By Patrick King.

The Devil Lives Here is a Brazilian horror film first released in 2015 and now out on DVD and VOD from Artsploitation Films. It’s directed by Rodrigo Gasparini and Dante Vescio, who previously collaborated on the short film “M is for Mailbox,” which was featured on ABCs of Death 2.5.  Written by Rafael Baliú, who also contributed to the story along with Guilherme Aranha and M.M. Izidoro, The Devil Lives Here is part possession movie, part zombie movie, and part good old-fashioned slasher flick.

We begin with four sexy twenty-somethings, two guys, two girls, engaging in suggestive eroticism, drinking, and satanic rituals. Not a bad, if typical, start to a modern horror flick. All this after a brief introduction to the evil Honey Baron, a nineteenth century plantation owner who tortured his slaves and had a child by one of them. It’s not clear at first how this story intersects with the story of the kids hanging out and drinking at a rural farmhouse or how it intersects with two brothers who perform a ritual to lift a zombie from its resting place but all the storylines eventually converge at the farmhouse. It used to be the Honey Baron’s place and, after his slaves rebelled and killed him and his newborn baby, their souls are still trapped in the basement.

Not a bad start, eh? Well, the setup unravels into some weird places and the story doesn’t end up making too much sense or being internally consistent as the movie rolls on, but that’s not why this movie is so gripping. Gasparini and Vescio are visually-engaging directors and have an ability to ramp up the tension that’s on par with Sam Rami’s frenetic pace in his Evil Dead movies. Because of this, a loose plot thread or two can be forgiven.

Certainly, the story gets bogged down in the details and could have used more of a sense of ambiguity, but that’s not a mortal sin in this case. It is interesting, this idea of two supernatural factions pitted against one another and it’s certainly a rare thing indeed when you question whether it might actually be ethical to torture a newborn baby’s soul for eternity. Under normal circumstances, this would be evil, no matter the sins of the father, but what if the kid really is the son of Satan and could bring about the apocalypse? It’s still a baby being tortured, but maybe the whole Antichrist thing might give you pause. Well. Probably one of the weirdest plot choices was to put a sex scene in the middle of all the carnage. It’s pure plot device, and maybe a way to get a little skin into the movie. I mean, I get it, the baby has to have a mother to assume an earthly form, but still…young lust, I guess. Well, so it goes.

Cinematographer Kaue Zilli bathes the movie in yellows, reds, greens and greys. Very drab and a bit nauseating, which is a good choice in a film which opens with a slave being forced by his master to drink a jar of honey. We’re nauseous because the characters are nauseated.

Gasparini and Vescio go a little heavy on the Dutch angles at times, but they’re used correctly, at least, as a way of ramping up the nauseousness, dread, and tension. After a slowish first twenty minutes to get things set up, the pace turns frenetic and doesn’t let up until the last few minutes.

The makeup’s okay, as long as the camera doesn’t stay too focused on the zombies. Reminded me of someone’s very good amateur Halloween makeup. Works well enough, though.

Though The Devil Lives Here gets a bit too heavy into the mythology it creates and the rules change to suit the forward-momentum of the plot, the atmosphere and tension makes up for it. If nothing else, it shows a lot of potential and it certainly has me interested in seeing what Gasparini and Vescio do next.

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