Bury the Devil, 2026.
Directed by Adam O’Brien.
Starring Emmanuelle Lussier Martinez, Dawn Ford, Bill Rowat, Jason Cavalier, Mark Antony Krupa and Isabella Gonzalez.
SYNOPSIS:
When her dementia patient begins behaving strangely, a nurse suspects things are not what they seem. As the night unfolds, she soon discovers she is trapped with a demonic presence seeping through the cracks of the old home.
Adam O’Brien’s Bury the Devil is an fun and inventive horror film with its one-take format pulling the audience in for a compelling tale heightened by Dawn Ford’s demonic performance. Taking place in real-time in one night, caretaker Julia is left with her elderly patient Evelyn at her remote house, but Evelyn’s case of dementia proves to be anything but usual as Julia uncovers her family’s secrets and a demonic presence inhabiting Evelyn’s body.
Ford steals the show as Evelyn, shifting between a kindly old woman who garners sympathy, a bit of a creep whose movements and remarks arouse uneasy suspicion and a demon who revels in the violence they cause. It is a captivating performance as Ford balances all these different aspects of Evelyn’s with nuance even as she goes all in on the creepy old woman trope. There are several moments, even in the film’s latter half, where you don’t know where exactly Evelyn ends and the demon begins.
On the other end, Emmanuelle Lussier Martinez gives an emotive portrayal as Julia as she is put through the ringer during what should be a regular night. Martinez conveys Julia’s compassion as well as some questionable characteristics as the night pushes her own trauma to the forefront. As the audience surrogate Martinez takes us along for the ride and relies on a lot of her body language during her solo, quiet moments to show Julia’s feelings and inner turmoil as the night’s discoveries unfold. Martinez shows off her capabilities once events really start to go off the rails, showcasing a lot of Julia’s warring emotions between her despair, regret and confusion.
From a technical standpoint Bury the Devil is greatly shot and directed with its one-take style. The camera smoothly follows the cast around and the transitions to Julia, Evelyn or other characters do not break the immersion that places you alongside them, feeling everything they feel. The very few cuts in the film are cleverly hidden as the action shifts outside or a stunt takes place while the real-time structure allows the pressure to be felt throughout the story as Evelyn’s estranged ex-husband Randall, played by Bill Rowat, and his friends only have a limited amount of time to exorcise the demon. The story also invites the audience into Julia’s shoes as past events are left ambiguous with enough clues to infer what happened rather than fully explaining it or hitting you over the head with exposition. The manner of how Evelyn’s past is slowly told over the course of the film is again a clever bit of writing to keep the focus on Julia and the audience’s experience.
Bury the Devil is a unique offering in what has already been a solid year for the horror genre. The one-take shot style and real-time narrative add much to the film’s identity and uneasiness with Ford giving a hell of a performance. O’Brien’s direction pulls you into the story and captures the eeriness of the remote location and Evelyn’s escalating possession, putting a new spin on demonic exorcism horror.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Ricky Church
