Hey, kids. Ever wonder what it would be like to drop acid and hang out in an abandoned prison over night? With the Devil?
High Octane Pictures presents Devil’s Acid, a movie that contains such a premise. In the film, Johnny, a spoiled brat who inherited his family’s wealth when his father died, is holding a competition for “hot girl Halloween.” He rented an abandoned prison, asked his brother Luke to help bring women to the event, and he brought a big batch of acid. The deal is each person has to spend the night in one section of the prison, take acid, and not leave. Well, not leave without announcing they are.
Are we a family-friendly site? Well, just to be safe, I won’t reprint here what Johnny’s specific phrasing is to signal they’ve given up. Let’s just say Johnny is interested in handing out more than drugs and money to the women.
The men are joined by several women. There’s Aisha, the only person of color in the movie (the others, Johnny openly mocks assuming they’re Mexican, ask after he’s left the opening scene “Does he still think we’re Mexican?”). She appears to be the only person who seems to have both a brain and spine in the film. The other women, Brittany and Delilah who spend the first half of the film trying to win Johnny’s favor, are only mildly overshadowed by Luke’s girlfriend, Jennifer.
Until the acid kicks in.
Brittany has conversations about quantum mechanics with an invisible professor, talks to her pet flower she’s named “Frederick,” and gives birth to…Johnny. Delilah finds herself with a twin only she can see. Though her and Johnny’s trip join, and he’s dressed as a cowboy making an angel as he lays in a pile of hay with Delilah on top of him. When Luke comes upon the scene, far less inebriated than the two, he sees Johnny making said angel in a puddle of vomit while Delilah flops around on the floor beside him.
And yes, the Devil does appear.
The film offers an interesting perspective, toeing the line of the philosophy of Soren Kierkegaard. Namely that of pragmatism versus fideism; do we believe things because there is plausibility? Is there an epistemically responsible path to take when considering a situation, as pragmatism asks? Or do we believe things because of their absurdity, like fideism details?
Throughout the film, after everyone drops acid, people claim to have encountered the Devil. They have seen him, Luke touches him, and they are told they’re there to be held accountable for their sins. Luke is the only one offered the opportunity to leave. All the people who encounter him believe him to be the devil, and believe what he says.
Johnny, with each encounter of the other individuals who make claims about the devil, makes the logical jump that they see the devil because of the drugs. Though he continues to get more and more intoxicated from the acid, beer, and ayahuasca that he shares with Delilah, he seems to remain the most aware figure in the film.
There are also some amazing twists because of how the movie is presented. Initiated as a story to a child who couldn’t sleep, sometimes the viewer discovers the story had been hijacked by one of the storyteller’s sons. Or, because of the hallucinations the people in the prison have, we find out that various things are only in the minds of the people who have witnessed them. So even with the campiness and humor, the movie is engaging and demanding of the audience’s attention. Whether that’s through a birth-fluid covered Johnny telling Brittany it’s time to breast feed, or when Jennifer lobs feces at Luke while she howls like a monkey in a prison cell, it gets the viewer’s attention. And laughter.
Sadly, not every movie is perfect. And Devil’s Acid is no exception. Johnny, having the finances to afford help in his house, uses racist terminology while talking to his staff. And to Aisha, who not only is a member of his staff, but joins them in the prison. Luke reassures his girlfriend, whom he asked not to reveal she is his girlfriend to the others, that Johnny would never try to sleep with her. “He only likes fun girls,” he says with no protest from Jennifer.
When Johnny finally encounters the Devil, he is met by Delilah and he makes out with her. When a person who looks like Delilah’s twin appears on the other side of him, she has a backwards hat and painted on facial hair.
“I don’t do that shit” howls Johnny.
“Your browser history says otherwise,” says the Devil.
I’m not sure if the joke was that Johnny is secretly gay, or that the person he imagined may be transgender, but either way it’s a cheap joke that belittles a group of people already disenfranchised. These quips are constantly interrupted by the storyteller explaining to his sons, “It’s okay, because he’s an asshole.” Still, there are easier ways to demonstrate that without transparent xenophobia and hetero/transphobia.
The final thing that the movie could have done without was a scene during the credits. Luke is in a cell in an active prison, the gate closes and locks, and an African American man appears, bare-chested, behind him.
“You wanna be the husband, or the wife?” he asks Luke.
I don’t think a further explanation of what follows is necessary. Again, another cheap jab at a legitimate problem that we think is funny because isn’t it funny when men get raped?
All things said, the movie is fantastic probably in the most unintentional ways. Between Johnny and Delilah’s shared trip, a mounted deer head that Johnny tries to have sex with that talks like Matthew McConaughey (it’s first line is “Alright, alright, alright!”), and the embellished attitudes of the characters make it so much fun to watch.
Devil’s Acid is a unique take on ideas from films like Friday the 13th or Chuck Palahniuk’s Haunted. If you want a horror movie that isn’t too scary, with enough camp and humor befitting a Bruce Campbell fan, Devil’s Acid is an awesome film for people looking for the next Sam Raimi.
Oh, and don’t do drugs, kids.
Devil’s Acid is available November 5th on Digital and DVD from High Octane Pictures.
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