Movie Review: At the Devil's Door

At the Devil's Door (2014)

Starring: Naya Rivera, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Ashley Rickards
Directed by: Nicholas McCarthy
Rating: NR
Running Time: 91 minutes
Synopsis: When ambitious young real estate agent Leigh is asked to sell a house with a checkered past, she crosses paths with a disturbed girl whom she believes is the runaway daughter of the couple selling the property. When Leigh tries to intervene and help her, she becomes entangled with a supernatural force that soon pulls Leigh's artist sister Vera into its web - and has sinister plans for both of them.

What's up in the world of horror? Very little plot and disjointed timelines plague At the Devil's Door. The only thing that made watching this one better was sharing the torture with Miko. From the very beginning, we were left wondering when the plot would actually begin. The movie opens with a teenage girl making out with a boy who may or may not have been her boyfriend. He tells her that she can make some money by playing a game with a creepy guy in a camper in the middle of nowhere. Sounds like a bad idea, right? After sticking her hand in a weird container, they play three rounds of the shell game often seen on city streets near subways. She wins and is 'chosen' to go say her name at a crossroads so some mysterious being will know what to call her. Oh...and he will call because that's how these things work.

Awhile later, the plot shifts from the girl to another set of girls, Leigh and her sister, Vera. So wait...what happened with the first girl and the creepy guys? Instead, we're learning that Leigh can't get pregnant and wants Vera to settle down instead even though she refuses because she's a wild child artist. Leigh is a real estate agent who is trying to sell a house that belongs to a couple with a runaway daughter. She sees a strange girl in the house and everything goes down hill from there. Oh...it's the girl who said her name at the crossroads. Of course, it is!

This one has more plot holes than a block of swiss cheese. If the prerequisites for demonic attachment were making out, playing a game and saying your name at a crossroads, all of this is dropped after the initial use. It's not a daunted house story so it makes little sense that the demon or whatever it is would  attempt to latch on to Leigh or Vera from visiting a house. If it's taking a cue from Jeepers Creepers with the demon 'sensing' what it wants on certain people, then what makes one chosen aside from bad timing and a working uterus?

Questionable moments continue throughout. If your wardrobe starts talking to you, I can guarantee you that it's not Narnia calling. There were several clichéd moments like creepy kids, overuse of mirrors and dark figures lurking. As usual, stupid choices continue in horror movies. If the babysitter is acting weird, don't leave your baby with it. Just saying. The same goes for leaving your six year old with a stranger. Catalina Sandino Moreno (Leigh) can do much better than this. Even recent episodes of Glee are more unsettling, just ask Naya Rivera (Vera).

Rating: 1/5