Bedeviled (2016) Reviews

• Bedeviled:A missed chance at a horror icon

  Platypuschow2017-03-14

  Bedeviled is the latest in a long line of cyber horrors featuring the standard young hot cast as they become besieged by a supernatural force spawning from a mobile phone application. Now though this hardly sounds like the best of premises it actually works, it's just not handled very well at all. Shortly in I thought that our antagonist had the potential to be a new much needed horror icon. He looks the part, he sounds the part and his method of killing is interesting and with room for some unique moments. The writers took the ball and ran with it, sadly they fumbled and dropped it at least half a dozen times en route to the line. With the right writers and a competent director this could be salvaged and made into a decent franchise, but I won't hold my breath quite yet. I'm not saying that Bedeviled is bad, it's just not what it could have been.

• Don't even bother

  bladexz952017-11-26

  I'm writing from a crappy keyboard, so I'm going to keep it short. This movie was absolutely atrocious. The characters were bland and stupid, the directing needed some serious work, and the script was just a giant shipwreck. While the premise wasn't bad, the entire thing was just a huge farce when you realized that halfway through the film, everyone was dying from fear.The kids never figured it out, and went through all of this technological mumbo jumbo which shouldn't have worked(but somehow it did). An entity lives through your phone, yet goes away when the app is uninstalled? If the app installed itself to begin with, then why wouldn't it just reinstall itself after? If all of these people downloaded the app, then why did no one post online about it? Why did no one say anything to anyone about it? Where did the parents go halfway through the movie? Why did the kids keep splitting up? All of these questions, and all they had to do was learn to not be afraid. That's how I would have ended this tripe. Everyone died from fear, but the kids couldn't figure out that it was only their fears that were killing them? Just awful. Also, all of the inane jump scares don't help. Along with that, they made several fatal flaws when it came to jump scares; the camera cuts away, but the character is still looking at it, then when the camera cuts back, it's gone. Um, what? Shouldn't the monster still be there if the character is continuously staring at it? Why is the camera all of a sudden the live entity controlling the shot? Mediocre directing 101. On top of all this, they tried to create a 3rd dimensions with the characters by having them make boring conversation about the future and other nonsense. News flash, characters evolve by learning something, or changing in a major way, not realizing they want to be a writer when they graduate from high school. Interesting premise, but executed without style, substance, and everything in between. Actors did okay, but that was about it. Avoid at all costs.

• It's Not the Worst Movie in the World...

  zandertowne2018-10-23

  I gave this one a chance because the trailer made it look like it had a creepy Nightmare on Elm Street vibe (which turned out to be more of an "It" vibe). Overall the film is meh; a movie made by folks who only know life from other C grade films. Cases in point; the group of high school friends don't talk, or act, like high-schoolers (all the females, including the extras in the brief classroom shots, were cast from the "hot girl" casting pool and non of them look younger than early twenties); with two or three brief exceptions these kids practically live in a bubble - none of them have parents, or siblings, or know anyone else at school except each other since they don't interact with anybody or have outside interests and certainly no jobs (they live in super fancy homes yet none of them even have maids, or gardeners in the absence of parents); they know they're being stalked through their phones by an evil app but still continue to go home to their dark, empty houses and stay connected thru their phones. Oh and isn't it lucky that amongst the group there just so happens to be a studly computer genius who can figure everything out for them - possibly even completing the work of a renowned deceased scientist - and yet the evil computer app who knows everything about them doesn't even deal with that threat. If those kind of unbelievable, unrealistic, and totally synthetic behaviors and situations never bother you then you might enjoy this flick. There's one or two decent little sequences (I like the evil teddy bear) and they obviously spent all their budget on some cool effects instead of the necessary re-writes to make the film anything more than barely tolerable. And they saved money by not hiring good actors also. But it seems like all they simply wanted to do was make a movie just like other movies, regardless if those were good or bad.

• A Lacklustre Missed Chance Sloppily Conceived.

  stephenabell2017-03-15

  Oh dear, this was painful to watch, in so many ways. First off, let me say, I liked the premise of this film. A killer app! Shame that's all it has going for it, the writers and directors, Abel and Burlee Vang, missed so many opportunities to create a good horror film here and were lax with what they had. The directors don't even try to build any tension or create any kind of atmosphere. They rely too heavily on crescendos to make the audience jump. When I say heavily it was at every chance they had - somebody reaches for a shoulder (BA BAA), a shadow passes by (BA BAA), a door opens (BA BAA), a camera pans (BA BAA), a gnat farts (BA BAA) - and all turned up to 11. Hey, Guys! It's the volume that makes people jump NOT your story. Then there's the apps name; "Mr Bedeviled"; I take it the college students aren't taking English are they(?) Or they would be a little more cautious in using the app. Then there's the fact that it auto- installs on their phones. I don't know about you but if something auto- installed on my phone I would be instantly reflashing my phone back to factory presets. Another thing I found tardy was the stolen ideas. The scene where granny does "The Grudge" is sad but extremely funny; I'm smiling now just thinking about it. If I were the Vang's I'd be most embarrassed at their demon who is a pathetic caricature of The Joker, this was really dismaying to see. I can understand why they just kept showing the smiling mouth the full effect is unintentionally hilarious and the make- up is the poorest I've seen. However, the actors do a passable job with their characters and cope with the bad script in their stride. They at least worked for their money. I hope somebody takes the idea of this story and decides to do it justice as this could be one hell of a story and one hell of a movie. At the moment it's just hell.

• Supernatural app

  TheLittleSongbird2018-05-27

  'Bedeviled' drew me into seeing it, with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing and quite creative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive. It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws are here present in those films, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'Bedeviled' is not great, or good, has a fair share of problems (fairly big ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There are however a couple of decent, even good, qualities in 'Bedeviled'. Lets start with the positives. The scenery is atmospheric, despite the rather direct to video schlocky way it's shot and edited at times. A few unsettling moments here and there and the antagonist is appropriately sinister in sound and with a cool look, complete with some interesting killing methods. However, the story does feel over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their irritating and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates. Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the acting. Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace is uneven, dragging in a lot of the second half and never is it exciting. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness and the lack of tension and suspense. A lot of the film has underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the killings are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. There is not enough threat here and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, while the psychological elements are unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show the horror of the subject. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is pretty leaden and the music doesn't really fit. Concluding, very weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox