The Devil's Doorway (2018)

Brilliant and touching

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The 1960s setting is great as is the acting. Unfortunately, they forgot to write an intelligent, compelling story. And so many loose ends. They start to investigate the "miracle" of blood tears flowing from Virgin Mary statues. Doesn't that sound creepy/disturbing? Why would the Catholic church consider that a miracle? They somehow jump to the conclusion that it means one of the women or a nun is pregnant. (?) That leads nowhere until one of the women says a pregnant women is locked in the basement. Of course, she's possessed so we're subjected to 15 minutes of her screaming and attacking people, a bed shakes, crosses turn upside down, she levitates, etc. I mean, really? Then they find--and film--a room filled with Satanic stuff. When they show the head nun the room moments later, all the Satanic stuff is gone. What's the point of that? And the priest don't even mention it again. Then it turns out the girl is a virgin what she's pregnant. And no one seems that stunned; even the Dr. is sort of, "Weird, huh?" They set up all these little scenes that go nowhere. Oh, and one priest hears children whispering to him, "We're going to kill you." Whispering kids are pretty non-scary to me, so this doesn't add any frights to the movie but of course, he has to race up and down the hallways to find the ghost kids. And while this is supposed to be found footage, there is a SOUNDTRACK for all the jump scares, along with scary music when they go to find the baby the girl gave birth too. And the end is a mess--I think the nuns are attacking the priests (you can't see a thing) and then the older priest is killed and then...film over. It's really a mess but again, such a great setting, well acted. Just lacks a great story.

In every industry people copy other peoles ideas, and that is normal if it is not just a cheap ripoff, As above so below

I'm not big into found footage, but this one is sort of footage being shot, not found. The priests are genuine, not typical Hollywood Catholic priests. The Magdalene laundry was a real place, and it wouldn't surprise me if this kind of thing happened in those horror houses-there were more than one in Ireland until the early 1990s, I believe. You sort of know what is happening, but you still want to see it to the end. Very scary, a few minor jump scares, and one or two major ones. Ghoulish, hellish, and pure evil. And the fact that there is an atypical ending actually supports the integrity of the priests while bringing into stark relief the evil of the antagonists.

The devils doorway may have a mediocre IMDB rating but do not take this horror film from the UK to be just an average scary movie because it's not. The acting in this feature is purely amazing and the storyline may not be the most original but writers have creative privilege and they can always refresh our memories if they so choose. And although "The Devil's Doorway" does have 2 or 3 jump scares over the limit the dialogue keeps you entertained while you wait for the actual occurrences to take place and yes regardless of what the advertising banner for this movie says this is found footage and it's a pretty darn good one. The camera has a few jiggly moments at the end of the movie but 95% of it was was steady and well angled. Special effects were decent and the camera editing was converted into the look of a retro 35mm camera giving it a boost of realism. All in all this movie definitely fits the bill of a good horror flick so I give it an 8 which means you surely won't be mad to sit down and check this one out when you get a chance.