Knockoffs of Bernard Rose’s 1992 prescient horror film “Candyman” don’t come much more flagrant than Thomas J. Churchill’s low-budget horror offering “Devilreaux.” With its talented lead (Virginia Madsen) and a creepy score by none other than Philip Glass (!), “Candyman” was a bit of a one-of-a-kind. Based on a short story by Clive Barker set in a poor section of Liverpool, “Candyman,” switches the setting to Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing development and turns an eye on America’s heritage of lynching and slavery.
In short, “Candyman” is a lot more than your average piece of B movie-making. “Devilreaux” is a lot less. Set in New Orleans and environs, “Devilreaux” begins when a police lieutenant named, ahem, Briggs (Krista Grotte Saxon, speaking with an accent not found in the Big Easy) interviews a traumatized young woman named Lexy (Monae Moyes), who says her companions at a “historical farm/museum” in the area have all been horribly killed. She says they were playing a game involving a Ouija board and some blood and that the killer was someone named Devilreaux. “He was relentless,” says Lexy. Suddenly, Lt. Briggs is sitting in Willy Earl’s Bar (note the cheap-looking sign) with Dr. Turner (Jon Briddell, TV’s “Doom Patrol”). “What do you know about Devilreaux,” Briggs asks Dr. Turner. “Devilreaux is not something you should take lightly.” I did, more lightly, by the second.
As it turns out, Turner is a descendant of one of the men, who along with a certain Willy Earl, killed a freed slave named Baron (Vincent M. Ward), the son of a slave named Leonard, played by, wait for it, Candyman himself Tony Todd, who somehow hasn’t aged much since 1992. Leonard had Baron with a slave-and-soon-to-be-a voodoo witch named Sally (Meberate Abajian). Devilreaux wears dreads and skull make-up on his face and a top hat also adorned with skulls. He carries a shovel (the one he was beaten to death with, we are told), and he uses the shovel to bonk, slash and impale his victims. Instead of bees, Devilreaux’s approach is heralded by a cowbell (like “Mississippi Queen”).
The “Devilreaux” screenplay is credited to both director Churchill and lead actor Ward (“The Step Daddy”). The film also takes many cues from 1980s slasher films. Somehow, Turner has avoided being killed for what looks like 40 or more years. He attributes this in part to “cleansing baths.” Well, he must have skipped one because Devilreaux pops out of his bathroom and gives him some bloody whacks.
Cut to a flashback in Civil War-era Louisiana (although no one mentions the war). This is the setting of the backstory we have already been told. Leonard wants to escape from the clutches of evil owner-rapist Mr. Michaels (Dennis W. Hall) with Sally, his pregnant wife. Cut to about 20 years later. In poorly-staged and shakily-shot scenes, Sheriff Whitman (Michael Cervantes) encourages plantation owner Michaels Jr. (Wil Crown) to kill a slave (Baron) that the sheriff believes is altogether too friendly with the owner’s white wife Kelly (Jessamine Kelley, sporting a ridiculous coif). Cut back to scenes involving young people in the historical farmhouse being stalked and killed by Devilreaux. “Let’s go to the funhouse,” someone later says to Lt. Briggs. “That sounds like fun,” says Briggs. The dialogue alone will kill you.
(“Devilreaux” contains bloody violence and drug use)
MOVIE REVIEW
“Devilreaux”
Rated R. On VOD
Grade: C
