This film was seen at the 44th Seattle International Film Festival where it made its world premiere. Both dates for this film have passed, and it will hopefully get a release later this year.
Found footage is a subgenre of horror film that has become mostly tired and gimmicky since the viral success of the Blair Witch Project. That market has been saturated, and quality has fallen off. However, in The Devil’s Doorway, director Aislinn Clarke manages to breathe a little freshness into the exhausted tropes. Set in Northern Ireland the 60s, the footage is meant to be that of a young Catholic Father John Thornton (Ciaran Flynn) sent with his elder Father Thomas Riley (Lalor Roddy) to a Magdalene Laundry to investigate and document a supposed miracle. The Laundry is convent housing “fallen women;” prostitutes, unwed mothers, victims of rape, the mentally disabled, and the like. Historically, these asylums put women to work doing laundry for no pay, and often subjected them to abuse. The minute the Fathers arrive it is clear that the nuns are brutalizing the women, and that they are hiding a supernatural force at play that is far from divine. They discover a pregnant 16-year-old girl, Kathleen (Lauren Coe) who has been locked up for showing signs of a possession.
While it is deeply reminiscent of The Exorcist in content, the medium the film takes place on sets this narrative apart. It utilizes a 16mm camera and is projected in 1.37 ratio which is accurate to the time period and also holds significance beyond the visual aesthetics. It demonstrates the nature of recording technology in the 60s, manipulating the separation of video and audio tracks to a noticeable degree. The human voice becomes uncanny and haunting when there is video of the physical audio track playing, or when it is played over the stony faces of nuns. And the haunting doesn’t end there. It takes advantage of the medium’s inherent properties, putting the audience in a position to feel the first-person fear of Father John, peeking around corners and descending into dark tunnels beneath the convent. Here it makes use of claustrophobia (the tunnels some of the film was shot in are real locations and that’s probably the worst news you’ll hear all day). It works especially when you don’t know what or who you are sharing a dark space with.
The Devil’s Doorway is thoroughly postmodern horror, with thinly veiled social critique at play. Clarke taps into the societal anxieties that gives horror film power over us. I was lucky enough to attend the world premiere of the film at midnight during SIFF, with Clarke in attendance. The screening took place auspiciously on the same night as the repeal of the ban on abortion in Northern Ireland. This sparks a very interesting conversation on the feminist influences in the film, especially a woman’s right to the procedure. The woman’s body isn’t just the site of monstrosity, it is also the subject of a political conversation. This is loaded on top of the dialogue around some traditional Catholic ideals, and the film raises the question if Kathleen is worse off in the hands of a demon, or the nuns or who are supposed to take care of her. Clarke herself brought up the story of Tuam, a Magdalene Laundry open until the ‘60s where a mass grave of babies and children was discovered in 2017 after the film was written. Clarke serves a biting critique of the religious authority and institutional policing of bodies. Clarke herself is political in her role, as she is the first woman to direct a horror film in Northern Ireland.
When it came to the characters themselves, the actors all felt at the top of their game. Lalor Roddy is a dynamic lead as Father Thomas, a man genuinely trying to save the souls of the Laundry’s girls and hold the nuns accountable. His role is what sells much of the investigation of the Laundry, as he squares off with the convincingly creepy Mother Superior (Helena Bereen). The film knows its own terms and strengths well, but occasionally is too eager to show its hand. The film’s one major shortcoming is the frontloading of reveals that diminish those later in the film. Had it teased out more, the fear would have had a greater impact. Certain jump scares early in the film lessen the impact of those later on instead of building up to a more satisfying and terrifying climax. Cutting some of those moments would also have alleviated the film’s lengthiness.
As a whole, The Devil’s Doorway makes competent use of the found footage style while provoking a larger conversation about women’s rights. And it packs in a couple gut wrenching sequences along the way.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Update: The film has been picked up by IFC and will be getting a limited and digital release on July 13th.