I Trapped The Devil is a 2019 horror film about a man who descends into paranoia after trapping what he believes to be the devil in his basement.
“Something feels wrong,” says a concerned brother early in writer and director Josh Lobo‘s debut horror film I Trapped The Devil, and he certainly has every reason to feel so. Things are definitely not right at all in the small setting of this quirky and often troubling little story, one that might not ring all that original but is not without some inventive flair that keeps it from being entertaining.
Matt (AJ Bowen) and his wife Karen (Susan Burke) drop in unannounced on Steve (Scott Poythress), Matt’s reclusive younger brother. The house is a mess, with scattered furniture, refuse on the floor, and old newspapers on the windows, though this seems to be the norm. It’s Christmas and Matt and Karen just want to let Steve know he has family. However, Steve is particularly odd, asking them to leave, though there is reason behind his seeming madness. He has a secret, one at first he tries to hide, but soon enough shares. Locked in his basement is a man (Chris Sullivan). But not just any man. Steve claims it’s the Devil.
I Trapped The Devil is not a supernatural thriller, some low budget chiller with cheesy visual effects and cheap jump scares. Instead, Lobo’s vision is a talky, often clever potboiler wrapped around a single question: Is Steve right? The answer is not easy to reach as Matt and Karen struggle with what’s happened to Steve, Matt trying to find a way to help free the trapped man and keep Steve out of prison while Karen clings to a more practical solution, though even this line of thinking isn’t a constant. Meanwhile, Steven sees bizarre imagery in the flickering static of his old television and remains convinced he has caught evil in his house.
Naturally, we’re positioned to wonder who is right with Steve trying explain the rise of darkness in modern society while Karen and Matt butt heads on a solution. Here’s a good place to mention where Lobo comes from, his last movie in the art department of a movie called Dave Made A Maze, one of the most innovate films I’d seen in a long time. While I Trapped The Devil is not nearly as creative, both visually or narratively, Lobo does manage to string along a palpable bit of suspense with how he stages the creepy build up to the final reveal.
This being a horror film, that build up is of course saturated in a number of standards that strip away some of the question, or at least herds its audience onto one side of the puzzle with caustic music and all sorts of troubling visuals. Thing is, is it real or is it in Steve’s contorted mind?
On the good side, Lobo has the most command over those visuals, I Trapped The Devil a good looking movie with some genuinely eerie moments that depend far more on the imagery than the dialogue. Loads of blood-red lighting, a classic 70s horror feel (including the opening titles), and a creepy setting help a lot in selling the somewhat limited story. On the bad side, that story isn’t all that sustainable, even for the brief 82 minutes it takes up. There are long stretches of wordless exploration of the house and of characters waiting it out that bleach some of the impact. Either way, while it might not satisfy genre fans hoping for what it seems to promise, I really enjoyed the restrained turmoil between these three and the challenge it poses on the audience. Recommended.