Review: Devil's Due

Image courtesy of 20th Century Fox

It's been a whopping three weeks into 2014 and we've already had two found footage fiascos - "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones" and, now, "Devil's Due." Basta! No mas! Genug!

This latest entry into the increasingly exasperating horror genre attempts to be "Rosemary's Baby," but without the adequate suspense, character development or storytelling.

The film is directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who are two members of Radio Silence, which was responsible for one of the more entertaining entries in the otherwise mediocre "VHS."

Despite a finale during which a whole lot of household items go flying around and an earlier sequence during which several humans do the same, "Devil's Due" is mostly play-by-numbers horror filmmaking. There's very little here you haven't seen time and time again in numerous "Paranormal Activity" films.

At the film's beginning, a couple (Allison Miller and Zach Gilford) on their honeymoon in the Dominican Republic black out after a night of partying with some shady characters, who, as it turns out, performed a satanic rite that will result in the wife's popping out Beelzebub's son nine months later.

As the months pass, weird stuff happens - the wife carves symbols onto the floor and bashes out the window of a guy pulling out of a parking spot, people appear to be watching the couple's home and various characters get nosebleeds. In one particularly absurd sequence, a priest suffers a stroke during a confirmation ceremony.

If watching semi-creepy, but formulaic, movies featuring the aforementioned scenarios on grainy footage sounds like an evening's entertainment, you might enjoy "Devil's Due." For those seeking a little substance or, hell, genuine scares in their horror movies, look elsewhere.