DEVIL 2.0 ** Canada 2017 Dir: Stace Williamson. 82 mins
Convinced he is protected by his “space father” and believing his Earth role is to banish dark aliens, Bobby Angel (writer / director Stace Williamson) uses video diaries to reveal the thing that killed his family (named Toyfa, not to be confused with Toyah) is now pursuing him many years later. Punctuated by Marvel-ish comic strip-style bridging sequences, DEVIL 2.0 adopts a fidgety visual style and disorientating sound design to mirror Bobby’s fractured state of mind. There is probably more purple on screen than in Richard Stanley’s purplecentric COLOR OUT OF SPACE (though no alpacas). Receiving instructions from a disembodied voice as he awaits his own imminent metamorphosis and striving to wake people up to the “truth”, Bobby (played to the hilt by Williamson) is somewhere between Fox Mulder and David Icke. The year’s biggest understatement in any movie might be one character’s recommendation: “You have to see a doctor”. Somewhere in here is a sincere, potentially compelling concept, but it swiftly disappears up its own (probed) rectum, via long, laughable conversations between Bobby and Space Father. Comically absurd scenes of Bobby uttering baffling profundities (“This is all very real what I am”) while doing roadside push-ups don’t help. Dialogue highlights include Williamson’s deadpan delivery of “My body was going to become a pin-point of solar energy”. Williamson gets some shirtless scenes busting some martial arts moves with what looks like an extra from a horny lo-fi AVATAR while gratuitous bikini scenes, random gore, purple-skinned space vampires and dimension-hopping interludes fill in time. It’s rubbish even as an acid trip self-indulgence and very silly but catch it the right frame of mind and it may entertain. The original score is also rather good though belongs in a different movie.
Review by Steven West
DEVIL 2.0 is available on Amazon