Film Road to Halloween: I Trapped the Devil (2019) Frightfest 2019

The road to Halloween is paved with good films. Wherein we countdown to the spirited season with a hundred doses of horror. 50 days to go.

Put families together at Christmas, and you’re already half way to horror, as last year’s Await Further Instructions demonstrated. I Trapped the Devil has fewer characters, but the oppressive atmosphere and striking personality differences are just as painful to observe.

Matt (AJ Bowen) and his wife Karen (Susan Burke) go to visit Matt’s brother Steve (Scott Poythress) just before Christmas. And it is apparent right from the start that they have become even farther apart than you can measure in driving miles. Steve tries to send them back home, though he reluctantly agrees to let them stay after a while. What on Earth caused their estrangement, I have no idea, but the compassion they show each other (in their own ways) despite this unknown obstacle is admirable.

Because eventually, when Matt and Karen get accustomed to Steve’s dark and cluttered home, they discover he has someone locked in the basement. And Steve is insistent this is the Devil.

So from the start, I Trapped the Devil is full of family tension. But very soon there are the added dilemmas of who is in the basement, whether something is wrong with Steve (if he’s wrong about his captive) and whether to free whoever he’s caught (especially if he’s not wrong). Family tension – at Christmas, of all things – is bad enough, but then add the complexity of mental concerns, legal implications and bloody superstition, and that tension is ramped right up to eleven.

Compounding the mood is the oppressive atmosphere I’ve alluded to already. The house is dark, with garish Christmas decorations like Steve is pretending to celebrate. The music – when applied – is intense to say the least, so no matter how much these people love each other, we’re pretty much told they are doomed. But whether that is due to the person/demon in the basement, or just down to each other’s suspicions you’ll have to watch and see.

Josh Lobo wrote and directed I Trapped the Devil, did a bit of everything else, from what I gather, too. Before that, he was involved in the truly imaginative Dave Made a Maze in an artistic role. Perhaps his eye for the well thought through set and lighting came from that experience. But it looks to me like maybe he’s a natural at the director role.

Everything in I Trapped the Devil piles more and more tension onto these three key players: music, lighting, pacing. Not to mention the way the actors connect with each other. Lobo brings all those ingredients and mixes them into a very successful film.

The dialogue is a little stilted at times, but the actors pull off their roles so well that it’s difficult to tell if it’s the writing or rather how those people would talk under stress. I wasn’t familiar with Poythress, but Bowen I knew and already admired from You’re Next, and Burke from the remarkable Southbound. I could believe these three were family, and I’d love to know more about them; perhaps what caused their time apart, and what happened to Steve particularly during that period.

And oh the basement! Something about it made my skin clammy, and made me want to watch Jasper Vrancken’s Muil again. Cast and audience are drawn down there alike, and find it equally difficult to pull away. 

I Trapped the Devil will be released under the Frightfest Presents label 21 October 2019, following its UK premiere at Arrow Frightfest 2019. Do look out for it. There’s something to appreciate in this seemingly simple little film for any horror fan.