Review: The details are messy in nonsensical revenge thriller ‘Devil’s Domain’
One of the first shots in writer-director Jared Cohn’s supernatural revenge thriller “Devil’s Domain” is of the bulimic teenage heroine Lisa (played by Madi Vodane) vomiting into a toilet. The image is revolting — and in questionable taste — but like a lot of this sloppy-but-fascinating mess of a movie, it has an immediate impact.
Linda Bella costars as Destiny, a human incarnation of Satan who tempts Lisa with the chance to get even with her abusive peers. One by one, everybody who teased her, told her to kill herself or posted embarrassing videos of her online gets a gory comeuppance.
“Devil’s Domain” feels like three movies crammed into one. Most of the first third is a moralistic high school melodrama about the dangers of bullying. Then the last hour alternates between a “let’s kill off good-looking youngsters” slasher and a soft-core smut picture, wherein Lisa and Destiny lounge around in sexy lingerie and make out with curvy female minions.
Cohn doesn’t integrate these pieces very well. It’s as if during shooting he tried to reconstruct the plot from his notes rather a finished script.
But intentionally or not, the stream-of-consciousness lurching from scene to scene does give “Devil’s Domain” a dreamlike quality. The film as a whole doesn’t make a lot of sense, but from moment to moment it is effectively visceral and raw. It’s compelling almost by accident.
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‘Devil’s Domain’
Not rated
Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes
Playing: Arena Cinelounge, Hollywood
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