May The Devil Take You, original title Sebelum Iblis Menjemput is an Indonesian horror movie released in 2018, directed by Timo Tjahjanto. After a sudden sickness of her father, a young woman visits his old villa and uncovers disturbing things about his past.
Hello, there! I’m dos Santos, and this is Ulven Reviews, with Movies and series from all over the world and all eras. Today we’ll talk about May The Devil Take You, beginning with a plot summary, through the review and finishing with a symbolic Rating. Here we go!
The greedy Lesmana (played by Ray Sahetapy) called a priestess (played by Ruth Marini) to his villa, so she could perform a ritual, some kind of a demonic pact, to make him wealthy and successful. And it works.
After that, he also began cheating on his wife (played by Kinaryosih) until her death, which allowed him to start another family with his former mistress, Laksmi (played by Karina Suwandhi).
The years go by, and Alfie (played by Chelsea Islan), daughter of Lesmana’s first marriage, is estranged from him and full of resentment of what he did to her mother. However, when he is sent to the hospital with a mysterious disease, she rushes to him.
There she meets with her siblings, Maya (played by Pevita Pearce) and Ruben (played by Samo Rafael). Despite the two having nothing to do with their father’s wrongdoings, Alfie is not very close to them.
After seeing some shit at the hospital, Alfie decides to visit the old villa. Soon, also arrives her step-mother, the two siblings previously mentioned, and the youngest, Nara (played by Hadijah Shahab).
While everybody is exploring the place to see if there’s something of value to take before trying to sell the villa, they end up releasing some evil force contained there since the patriarch’s pact.
May The Devil Take You does not have a very original plot, it’s way to resemblant of 1981’s The Evil Dead. We swap a group of young adults for a family, change a scene here and there, but it’s still way too The-Evil-Deady.
However, it’s entertaining, creepy, and has many compelling elements to make a decent and very watchable film. Sadly, the humor is non-existent. It’s family drama and horror for its entire duration.
Talking about horror, May The Devil Take has You many horrifying elements such as jump-scares, remote location, but especially the visuals. Sometimes a little cheesy appearance, like the first apparition of the priestess, but usually quite fitting to the movie, like the putrit appearance of the sick Lesmana.
Regarding flow, the film has a few moments at a relatively slower pace, but in general, it’s a fast-paced movie, full of physical fights, hair-tentacles, and a lot of throwing up dark goo in other people’s faces.
Although the acting is positive, the characters are not the best. Beginning with the protagonist, Alfie, I felt sympathy for her, but she’s way too grumpy and hostile, even towards people who don’t deserve it.
The most prominent supporting character is Maya. I felt she tried to be friendly and sister-like with Alfie in the beginning, but after being met only with rejection and rudeness, she became more combative as well.
Laksmi is really arrogant and is always bossing her kids around. The dynamic between her and Alfie is very understandable and believable. Her only male son, Ruben, is a nice guy, but his docile nature makes him don’t stand out as a character.
The technical aspects are probably the best thing about the movie, except for some exaggerated sound effects that sounded too cartoonish and didn’t match the overly-serious tone of the movie.
Starting by the cinematography, the colors are outstanding, setting a perfect atmosphere for this horror. To make everything even better, there’s the camera work, full of compelling movements and amazing angles, my favorite thing about it. There are some moments where it’s used some crazy camera movements combined with some crazy angles and it’s great.
The lighting is where the quality fell a little. I understand that darkness is a much used element in horror and that sometimes it works really well. In other instances, the majority, if I’m being honest, it’s just annoying and you can’t see shit. That’s the case with May the Devil Take You.
Although some of the sound effects disappointed me, I cannot say the same about the score. It’s peculiar and very interesting, one of the best things in the whole film.
May The Devil Take You has many technical qualities that I really enjoyed, but that’s about it. It’s nice enough to entertain you, pass some time if you don’t have high expectations. I’ll give May The Devil Take You 6 Moons.
That’s it for now. Bye!
Crítica dos Ratos 