User Reviews

"I Trapped the Devil" is an ominous, art-house-like slow-burner with a visibly low budget. The trailer got me intrigued & so did the review by Bloody Disgusting. Was I disappointed? A bit, for I wasn't expecting anything higher than 6/10.

Here's the good things about "I Trapped The Devil" - The atmosphere can be grim when it tries enough, the take on the devil was smart & crafty for a low-budget flick, the little twist at the ending is, in my opinion, quite cool & the performance by Scott Poythress is as good as the flawed script allows him to be.

And here's the slightly bigger amount of the not-so-good things about this flick - The middle portion of the movie is pure filler & also the reason why people describe this movie as a borefest. Pacing is certainly one of the biggest issues here. One thing that caught my eye for one too many times is the lighting - either they went overboard with style or just were too amateur-ish about it. AJ Bowen, about whom I usually don't have any complaints, gave a questionable performance this time. Or maybe it was the stiff lines given to him by the writer. And, of course, the story - I usually like ominosity & obscurism in horror movies, I also liked it about "I Trapped the Devil", but I have to question it for I still can't really put the plot together as the credits are rolling. I mean, it's all there, it's just that some things are not very logical.

Despite all the flaws, I enjoyed this flick. If you're a fan of low-budget indies, obscure art-house flicks or slow-burn horrors, give it a try. As I like all three of those things, I did get a kick out of "I Trapped the Devil". Will I re-watch it? No, most likely never. My rating: 5/10.

This movie was definitely inspired by Rod Serling's 1960 Twilight Zone episode titled, "the Howling Man" (Season 2 Episode 5). It was made more involved with a psychotic gatekeeper, as opposed to a religious zealot keeping Satan under wraps. But, you can see the similarities in the plot.

The film makers did a lot with very little here as the budget is obviously tiny. The atmosphere quickly becomes quite creepy and a feeling of dread starts to build. I watch horror films regularly and it is rare to find one that creates a real sense of uneasiness and apprehension like this does, for me that is where true horror lies so massive credit to the film makers for that.

Unfortunately there was just not enough information and the script was quite poor. There's a guy in the basement who Steve believes to be the devil: how did he get there? why does he think he's the devil? These questions are not asked by his brother Matt or his wife and this just seems beyond ridiculous. Although there is some hinting at a traumatic incident in the past and Steve's sanity is questioned there is just not enough back story and the dialogue is quite limited so you end up frustrated because there is never any real explanation for how this situation arose.

I appreciate sometimes directors want to leave things open for the viewer to interpret how they want but for me there were just too many unanswered questions which left me unsatisfied at the end.

Some movies benefit from a nice slow burn to engross the viewer in the story - it doesn't work for this movie - it is so slow I nearly fell asleep a few times - so may be good for insomniacs.

This film could easily fit in 30 minutes with plenty of time to spare.

Not very good at all.

Too long, too still, too monotone. These things need to be measured and have a tempo. Questions needed to be asked that these characters don't. How, why, what led him to this conclusion. He explains this to his own satisfaction, but certainly that shouldn't be enough to the others. Unplugged Tv and telephone ringing could have definitely been used as forces of interruption and movement of the main character, but wasn't enough.

With the calm dialog and quietness set to create a mood of a possible evil held below or sensitive insanity, there needs to be something that moves us along. It was like walking into a quiet house, having a quiet conversation, having a drink waiting for something to happen in a dimly lit place. Could be much better.

I enjoyed this, and found the concept interesting. It is as the title suggest, a crazy man who "trapped the devil". Or did he!? Anywho, the only reason I dropped a few stars on this film was to to the brothers horrible acting. It was obnoxiously bad in my opinion and distracted me from the ominous erie feel of the film.

Not much to tell here the beginning is Very VERY slow which is fine by me if there is a great movie that follows that slow beginning. This the the type of movie where the whole time you are watching it you are just praying it will pay off if you stay with it. Well no pay off in this one for me and i would rather watch paint dry to be honest at least with that there is a good ending.

This starts nowhere and goes nowhere. The entire film hinges on the people in the movie willfully not saying or explaining anything, just being frustrated at each other while giving ridiculously contextless arguments. The 5 minute long story slogs through to nearly an hour and a half, with no extra story added to this razor thin plot. Bad acting, zero production budget, and the story makes no sense from any perspective. Why, or what is happening, is all meaningless.

While I understand critics not loving this movie, for any horror fan, I feel it's worth watching. Atmospheric and eery, it's basicslly a good story of trust and the devil. Not much gore, but I think enjoyed the overall experience.

Ending was an insult and major letdown, the slow burn just doesn't pay off here at all...I gave 4 stars for the atmosphere and premise, just a bad attempt though all around. Come on IFC, you used to do better than this!

*NON-SPOILER*

The whole film is a build up to something that is a massive let down. The film makes zero sense. How did the devil get trapped to begin with!? Surely that would be explained given the circumstances?? It's just a ridiculous movie throughout, but I have seen worse, which saves it from the 1 star.

The story and whatever the writers wanted to pass on could be delivered in 15-20 minutes top and I'm sure that it would be better done that eay. So that's why the 2. Nice idea but not every idea makes it to become a feature....

Theres not really anything good about this movie. I found it boring and uneventful. I guess it was good that it was't too over the top. It was a story written for better actors and nothing much intresting went on. You really needed the actors to sell it but they couldn't.

I had a lil of hope for this since the concept was interesting. But oh boy oh boy. I'm all for slow burns or dialogue focused movies, I loved A Dark Song and Sleuth. But this doesn't deliver anything. Just characters sitting, characters walking down stairs, characters hugging, characters saying some nonesense for a couple of seconds before going silent and roaming around again. Could perfectly been a nice short. But with the ambition of making it a full film it just ends up filled with wasted time that gives no purpose. You don't need one hour of characters doing nothing to set the mood. I wanted it to be a good movie, but fails in many aspects. Wouldn't recommend.

Essentially the Howling Man episode of the Twilight Zone. However, with 60 years of hindsight and 60 extra minutes of running time this movie doesn't really bring anything extra to the table. Much like when the Twilight Zone double its own runtime, it lost something. When you have a premise, but no real plot you're better off as 30-minute TV show or being a short film instead of a feature. The budget is very low, but they don't try to do anything on screen that would expose that too egregiously. It looks like it was either shot with the camera on auto focus or that they played with the focus a little too much because it was distracting. The acting was good, but a movie like this needed more personality and charisma for its characters and that wasn't there. Whether that falls on the direction, script or actors, it's hard to say. Viewers not familiar with the Twilight Zone will benefit from not knowing as much about the premise those who are however will be disappointed that the movie doesn't do anything fresh with it.

Very interesting premise, though not wholly original (re: The Twilight Zone). The directing and camerawork are superb, and come together to create a real sense of dread and mystery. The acting is good, unfortunately not perfect, and really sucks you into these characters' lives and possible past events and tragedies. Some scenes in this really stuck with me, including the creepy drawing/photo, cross hung on basement door, and the eerie Christmas lights oddly strung around dilapidated home. Sure, there are no jump scares, but this isn't that kind of horror movie, and that's okay. Doesn't need to be.

This movie is not perfect, it's not a comercial movie, it's low budget, but it nails a lot of things right. You have to be in the mood for a slow burner, the sense of dread is there, the mistery is there, and for being a low budget film they did a great job, I enjoyed it.

I'm not sure the payoff for all that mistery was enough though (no spoilers) you sort of expect a little more for enduring the whole film, so the ending was a 5/10, but overall the movie was entertaining for me.

It's not for everyone, and you have to be in the mood for a slow burner.

Idea of the film was good but the film itself was poorly made and acted. the brother needs some lessons in acting and assumes the same daft and gawpy look throughout the film. the film was made 'in memory of peter kibbee' so it's a good job he didn't get to see this atrocious piece of crap!