It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie where I genuinely thought parts were missing. Like scenes are referred to, and I’m rolling back the video to see if I accidentally jumped ahead.
But that’s one of many things wrong with “Along Came the Devil.”
It’s a straightforward possession flick (and y’all know I don’t like possession horror (aside from the great “Sinister”)) and one that’s unusually dependent on films that came before. Some of the movie’s scenes are basically lifted from “The Exorcist.” (I was waiting for the spinning head that almost came.) The image of gathering flies immediately brings to mind “The Amityville Horror.”
The plot? The first visual is a text crawl similar to those that start off the Star Wars sequels. It lays out a backstory about two sisters haunted by some kind of evil and blah blah. I pretty much immediately for what it said.
Then the actual movie kicks in with teenage Ashley (Sydney Sweeney) having just moved in with her aunt because Ashley’s mom is out of the picture. Ashley runs into an old friend and after a bit of plot development, both girls are trying to contact Ashley’s mom via an occult summoning process. What they summon is not the mom but some kind of demon. (Just once, I’d like to see someone contact a dead relative to hear, “Honey, I love you, and there’s half a million dollars buried in the cellar.”)
Ashley is rather quickly possessed, and the movie falls into a predictable pattern leading up to an exorcism.
There’s a certain genius in casting “girl next door” Sweeney in a role that involves wickedly glowering and spewing blood and pea soup.
The dialogue was bad. Often it served no purpose, adding neither exposition nor developing characters.
Another odd thing: it’s clear that Ashley has a sister, but she’s never seen. Someone does phone her towards the end, but that thread is never followed up on. (There is a sequel, it turns out, focused on this character, but that doesn’t help if you’re only watching the first movie.)
You know that thing where it feels like a story is about to head into the third act—the final battle—and then it just ends? This movie does that.
Just a very strange, incomplete film.
