Devoured
Malevolent forces within the walls of an old restaurant torment a cleaning woman who is trying to earn enough money to pay for her son's operation.
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- Cast:
- Marta Milans , Kara Jackson , Bruno Gunn , Tyler Hollinger , Sal Rendino , Jim O'Hare , Rich Campbell
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Reviews
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Do not waste your time on this tedious, slow moving, "horror" movie. It is never scary or in any way interesting. Lourdes is a Latina woman working at a French restaurant and hoping to earn enough money to pay for her son's unexplained operation. She is shown mopping the floors and setting tables at the fancy eatery. Along the way, we get flashbacks of her boy and the occasional appearance of ghostly figures. Marta Milans is Lourdes, and she is a competent actress working with a sub-par script. The production values are good and New York is used well as the setting for the story. Unfortunately, the film just drags on and on, and a somewhat decent ending is the only reason for a 3/ 10.
I consider this film a Giallo which generally means a thriller and specifically an Italian thriller but has come to mean any thriller with high production values where the perp is hidden. I.E. Hitchcock or Dario Argento. This is not a "horror" movie. It is a great character study with beautiful cinematography, a nice story line that gets you invested in the characters and a wonderful atmosphere. I am generally a horror fan but I like Giallos and enjoyed this very much. I would say if you enjoyed movies like Suspiria or Rear Window, you will probably enjoy this. I do not compare this movie to those, but it may give you an idea of the type of movie it is. I was very impressed by the overall quality. That's pretty much why I am writing this review. I watch a lot of movies and a lot are sub par. This movie deserves more attention. No, I am not in any way related to anything to do with the production of this movie. I am just a fan of quality movies and a critic of horrible movies. Call me silly but I think that is what the reviews on IMDb are supposed to be about.
This movie is for the most part contained within a restaurant where Lourdes works as a cleaning woman to make money for her sick son's operation. We see the restaurant filled with patrons only once (early in the movie) and some close-ups of the chef's gloveless, grubby hands preparing food in the kitchen while people at the other end obliviously lap it up. For the most part though, it's after hours or before hours with Lourdes who is usually alone but sometimes with 2 other people who work at the restaurant. One is her boss, a real bitch who enjoys giving her a hard time. The other, a guy, is a first-class jerk who is always coming on to her and whose function at the restaurant beyond boffing the boss seems to be prepping meat (Don't laugh).Lourdes is seeing and hearing things and believes the restaurant is haunted. We don't know if she is cracking up or actually experiencing certain things. But since we, the viewers, see things that she does not see because she --for example-- has her back turned, this would seem to be independent (of her) corroboration by us, the viewing audience that the restaurant is indeed haunted. Now when not mopping up, having strange experiences, and run-ins with her boss, Lourdes is (1) On the phone begging her mother to speak with her son. (2) Having personal fantasies --no, not that kind. (3) Talking to some guy she bumped into early in the movie when something spooked her and she ran out of the restaurant. (4) Desperately giving blow jobs and who knows what else to patrons for money (so we inferred anyway).At the beginning of the movie I was captivated by it's style and anticipatory and intrigued by what was starting to happen with this woman; the things she was experiencing. What was behind them? But then the movie seemed to settle into a routine; her going to work, cleaning up, calling her mother, fantasizing about seeing her son and her friend, run-ins with her boss, and some curious unnatural experiences. I say "routine" because things didn't escalate as quickly as I would have liked. BUT THAT'S JUST ME, READER. You may have a different sense of pace should you choose to see the movie --AND YOU SHOULD, since it acquitted itself very well with a very interesting twist and explanation at the end. Well worth the wait. Love, Boloxxxi.
From the minute I started watching this film I was intrigued, we start with a detective leaning over the body of a woman in her early to mid thirties.(from my guess anyway)Then we watch another detective descend down a flight of stairs of what looks like to be a basement in a restaurant, the female detective moves down a long corridor and then the screen fades to black and the story picks up obviously in the past where the same dead woman is alive and well and is not lying on the floor.She is an immigrant from Mexico who is living and working in New York City to earn enough money to pay for her son's operation who is ill back in her home country. Things start to go a little awry in the restaurant as the film runs on, from things like shadowy figures and to ordinary objects around the restaurant that turn into more sinister things, such things like a garbage bag that looks like there is a body moving inside of it, but not quite, just plain creepy....Well I won't go into too much detail, but I would definitely recommend this for a watch to anyone who loves a great thriller and just a well balanced abstract at times tale. I wish I would of ran across this little gem a little sooner, it was wildly entertaining, and twisted macabre fun. Devour is a quaint little flick that I will definitely remember.