The Sudbury Devil (2023)

The Sudbury Devil (2023). 1h 30m

“This had been on my watchlist for a while, but I donu0026#39;t have any recollection of adding it, so it mustu0026#39;ve been witchcraft.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI love folk horror. I love all those weird superstitions and local legends that manifest themselves in these movies. I love the weirdness and the unpredictability. Yet, thereu0026#39;s a truth to them. Thereu0026#39;s a mid-19th century French book called Satanism u0026amp; Witchcraft, which argued that witchcraft was adopted by women, because the feudal society gave them no other options for gaining any kind of control over their own lives. While the contents of the book is just garbage, this argument does have a certain proto-feminist appeal to it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow, I donu0026#39;t know if Rakich is aware of this book, but the film makes a similar case. Feudalism might not exist in this world anymore, but the driving force behind it, Christianity, does and is still as harmful as ever. On paper, the witch might be the antagonist here, but it is hard to see her as the villain.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOn the other hand, our protagonist, Fletcher, might try to play the part of a man of god, he is definitely not the hero. He does not seem comfortable with what they are doing from the beginning, but it takes a long time before we are told why and thatu0026#39;s great.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll in all, this doesnu0026#39;t quite rise to the pantheon of folk horror, but is very close. The microbudget does sometimes show, but you can also argue that it gives the movie character. There are some points where the movie, which feels more like psychological horror, looks like a cheaply made slasher and it doesnu0026#39;t really work, but overall thatu0026#39;s a small complaint.”