The Devil Below is a 2021 American horror film about amateur explorers that visit an abandoned town and find more than they bargained for.
Directed by Bradley Parker (Chernobyl Diaries) from a screenplay co-written by Stefan Jaworski and Eric Scherbarth, the 1inMM Productions movie stars Adan Canto (X-Men: Days of Future Past), Will Patton (Boarding School; Halloween 2018, Swamp Thing series), Alicia Sanz (From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series) and Jonathan Sadowski (Chernobyl Diaries).
Plot:
A group of four amateur adventurers who specialize in exploring remote and forsaken places pay a visit to Shookum Hills, a town in the remote Appalachian Mountains, which was abandoned decades ago due to a mysterious coal mine fire…
Release date:
The Devil Below was released by Vertical Entertainment on March 5, 2021.
Reviews:
“Alicia Sanz makes a believable badass lead and of another Tomb Raider is on the horizon I know who I’d want to see in the role. Will Patton is always welcome on screen and I wish he had more screen time. Overall it was a fun movie!” Action Reloaded
“Parker assembled a good cast for his movie […] but the screenplay by Stefan Jaworski and Eric Scherbarth just doesn’t give them enough to work with, and the execution of the material is lacking. It’s astounding that a film in which creatures are dispatched with explosions on multiple occasions can be this tedious.” Arrow in the Head
” …a similar spin cycle of untested actors handed feeble dialogue while marching around an underlit location searching for trouble. There’s only one genuinely interesting development in The Devil Below, but it’s dismissed in the opening scene, leaving viewers to make it through a painfully talky picture that occasionally works up the energy to become a monster movie.” Blu-ray.com
“If I were to complain about anything with this film it would be that it did take a while to get to the action. Luckily, the actors were able to keep my attention while they set up the story. The Devil Below has several interesting ideas but doesn’t quite capitalize on all of them. It’s still a fun watch, though, and one that I would recommend.” Bulletproof Action
“The actors are also doing their best with the script they were given […] This, unfortunately, isn’t enough to make up for the predictability and lack of fright. The Devil Below is not particularly tense, jumpy, gory, or frightening. As a horror film, it disappoints.” Flickering Myth
” …apart from moments where it looked cool or something happened that made me jump a bit, I just didn’t care much either way. It would have been obvious to build-in emotion by doing something along the lines of the Finnish Christmas horror movie Rare Exports, but even that opportunity was missed. Basically, this concept had so much potential and didn’t use it nearly as well as possible.” Heaven of Horror
“It is a good thing Patton is on-board, because the crew Darren leads is a pretty bland and boring lot […] Regardless, Parker does a nice job grounding the film in coal country. He conveys the traditional spookiness of Appalachia, while showing respect for the people who live there. The creatures are pretty creepy, while the enormous Shookum Mine locale is impressively cinematic.” J.B. Spins
” …a moody and absorbing horror-thriller that keeps you locked in from start to finish. Good performances fill out the under 90-minute runtime, keeping our focus forward and leaving little time to question the logic of what we’re seeing. It does leave some of the characters too thinly sketched, but the story has just enough grit and suspense to keep things entertaining.” Keith and the Movies
“Most of the characters are uninteresting and there is a severe lack of lift with the first act. I wish there was more of a fun build-up, because it starts off entirely too slow. But once the film delivers on its promises, it becomes something special […] The Devil Below doesn’t just hint at really creepy cryptids, it goes all the way, and for that I highly recommend it.” Killer Horror Critic
“The budget, apparently, went toward the story’s big computer-generated creature, which feeds on paralyzed victims […] offered up as a sacrifice by wobbly monsters, through its snake-like gullet. Some of this might have been unintentionally funny, if the entire affair weren’t so dull. Dull it is, though—and predictable, shallow, and absent of any tension, thrills, or scares to boot.” Mark Reviews Movies
” …there are some redeeming qualities among the cardboard cut-out cast and misguided direction, in Alicia Sanz’s tracker Arianne (who does seem a bit young to fully convince but plays the role well) and Will Patton’s (the film’s brightest light) gravitas-guaranteeing keeper of the land Schuttmann, who desperately seeks to keep the devil below (see what we did there) where it belongs.” Starburst
“The Devil Below is agreeably entertaining monster mayhem. There’s enough running around in the dark, fighting and even a few explosions to keep the viewer occupied. It certainly could have used a bigger budget and better suits for its creatures, but that’s par for the course with indie monster movies. And at least they used suits and not CGI, though they did use that for the Queen.” Voices from the Balcony
Cast and characters (confirmed):
Adan Canto
Will Patton
Jonathan Sadowski … Actor
Nathan Phillips … Cain
Alicia Sanz
William Mark McCullough
Chinaza Uche … Shawn
Kevin Wayne … Mountain Man
Jesse LaTourette … Shelby
Zach Avery
Alpha Trivette … Ellroy
Lea Hutton Beasmore … Militia
Lewis Wright … Coal Miner
Ana Iglesias
Lare Roberts … Militia/husband
Michelle Dobrozsi … Militia
Damon Sudduth … Shadow Creature
Keith Cox … Militia
Apollo Bacala … Shadow Creature
Robert Calissi … Coal Miner
Dustin McClure … Militia
Filming locations:
Louisville and Mt Vernon, Kentucky
Working title:
Shookum Hills
Official trailer:
MOVIES and MANIA rating:
