DEVIL’S ACID ** USA 2018 Dir: Garrett Kruithof. 89 mins
A man is watching the football game on his couch when his son appears and asks for a scary bedtime story. What starts as a reluctant attempt at a simple horror tale turns into an intricate, trippy, nonsensical story that teeters between horrific, raunchy, and funny. In it, a group of people are invited to stay the night in an abandoned prison while under the influence of the Devil’s Acid. Those who stick it out will win a bag of cash. But things go south as the participants begin to hallucinate to deadly effects.
The Devil’s Acid makes a lot of confusing choices in its plot. From making up a dark humor horror story to lull young kids to sleep to the trippy photography used to simulate a Devil’s Acid trip, it’s a real head scratcher of a film.
The acting is pretty hammy aside from Ashley Dulaney’s rambling airhead turned scholar Brittany. The horror comes from hallucinations prompting the characters to attack each other, often prompted by a devil-like figure and his two cohorts. There’s some blood and gore but mostly just gross out humor that takes a very specific sense of humor to appreciate. There’s really no point except to put a bunch of unlikable characters in a dangerous situation and watch them destroy each other.
Review by Laura Smith
DEVIL’S ACID IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON