Devil’s Acid (2018) Review

Devil’s Acid (2018) Review

Brothers Johnny (Drew Rin Varick), a racist misogynist, and Luke (Eric Gibson, the film’s co-writer) hold this year’s ‘haunted hot girl challenge’ in an abandoned prison facility deep in the forest on acid. It’s a good trip until the devil shows up.

The film’s opening credits give you a very good idea of what to expect from director Garrett Kruithof’s DEVIL’S ACID. The trippy, retro credit sequence, themed by a cover instrumental of House of the Rising Sun, best known as a song by The Animals, tries hard to ape the style of being ‘trippy’ but misses the mark and the same could said for the film as a whole. Despite the best efforts of an earnest cast, the film never changes tempo meaning that the mix of humorous moments and the gorier stuff are all delivered in the same flat tone.

Initially independent comedy horror DEVIL’S ACID looks promising, opening with a drunk dad (played by the director) telling his son a bedtime story about a group of people spending the night at a haunted prison, where they all take ‘Devil’s Acid’. The humour worked and the pacing spot on, so everything was shaping up well for what should have been a fun watch. However as soon as the action transfers to the haunted prison the plotting loses focus and everything begins to unravel. It loses the fluidity of the earlier scenes and instead feels random and the humour forced.