The Good Things Devils Do – review

Director: Jess Norvisgaard

Release date: 2020

Contains spoilers

Garnering some derision from reviews, the Good Things Devils Do was director Jess Norvisgaard’s first feature and I don’t think it deserved the scorn that some threw at it. Indeed, whilst it had problems, it was a fun old ride with a kick-ass central vampire. It also had some horror staple actors appearing in the film (the under-use of one being one of the afore-mentioned issues).

delivery

So, its opening sees a delivery van drive up to a house, decorated for Halloween. The driver (Jeff Ryan Alexander) gets out and spots a woman, shaking booty (and gusset) in window. This turns out to be Caroline (Kelley Wilson Robinson), who shouts her mom. Now, before going on, this opening garnered some complaints in reviews I read when I first heard about the film. However I thought she was wonderfully subversive. Dressing and acting as a teen, she clearly wasn’t and is later revealed to be the 40-years old, unemployed daughter and, to me, was the embodiment of a commentary on horror films that clearly have a ‘non-teen’ teenager cast.

Prof G

Her mother, Louisie (Linnea Quigley, Nightmare Sisters, Vampitheatre & Blood River), comes out and tells the delivery guy that *he* wants it in the basement. The it being the crate being delivered and the he being her husband, and Caroline’s stepdad, Melvin (David Rucker III). Melvin isn’t in; indeed he is being accosted by neighbourhood kids, who know him as Professor G. Normally he puts on a Halloween show but wasn’t planning on it this year. He does tell them about his new acquisition, the remains of Masquerade (Veronika Stoykova). She was a woman, he tells them, cursed by witches to be alive but soulless – though she is currently bones in a box, he admits.

Richard and Mouse

Meanwhile, in a bar Richard (Bill Oberst Jr., the Black Water Vampire, Dis & Age of the Living Dead) is meeting with Finn (Ian Patrick Mendes). Richard is looking to walk away from his life of crime but Finn informs him he has to do one more job for the Harley Brothers – go to a house, plant papers and steal money. He intends to do the job with his partner – his daughter Mouse (Mary Katherine O'Donnell). She is getting the car… We cut to Mouse running down the street, with an unseen guy shouting for his wallet. She manages to steal a sporty looking car (not the blend in vehicle expected) and drives off.

Kane Hodder as Percy

Back at the bar she has brought costumes. To get in a smuggler’s house at Halloween, Richard says, they will walk in the front door. Finn tells him he has to take Percy (Kane Hodder, An Accidental Zombie (Named Ted)), an idea Richard is dead set against but has to comply. After they leave Finn calls Percy at his ‘shakedown’. We see Percy with a juvenile daughter and mother tied up. His language is thoroughly misogynistic and he kills the mother (so hardly a shakedown) and when his phone goes kills the daughter too. Finn gives him orders to kill Richard and Mouse.

behind you

Meanwhile at the house Melvin has checked out the bones and mask in the coffin/crate. Caroline is not much use helping Melvin lift the crate up and he hurts his back in the process, shouting at her. Louisia comes down and we discover that she is scared of the dark but, after words, she is alone with the crate and lifts out a piece of wood (a chair-leg she says, he’s been ripped off again). Of course, that was a stake and we see smoke billow behind her as masquerade reforms and bites her. Melvin whacks Masquerade with a crowbar and gets the severely injured Louisia out of the basement, discovering that Masquerade cannot enter the house proper. But his home has just been invaded by Richard and crew…

Villains on Halloween

This then sets up for a film set mostly in the house (and as such was slightly reminiscent of Immortal Ecstasy). So let me hit you with some of the issues as I saw them. The film is billed as a horror comedy but I didn’t take that away from it. It was a horror yes but was quirky and campy more than outright comedic. Not that it was bad because of that. Where it failed, for me, was in not giving us any more of a background for Masquerade and, more importantly, in sketchy character exploration. We could really have stood to learn more about Richard and Mouse, for instance, and the film sets up a flimsy incel-psycho character for Percy and kills him off without really using him. The job is a set-up, of course, the papers are blank and Melvin denies knowledge of any money. Some of the characterisation was so loose as to cause plot holes – Melvin suggests he believes in a higher power but has never prayed and then suggests he is an atheist, for example.

pyrokinesis

As for Masquerade, she looked fantastic, all covered in blood with talons and sabre-like fangs. Her movements reminded of the deadites from the Evil Dead franchise, but this worked. She could take a couple of shotgun blasts and stabbing violently and needed an invitation to enter a home (they rationalise that she was brought in to the basement without explicit consent and so can enter there, but not the primary residence). She displays pyrokinesis and runs a really amazing line in eye mojo and once she has someone that is it, they are under her control. This added to the Evil Dead feel, in some respects, as those possessed by her will happily self-harm. Yet, I would have liked just a little more on her background, on her immediate motivation. Not that a vampire can’t just be homicidally insane – especially one whose spirit has been stuck being tortured in Hell, as is implied here - but I thought there was room for expansion.

shadows

And that’s the main thing – room for expansion that wasn’t exploited. That said I enjoyed the flick as I watched it and was really taken with Masquerade as a vampire (and we get a tad of shadow work in film that was nicely done). The cast do what they can with thin material. David Rucker III is really rather fun and Bill Oberst Jr. is great as Richard. The shame was the fact that Linnea Quigley was on top form at the head of the film and spent most of it led, holding her neck – a waste to be honest. There were some odd moments (such as Richard taping weapons to Mouse’s hands, the rationale for which seemed more plot driven than in line with something the character would do). Yet, it is worth a watch. 5.5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

On DVD @ Amazon US

On DVD @ Amazon UK