In the grand scheme of things, Hollywood doesn’t put much stock in January movies being successful.
Depending on which camp you subscribe to, this is due to an overwhelming amount of “blockbusters” released during the holidays when the public usually has a lot more free time.
Otherwise, it’s rare to have some heavy-hitting films debuting in January when audiences are in a monetary slump from overspending during the holidays.
That includes ignoring “Avatar: The Way of Water’s” rocket to success – naturally.
For me, I’m always looking for something a little offbeat and out of the ordinary – not just for the season, but also trying a new or fresh angle on an old-fashioned story.
Enter “The Devil Conspiracy,” a movie that can’t decide if it’s an action flick, horror staple or some convoluted supernatural science fiction flick.
In fact, I think it’s more like a kitchen sink approach and has all of those qualities vying for the forefront and struggling for cohesion.
If you’re hoping for some serious undertones – they don’t exist and you’re wasting your time.
That being said, I did enjoy it when I stopped trying to think logically and let the absurdity drive my experience.
The movie is rated R for strong violent content, some gore, and language and clocks in at one hour and 51 minutes long.
Even with that kind of runtime, the movie paces itself well enough up until the end where it seems to drag.
It features an interesting cast with Alice Orr-Ewing, Joe Doyle, Eveline Hall, Peter Mensah, Joe Anderson, and Brian Caspe.
The movie opens with a voiceover about how the Archangel Michael (Mensah) bound Lucifer (Anderson) in Hell after his fall.
The voiceover goes on to describe a cabal of Satanists who have been working throughout history to resurrect their leader.
Then we’re taken to modern-day Italy where American college student Laura (Ewing) is trying to get her thesis approved by her professor who ends up being more of a creeper with dubious intent about having her “convince” him over dinner.
She turns him down and instead heads to join her friend Father Marconi (Doyle) to do some sketch work of angelic sculptures after having a little theological discussion about good versus evil.
Marconi leaves her to it and goes into the main church to watch over the Shroud of Turin and the countless tour groups milling about.
Laura gets lost in her work and time passes quickly to leave her in the shadowed hall of sculptures while a strange woman (Hall) prowls the corridors of the church.
The woman is killing guards left and right and steals a sword from a sculpture when Laura isn’t paying attention then heads to the cathedral to steal the shroud.
Once Laura finds her first dead body, she panics and heads to escape and finds herself locked in which prompts her to head for the cathedral in the hopes of those doors being open still.
Laura then hides in a confessional when she hears the woman headed her direction.
As the woman starts breaking the glass protecting the shroud, Father Marconi appears and tries to stop her – getting stabbed to death in the process.
Laura gets found out and taken along with the shroud while Marconi uses his dying breaths to offer his body to Archangel Michael for his use.
After that, it just gets a whole lot weirder and unexpected.
Honestly, it seemed like someone tried to adapt a video game into a movie and it shows.
