In occult revenge thriller Beware! The Devil’s Wrath a California couple moves into the small town of Blackwood Falls, raising the suspicions of the provincial locals. Neighbors David (Aaron Martin) and Maggie Ryan (Katie Martin), who are members of a zealous religious group, take welcome cookies to newcomers Richard (Dylan Pierce) and Samantha Guran (Lorelei Linklater). Maggie snoops around the house and finds occult paraphernalia. Richard and Samantha are Satan worshippers who practice their rituals at night. We see a flashback of their occult wedding, but contrary to popular misinformation, they are not evil.
The insular community has no tolerance for the Gurans, despite the fact that they have done nothing to earn their hatred. High School senior Bodi Ryan (Jake Elliot Slaughter) spies on them, peeps into their bedroom, and films them having sex. Responding to rumors of their ties to the occult, he set out to abduct Samantha and punish her for her wicked ways. Along with Sean Connor (Christian Thorpe), and two others, he tracks Samantha, rapes, and kills her.
Richard is tipped off about the attack by Bodi’s little sister, Bethany (Emerald Rose), whom Samantha had befriended. He finds Samantha’s body and brings her home, then in a dark rage makes a plan to exact his revenge. Bodi’s father and Sheriff Cunnigham (Allan Vrooman) learn of the crime, but with no body as evidence, they decide to keep it quiet so the boys will avoid prosecution. Bodi and his crew are certain they’ve gotten away with murder. With the help of Richard’s arcane circle, a ritual begins that will balance the scales of justice, by their rules. The guilty disappear one by one as the town goes into a frenzied panic.
“… Bodi spies on the Guran’s, peeping into their bedroom window and films them having sex…”
Note: mild spoilers follow.
Beware! The Devil’s Wrath is a dark thrill ride, with a substantial production despite the low budget. The visuals are adequately creepy, scenes are interspersed with flashes of horrors to come. The sequence of events can be confusing, as the timeline jumps back and forth, revealing a tableau of carnage, then backfilling the exposition of how it happened. Set pieces of torture and death are handled well, cutting away before it becomes gore porn.
The pace of the film is ponderous, and would benefit from a tighter edit. Also, not that it’s meant to be cerebral art cinema in any way, but the viewer may struggle to engage with characters that are little more than two dimensional archetypes: Teen psychopath, suspicious Satanist, corrupt local Sheriff, and so on. The characters don’t evolve. They are NPCs operating within a set of established tropes. The acting is mediocre at best.
There are interesting subversions of expectation. The occult group references literature from thoughtful sources such as the Aeneid, and from writers like Anthony Burgess. and Shakespeare. They are far more intellectual than the backwoods Holy Roller townsfolk.
The devil’s wrath strikes hard, reveling in compelling, brutal justice in Beware! The Devil’s Wrath, where director / writer Craig Meinhart has created a narrative of moral inversion. The “good people” of the town are monsters and the “evil occult” are in the right. The film also reflects current headline crimes, such as those of the rapists known as the “Cornell 7,” where the authorities initially shied away from harsh prosecution because it would “ruin the boys lives.” In this film, with the occult group as judge and retaliator, vengeance is swift and savage, with no hesitation or consideration of lenience. There’s a satisfying clarity to that.
Learn more at the official Beware! The Devils Wrath website.
"…The wrath strikes hard, reveling in compelling, brutal justice"
