REVIEW | Ryan Morrissey-Smith
- Director: Scott B. Hansen
- Writer: Desiree Hansen
- Stars: Gus Langley, KateLynn E. Newberry, Alexandra Lucchesi, Heidi Shepherd, J. Gaven Wilde, John Wells, Kayte Giralt, Guy Messenger, Chelsea LeSage, Coby Connell
The Virginia Bitches are on the road and touring.
We meet Jerry (Langley), early on in a war setting and as he narrates his way through it (as he does through various sections of the film), we learn that he is a vampire. Fast forward a hundred years or so and we meet Jerry, now a tour manager for the band Virginia Bitches (who are also vampires). Between gigs, killing and drinking blood, the group gets stranded in New Salem and must fight their way out of a supernatural maze.
Hansen manages to make the film look great, at the least parts that were filmed* (but more on that in a moment). It’s a wild ride that throws a lot at screen, some of it sticks, some of it absolutely does not. The acting is fine, unfortunately only Langley gets anything to sink his teeth into – pun intended, the rest of the cast are good, but they just don’t get a lot to do. The writing varies wildly from scene to scene, and the film seemingly can’t keep track of its own rules.
The asterisk in all of this is, is that the film is literally full of AI. Full on video motion AI, the film is saturated in it, and it makes the film worse in almost every single way. Whatever you think of AI, there is probably a place for it but very sparingly, Devour seems to think that it is the greatest thing ever. The AI inserted shots ruin continuity, flow and even movie physics. Even some simply unnecessary shots, like a car driving down a road or even a hand changing the radio in a car are for some inexplicable reason, are created using AI. It seriously takes you out of the scene and downgrades the work down by the actors and the actual practical effects (even the songs that the Virginia Bitches play are created using AI). Which is a real shame because this film has a decent premise and Hansen has good handle on the chaotic scenes.
Devour is a bit of a mess. If you don’t care about AI and can ignore it and the ‘rules’ that film sets out and then doesn’t follow and just go with the chaos there is some fun to be had.
Leave a Reply