Devil's Workshop Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Devil's Workshop Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 6, 2022

The writing of Ira Levin could be so intricately plotted that apparent "throwaway" elements actually provided important clues at times. While everyone can probably recount the basic (brilliant) narrative of Rosemary's Baby, a key if ostensibly "minor" foreshadowing of events is alluded to when Rosemary's actor husband Guy suddenly gets the call to replace another actor in a play, thrusting Guy literally into a spotlight that will advance his career, this after Guy and that actor had exchanged a piece of clothing. There's another actor flirting with demonic powers in Devil's Workshop, but this is a film that never totally capitalizes on several promising factors (including what could have been an adroit skewering of the acting profession), while also never really making it clear what motivates the focal demon. This is another supernaturally tinged outing that vainly attempts to go for the "you are it" (no, really, you're it) factor of The Wicker Man, but which never quite gets there due to some muddled storytelling that weirdly cuts away for semi-comic interstitials featuring another actor played by Emile Hirsch.

Devil's Workshop begins with a supposed "video" introduction culled from an old quasi-Unexplained Mysteries show featuring a hostess we are later introduced to as Eliza (Radha Mitchell). Suffice it to say that while a theatrical exhibition may have offered a subliminal peek at an "alter ego" of Eliza's toward the end of this ostensible archival video, freezing and/or frame advancing courtesy of the high tech wonders of home theater setups can frankly give the ghost (and/or demon) away from the get go. The story then segues to two actors, Clayton (Timothy Granaderos) and Donald (Emile Hirsch), at a (rather small) "cattle call" where they're both reading for the same role, which is in a film dealing with demonology.

Donald has at least a bit of cachet (kind of hilarious cachet, which is one place the screenplay might have made hay of the vagaries of "fame" and "fortune"), and that convinces Clayton that Donald has the inside track for the part. So Clayton, hard working actor that he is whose Method may indeed lead to madness, places an ad to meet a demonologist so that he can research the part for any callbacks. That of course leads him to the aforementioned Eliza, who seems to be the one doing the research, almost in a therapeutic way.

Suffice it to say Eliza is not exactly who (or what) she may seem, and in a plot element that kind of reminded me in a way of another "actor held hostage" outing, Dead of Winter, Clayton finds himself ensconced in a series of weird interactions that revolve around memories of his dead mother. And here's yet another hinted at element which Devil's Workshop probably could have exploited even more than it does, in that Eliza in her own (demonic) way is almost a parental unit offering her own patented brand of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, and if that sounds weird, well, yes, it is.

Mitchell is probably the best thing about Devil's Workshop, even if the writing never makes anything very ambiguous about where things are headed. As I mentioned in our Dig Blu-ray review, this is kind of oddly one of two Emile Hirsch movies Lionsgate is releasing on the same date, and that may not be a good thing, frankly, as it may point up a certain tendency toward gonzo characterizations that Hirsch seems to favor. This film ends with Hirsch supposedly in character as Donnie "rapping" (?) in some patently odd (and possibly objectionable) sidebars to the closing credits roll.

Devil's Workshop Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Devil's Workshop is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The IMDb doesn't really have any technical data posted as of the writing of this review, and the closing credits offer only the generic Panavision logo, but this is a rather appealing looking transfer, though it's curiously perhaps not as stylish as some may expect given the otherworldly aspect of it all. The bulk of the film plays out in Eliza's isolated mansion and Donnie's apartment (cutting back and forth between the two), and that tends to mean quite a bit of low light interior work which is further accompanied by a quite a bit of rather bland browns and yellows in both environments. Still, fine detail can be very good in close-ups. There are a number of stylistic bells and whistles, including more video like "memories" (see screenshot 6), and kind of hokey things like what's on computer monitors and/or phones taking up part of the frame (see screenshot 5). This is another Lionsgate Blu-ray that has banding so noticeable that I could actually get an example with our capture unit (see screenshot 9). Thankfully, while recurrent, this issue tends to come and go quickly when it arises.

Devil's Workshop Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Devil's Workshop has a nicely aggressive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix that doesn't shy away from any number of sound design clichés, but which still admittedly provides a glut of great surround activity, along with some floorboard rumbling bursts of LFE. Snaky, slithering high strings along with ominous low frequency washes provide spookiness in several key moments, but there's also some more subtle interplay in more natural ambient environment sounds. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English, French, Portuguese and Spanish subtitles are available.

Devil's Workshop Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 2:05)

Additionally, a digital copy is included and packaging features a slipcover.

Devil's Workshop Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This may be damning with faint praise, but if you watch only one Emile Hirsch film released on Blu-ray by Lionsgate this week, you should probably make it Devil's Workshop. This has a lot of actually fun baseline elements, and if they had just been a bit more fully developed, this might have been a rather interesting horror film with some (black) comedic undertones. As it is actually structured, the ping ponging between the quasi- "talking cure" (if with a ritualistic bent) scenes with Eliza and Clayton clash pretty dramatically with the "party hearty" scenes featuring Donnie. Technical merits are generally solid, with the above caveats on video, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.