The Devil’s Daughter is perhaps better known as the 2014 film Another. This is a movie that looks kind of interesting, but has nothing underneath its mess of visuals. The movie co-opts the look of arthouse cinema, employing various techniques that make it look a tad more compelling than the average horror film. But there’s nothing to it, really. While the extra effort is appreciate, there’s really not much point to the use of the aesthetic. It’s just a means of distracting from the sheer stupidity that’s actually on display.
Jordyn (Paulie Rosas) is celebrating her 18th birthday when Ruth, the woman that raised her, suddenly stabs herself in her stomach. The incident changes everything for Jordyn. She starts noticing a weird hooded figure following her around. She starts feeling like she isn't fully in control of herself, waking up in strange places not knowing how she got there. She soon learns the truth about her parentage, and this leads her down a very dark path. With the help of Ruth, she attempts to save herself from a fate that seems to have been decided for her long ago.
There isn't a whole lot that really happens in this movie. And what little that happens is a little difficult to suss out. Basically, the movie runs through a series of impressionist scenes that in theory detail the gradual descent of the main character into a world of darkness. The movie attempts a dreamlike depiction of disconnected scenes that show Jordyn in various states of distress. She is accosted by a mysterious figure. She witnesses her roommate sleeping with her boyfriend. She gets glimpses of a co-worker raping her. And so on. All of this is presented in a faux art film style that prioritizes atmosphere over clarity.
Then, in a couple of scenes, everything is suddenly explained. A sudden burst of exposition details the specifics of what is happening to Jordyn, the dialogue explaining what isn't immediately apparent in the visuals. And it still doesn't make a whole lot of sense. There's never any indication of what the characters are supposed to be doing. What is clear at the very end is that no one could have done anything to prevent the final outcome, so the film was really just spinning its wheels until it could get to the conclusion. It's all one big waste of time.
The movie just wants to get by on its presentation. It adopts the aesthetics of what some might recognize as arthouse cinema. There's a lot of shallow focus and odd angles and weird production design. It's kind of interesting at first, but it's obvious that there isn't anything behind these visuals. It just a shroud to cover up the vast emptiness at the heart of the movie. It actually gets annoying after a while, the style obscuring more than just the narrative. The whole thing feels disconnected and pointless, the visuals just a means of padding out the run time even further.
The Devil's Daughter is marginally more intriguing than the average terrible horror movie that we get in our cinemas. Its presentation, though vacuous, at least displays some effort. But this actually makes the movie tougher to watch. It is less scary, less thrilling, and much harder to follow. This is really just more garbage couched in arthouse pretense, the complexity of the visuals simply a smokescreen for the complete lack of value in the narrative and the movie at large. When the credits roll, the audience will have gained nothing at all from the viewing.
My Rating:
