The Devil's Rock (2011) starring Craig Hall, Matthew Sunderland, Gina Varela, Karlos Drinkwater directed by Paul Campion Movie Review

The Devil's Rock (2011)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Craig Hall in The Devil's Rock (2011)

That old Devil Called War Again

With D-Day approaching allied forces are paving the way by destroying German coastal fortresses. New Zealanders Captain Ben Grogan (Craig Hall) and Sergeant Joe Tane (Karlos Drinkwater) are on a two man mission to destroy a beach head fortress in the Channel Islands. But a woman's screams coming from deep within the fortress leads them to investigate. What they find is a Nazi occult plot with Colonel Klaus Meyer (Matthew Sunderland) and a succubus brought over from Hell in order to win the war. But is all as it seems as Grogan discovers how powerful the succubus is?

"The Devil's Rock" falls foul of a common issue; it is the one where the writers have had some good ideas but not enough to sustain the entire movie so that it works at the same level and so unfortunately after a decent opening it dwindles off. That decent opening includes one of the best land mine scenes I have come across in a while as whilst simple it grabs your attention and keeps it for the scene's duration.

Matthew Sunderland in The Devil's Rock (2011)

But "The Devil's Rock" whilst being set during the lead up to D-Day is not a war movie. What it does by setting it during this period is place an allied soldier and a Nazi together, having to work together to save themselves and the world from this succubus who is more power than Colonel Meyer could have imagined. It makes for an expectedly uneasy partnership as neither trust each other especially when you have the powerful succubus playing with their minds at the same time.

The thing is that whilst the set up is good and this maze of tunnels lined with mutilated corpses of soldiers is certainly intriguing you want more. Unfortunately once everything is in place it doesn't have the more to offer which is a real shame. I say that not on because the set up is so good but because the acting is also surprisingly good with Craig Hall doing a good job of leading the movie.

What this all boils down to is that "The Devil's Rock" is a good movie because the initial ideas and the acting but it is a case that once the story and characters have been put into place it doesn't have enough to finish it off at the same level in which it started.


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