Low budget chills reside uncomfortably with pronounced silliness in Jess Norvisgaard’s directorial debut, The Good Things Devils Do. The fledgling filmmaker has mostly worked in the camera department up to this point, but in addition to directing, he’s credited as executive producer and the sole screenwriter here. He lined up some horror fan favorites to headline (Bill Oberst, Jr., Linnea Quigley, Kane Hodder), so I was excited to check it out.
The film kicks off with a nifty animated credit sequence that features a bouncy and spooky Danny Elfman-esque piece from composer Neil Lee Griffin. Combined with the opening scenes of Caroline (Kelley Wilson Robinson), a forty-year-old woman who literally behaves like a ditzy horny teenager, and I thought maybe this was going to be a lighthearted spoof. These expectations were soon confounded with the introductions of Richard (Oberst, Jr.), a lifelong smalltime crook who is looking to retire, and his daughter Mouse (Mary Katherine O’Donnell), a punky, thrill-seeking, lock picking expert. Richard’s conversation with the young crime boss who gives him his seemingly final assignment is tense, filled with unspoken malice. The proceedings get even darker when we meet Percy (Hodder), a hulking misogynistic sadist who’s tapped to be the muscle on the job. Meanwhile, Caroline’s nerdy stepfather Melvin (David Rucker III) is excitedly preparing their home for his yearly extravagant Halloween display. Melvin is pleasant to the neighborhood kids, who are his main audience, but he’s a bit of a bully to the oddball Caroline and his demure pushover wife, Louisie (Quigley). The piece de resistance of Melvin’s display this year is a box of bones, which are supposedly the remains of an infamous vampire. One thing leads to another and eventually all our characters find themselves up against Masquerade (Veronika Stoykova), an unstoppable member of the undead. Can they survive the night?
As I alluded to above, Norvisgaard careens between campy comedy and grim violence. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and it gives the picture a certain quirkiness, but some of the tonal shifts are blunt. This is especially prevalent in the early parts of the film’s tidy 81-minute runtime. As we progress, the story settles down into a more easily digested heightened reality genre piece. This is, after all, the type of movie where a character has sharp kitchen utensils duct taped to their hands for melee purposes. His characters are clearly delineated, although sadly Quigley’s Louisie isn’t given that much to do. Some of the performances aren’t that polished, but Oberst, Jr. anchors the effort with a grizzled and naturalistic turn. Stoykova is fun to watch, as she clearly had a blast playing the perpetually gore-spattered bloodsucker. I really enjoyed her confrontation with the much larger Hodder. The effects for this type of production are pretty well done. Blood looks gooey and sticky, entrails look real enough, and gaping wounds are believable. I mentioned Griffin’s score already, and it is a strength for the piece, even if it is also partially responsible for the tonal whiplash. James Suttles camerawork and the overall production aesthetic give off an almost soft-core porno vibe, but I appreciated it as part of Norvisgaard’s off kilter approach. My favorite shots were the stylish close-ups of Masquerade’s diabolical eyes. Aaron Putnam’s editing is admirable, stitching together the incongruous story elements for clear consumption.
Jess Norvisgaard presents some solid ideas and disparate characters in The Good Things Devils Do. I wouldn’t say everything works, with clashing tones and overwrought dialog being the main offenders, but there’s an enthusiasm present that can’t be denied. No doubt there’s some unintentional humor present, too, but that’s never been a negative for me. Bill Oberst, Jr. carries the load admirably, muscling through both the bizarre and the serious. Keeping in mind the probably tiny budget and the fact that Norvisgaard is still a novice helmer at the moment, there’s plenty here to enjoy, both straight and ironically. If you like Return of the Living Dead, Sin City, and The Collector, you might dig this low budget indie flick.
Michael Cavender