stay. It’s awkward as hell, especially when the three of them force themselves to have dinner together, but it helps set the mood. Steve abruptly tells Matt that he has to show him something: Steve has trapped the devil in his basement.
It’s a simple conceit, but that makes it no less striking. Talk about swinging for the fences! Using religion as a storytelling device is a great way to impart stakes and scale into small-scale films: The Conjuring is a haunted house movie until it becomes an exorcism movie; The Exorcist is mostly people talking. Likewise, I Trapped the Devil is three people talking in one house, and at times it’s downright riveting. This makes it one of my favorite types of movies, the kind that could work as a play. (Also, riffing on John Carpenter isn’t new for this genre, but when was the last time you saw someone riff on Prince of Darkness?)
Much of the film revolves around Steve trying to convince Matt and Karen that not only is he telling the truth, but he’s not crazy. There are long discussions about the nature of evil, and in one of the film’s most striking scenes, Steve shows Matt pictures of missing kids who have reappeared since Steve imprisoned Old Scratch in the house. AJ Bowen (Matt) and Scotty Poythress (Steve) have good, prickly chemistry together, which helps sell the moment when Matt begins to entertain the idea that Steve has trapped the actual devil.
Unfortunately, this is where I Trapped the Devil shows the limitations of its plot. The film is only 84 minutes long, but might be better suited as an installment in a horror anthology series. There is a serious second-act lull here, and it becomes obvious that the idea behind the film can’t necessarily sustain something feature-length. Scenes are stretched to their breaking point, and then carried on past it. Stick with the movie, though.
The best scenes are the ones in the basement, lit by a sole red bulb that makes it look like the characters in Hell (it might not be subtle but it sure is effective). Each of them in turn is spoken to by a voice behind the door: something otherworldly, muffled yet amplified, and the actors give the impression that only their individual characters can hear it. The film stumbles a bit here, because the voice unquestionably belongs to something demonic. That’s not fatal, though: even when presented with that kind of evidence, Matt and Karen are reluctant to believe what Steve tells them. What was that line about the greatest trick the devil ever pulled?
Some of the imagery on display here is truly striking. The house is dimly lit by Christmas tree lights, which lends everything a muted pastel palette; the film exists in the hazy realm of memory or ideation. Steve experiences some truly nightmarish hallucinations, allowing us to plumb the depths of his grief. The score by Ben Lovett (The Ritual) does a lot of heavy lifting as well: it’s moody and tense in equal measure.
Evil is mostly taken for granted in horror movies. It’s often seen as a fact of life for the characters, regardless of how little sense or motivation is behind it. It’s a rare pleasure to see a movie that almost exists outside the confines of itself, as if it’s looking in on its own genre. At its best, I Trapped the Devil is about horror itself.
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