I have seen many movies because they were directed by a particular person, or starred an actor I especially like. There are some films I have seen because a particular effects person worked on it. Heck, I’ve seen some movies just because of the soundtrack’s composer. But 2011’s The Devil’s Business is the first time I sought out a movie specifically because it had the same producer as a film I like.
It is a testament to how highly I regard Borderlands that a special feature on the blu-ray of that picture led me to seek out this other film. That feature was an interview with producer Jennifer Handorf, whose husband (Dan Martin) worked on special effects for both pictures. In an interview with him on that disc, he did an interesting tutorial on how to make horror movie slime.
I’m hoping he wasn’t responsible for a rather unconvincing creature mask we’ll see at the end of Business. That mask would have likely had been even more disappointing if I had not already had my expectations worn down to almost nothing by that point.
One deeply frustrating aspect of this film is how strong it is in its first act. Billy Clarke and Jack Gordon are hitmen who have broken into the home of Jonathan Hansler with the intention of murdering him. They have been sent on this mission by ruthless gangster Harry Miller, supposedly because Hansler has something of his.
Miller arrives home unexpectedly early, and I was amused his reason why is because he had been attended the opera of Faust and claims to always be bored by the final act of it. That made me chuckle because his garage reveals he has been dabbling in some very dark arts. There’s the expected pentagram drawn in chalk on the floor. There’s lots of candles, and a big book I assumed to be spells. On, and there’s a dead infant. Yikes! I wonder if anybody else noticed the bloody adult handprint on the garage window and wondered who that came from.
Still, the execution of Miller goes surprisingly smoothly. Not so unexpected are there are repercussions of a supernatural nature resulting from this event. Some of the avenues the movie explores are more interesting than others. But it becomes rather tiring as it winds its way down to an encounter with the aforementioned badly-designed creature who is a real little devil.
The first act is where the movie truly shines, which is odd, as it is largely a very lengthy monologue Clarke delivers to Gordon as they wait for their target to arrive. Sitting stiffly upright in a chair, Clarke is lit from behind as he talks. His eyes are black orbs with just a pinpoint of light shining in each. The resulting effect is to make him appear almost insectoid. Huge kudos to the technical personnel who achieved that look.
Clarke is an engaging storyteller. I fully believed him as an older, by-the-book assassin who is continually dismayed at the false bravado of the much younger Gordon. The two don’t have the kind of rapport of other two-man teams I liked so much in films such as Kill List and Borderlands. Basically, Clarke simply responds in increasing appall at Gordon’s worsening displays of ineptitude and, perhaps worse, cowardice. These are perversely fascinating characters to observe.
The dialog until the hit has some real zing to it, with the lion’s share going to Clarke. “You’re only the instrument. Does a hammer know why it has to hit the nail?” “If you were paid to think, you’d struggle to make minimum wage.” “You don’t know the difference between Don Giovani and Donald fucking Duck.” “When Bruno tells you to jump, all you ask is, ‘Off which cliff?’”
I so wanted to enjoy The Devil’s Business more than I did, especially after that frankly stellar first act. I’m not sure what I would have followed it with, but I know I wouldn’t have followed some of the paths these filmmakers chose to take.
Dir: Sean Hogan
Starring Billy Clarke, Jack Gordon, Jonathan Hansler
Watched on Mondo Macabro blu-ray