Reviews: At the Devil's Door (2014) Movie Review
Genres: Horror
Subgenres: Haunted House, Haunted House - Cursed, Teens
Where does At the Devil's Door (2014) stand among horror films? Our review examines the scares, pacing, and what makes it unique in the genre.
At the Devil’s Door (2014) is an American horror movie that director and co-writer Nicholas McCarthy (Cry for Help (2005), The Pact (2012)) did an okay job executing this movie. The movie was very slow paced but managed to capture my attention with its intense moments that made me want to see more and more. This movie could have easily been an excellent movie if it were executed to its full potential. The suspense, tension, scare, creepiness, eerie moments and frightening moments were there but did not flow seamlessly.
At the Devil’s Door is about a young girl (Ashley Rickards - Gamer (2009), A Haunted House 2 (2014), Sassy Pants (2012)) that believes a boy that tells her that she can easily earn $500 by playing a simple game. The boy takes her to play a game in the middle of nowhere in an old trailer with an old guy in it. The game is basically putting a smiley face button-like object under a cup and moving three cups around. The girl then has to try and guess which cup is the smiley face under. The old man told her that she has been chosen after she correctly guessed three times where the smiley face was. I got these wrong. He told her to go down where the road meets (intersection) and say her name so "he" can know her name when "he" needs to call for her. The road is very secluded and needless to say lonely and spooky - creeped me out. She is sitting at her desk later that night when she heard someone saying “come to me." She followed the voice and after a few events, she is lifted up in the air and tossed around.
The movie leaves the girl alone and moves on to real estate agent Leigh (Catalina Sandino Moreno - Maria Full of Grace (2004), Fast Food Nation (2006), Che: Part Two (2008)) who is living by herself and cannot conceive. She receives the listing for Chuck (Dan Roebuck) and Royanna’s (Jan Broberg) house. The couple has a daughter who has run away from home, and they have not seen her for a while. Leigh found the couple’s missing daughter in the house while taking notes of what is wrong with the house. She call’s Chuck to notify him of her finding his daughter in the house but Chuck told her the police found his daughter, and they are together. Watch the movie to see how it transpires and how Leigh’s sister fits into this movie. This horror film has a great storyline but like I said - it was not executed to its full potential.
This slow paced movie reeled me in and kept my attention on the screen until the movie was finished - did not even eat popcorn as I found it to be too noisy for this movie. I will watch this movie again. I would like to see a remake of this movie. The jump scares were there, and acting was good. The ending was a surprise for me as I was not expecting Leigh’s sister to…
Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- At the Devil's Door Rating Scores
- Our Score: 6/10
- Overall Score: 4.98/10
- IMDB: 4.8/10
- MetaCritic: 4.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 3.8/10
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