Devil’s Stay – A Horror Brimming In Squandered Potential

For those worried that the 2010’s brand of horror was gone, Devil’s Stay will fill that void nicely. A short yet trite South Korean horror film, it finds a way to dig up all the old tropes audiences love or hate from the time period, hitting all the beats one would come to expect from a horror film out of 2014. In fact, the film feels like it was pulled from this year’s The Exorcism, a flawed yet competently made screamer full of fun scares and interesting directorial decisions. Just like the film it unintentionally takes inspiration from, Devil’s Stay merely checks off every single element from the checklist of the former all leading up to an unremarkable finish.

That being said, it’s not that the film is necessarily all bad, the film’s direction is competent and the performances are fairly good, namely Park Shin-Yang as Cha Seung-Do, a disgraced Doctor and father to Cha So-Mi (Lee Re), a tragic victim of a demonic presence that would loom large over the fim. Shifting gears, the film then moves on to her exorcism and three-day funeral as the demonic presence continues to grow and wants to come back into our world. Park plays Cha Seung-Do with an obsessive resilience as he desperately fights against fate and reality to bring his daughter back, denying the reality presented to him in the hopes that his daughter is still alive. This turmoil culminates in a great emotional moment soon after her death wherein Cha Seung-Do struggles against the sight of his daughter being put in the cooler exclaiming, “She doesn’t like the cold, you can’t put her in there.”

Small emotional beats like this early in the film ultimately help set the bar so high for something more nuanced than that would never come. Unfortunately, the introduction of Father Ban (Lee Min-Ki), a priest played by his own demons, who was forced to settle the score and save the father and his family. It is at this point that the film devolves and turns to every single trope in the book. The character moments between Cha and his daughter show the potential for an interesting character study just under the surface, and that, paired with a morally confused protagonist, could have been great. Moments such as watching the North Star on the roof with his daughter intercut with the harsh reality of his present showed sign of what the film could have been. That potential, however, is quickly squandered once shaky cam and jumpscare eyes came into play. This, along with Ban, a man who can’t decide if he’s a religious figure or an action lead, only adds to its issues. In the end, Devil’s Stay cannot escape the trappings of its subgenre. As the film explores the demonic phenomenon further and drifts away from its drama, it will likely have audiences doing much of the same as they find themselves drifting away.

However, in spite of its flaws, there are a contingent of audiences who may not feel the same as this review and find more enjoyment here. While nowhere near the worst thing in recent memory, the many moments of potential that do appear only make it more upsetting when they’re downplayed in favor of scares and narrative beats that audiences have seen hundreds of times before. The return to 2010’s horror is something that should have stayed in the past, especially in the wake of recent horror releases such as The First Omen and Terrifier 3. Regrettably, Devil’s Stay serves as a reminder that it is still alive and well, and it is this notion that is more haunting than the film itself.

still courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment

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Brad Simon

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