ScoobyWell
Great visuals, story delivers no surprises
Huievest
Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Frances Chung
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Mandeep Tyson
The acting in this movie is really good.
Leofwine_draca
A clear rip-off of Ben Wheatley's KILL LIST, THE DEVIL'S BUSINESS is a hopeless travesty of a film. Shot almost entirely in the dark with mainly just two actors on the screen, it sees a couple of hit-man - a seasoned professional and his rookie apprentice - visiting a house to carry out a hit. Once there they find the place deserted so they sit round for about an hour of screen time, waiting for him to show up.The story is extraordinarily low budget so this needed a fantastic script to make up for it. Sadly there isn't one. The acting is hopeless, particularly on the part of the inexperienced younger guy, but it's the dialogue that crushes the life from this one. There's a ten minute monologue which is one of the dullest ever and has no real connection to the central story, as tenuous as that is. It appears somebody researched the life of Aleister Crowley and decided to do a modern-day version of the tale but the effort is entirely unsuccessful. Indeed THE DEVIL'S BUSINESS is the worst horror film I've seen in a long time, and that comes from somebody frequently exposed to the worst late-night excesses of The Horror Channel.
captain-balrog
I can't think of another instance where I've felt the need to comment on a film that wasn't especially good, or especially bad. I think it might be because this film is nearly brilliant.--- THE SPOILER ---It's the end that lets it down. I don't mean the homunculus. I do like a homunculus. I mean how it was done. I can't say there was anything wrong with any of the elements, and I think the bit where the dead bloke leads the homunculus away like a child could have and should have worked really well. Maybe just poor execution of a good idea.--- END SPOILER --- A lot of the film was really nicely acted and it did a great job of building tension. Billy Clark's monologue about the dancer at the club was excellent. He really stole the show for me. I suppose a bloke from Belfast his age working as a hit man for a mainland gangster is nicely plausible now that the local hooding industry has dried up. Even so I thought he really carried some real menace, and it's just nice to see a fellow Belfastard in a central role once in a while.It's also nice to see another film about the occult. It was all the rage back in the 80s but it's really fallen out of favour in the last decade or two. The very mighty House of the Devil seems to have revived it a little, and I'm very much in favour. The Devil's Rock, The Devil's Business – Bring back films with 'The Devil' in the title! Overall I think this film deserves a six for a brilliant first fifty minutes.
spotlightne
Years ago, the BBC in the UK used to screen new adaptations of familiar ghost stories written by leading authors of the past.These ghost stories were screened every Christmas and usually lasted anything from 30 minutes to an hour.The Devil's Business reminded me of those old BBC programmes. It was well-acted and scary in parts, with a very creepy ending. And like the BBC's output, the cast was limited to a few players.Basically the plot revolves around a gangster called Bruno who hires two hit-men, a seasoned veteran and a young man, to kill off another man who apparently lives alone.But things are not all as they first appear. And who is that little boy lurking in the dark, dark cellar? Black magic and bumps in the night are abound.Worth a rental or purchase of this DVD. Perfect for Christmas. Don't forget to keep the lights switched on.
perkin2000
Two hit men arrive at a house under instruction to kill the guy who lives there. They sit around talking waiting for him to get home, one of 'em goes for a Pooh just as he gets back. Timing, eh?The cast, all four of them, are very good, especially Billy Clarke as Pinner, the elder, experienced hit-man. His unblinking 10 minute monologue is flipping ace, a great, weighty centrepoint of the film. The majority of the runtime is the verbal exchange between the two hit men, there is gore and jump scares but they're not over used and the script will hold your attention as it creates a nice creeping tension.The only weak point is the very end of the film, without giving anything away, it gets, we thought, a little silly. It's a let-down, but a forgivable one as the hour leading up to it was so enjoyable and well made.Well worth a purchase/rental!