The Devil's Rock

Nazis and the occult usually make for a fascinating combination, as Raiders Of The Lost Ark and The Keep attest. The problem with The Devil’s Rock is that it doesn’t deliver either the suspense of a war film or the scares of a horror, despite doing its best to inhabit the costumes, props and settings of those genres. The film doesn’t open strongly, with two Kiwi commandos landing somewhere on the Channel Islands that looks more like a combination of a North Shore beach and the garden down the back of my next door neighbour’s place.

The mood’s not quite right either, but I was still on the filmmaker’s side and suspending judgment while I hung out for some freaky occult business. Sadly, The Devil’s Rock ends up with two dudes in a room for half the movie talking about scary stuff while not much of it actually happens. Yes, there are piles of limbs scattered around, reminiscent of the closing sequences of Jacob’s Ladder, but it feels like going to see an amateur theatre production at Spookers.

The film is hampered further by demonological plot developments that constantly require explanation, and when the film ends it is with hardly a surprise along the way, except perhaps the decision for its Nazi officer to not have a German accent.