I Trapped the Devil

There is some tension here - who is that locked in the basement? - but the film could have been better.

Family, trauma, insanity and a dash of Christmas iconography. Slow burns are hit and miss with me usually, you need an interesting story to compensate for the stillness, lots of suspence and a good payoff at the end. ***I Trapped the Devil*** is more of a failed attempt for me. There's really just one mystery; "what's behind the door?" and that's intriguing, sure, but it's not enough to keep me interested for 84 minutes. There's a few twists and turns in the third act that were decent but it had already lost me at that point. The characters aren't very interesting or captivating either. I at least appreciate the filmmaking, it's a low budget movie but the acting is decent (a bit stiff at times though), nice unsettling score, atmospheric and good sound design. Lots of red lighting, loved that. Nothing shocking but I like the reveal and the ending. Wanted more backstory on how the trapping happened and what the circumstances were.