The Devil's Hand | |
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Threatrical film poster
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Directed by | Christian E. Christiansen |
Written by | Karl Mueller |
Starring |
Alycia Debnam-Carey Rufus Sewell Thomas McDonell Adelaide Kane Leah Pipes Jennifer Carpenter Colm Meaney |
Music by | Anton Sanko |
Cinematography | Frank Godwin |
Edited by | Timothy Alverson Ryan Folsey Steve Mirkovich |
Production
companies |
LD Entertainment
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Distributed by | Roadside Attractions |
Release date
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Running time
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86 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Devil's Hand, also known under its working titles of Where the Devil Hides, The Devil's Rapture, and The Occult, is a 2014 American horror movie that was directed by Christian E. Christiansen. The film was released direct-to-video on October 14, 2014, and centers upon five girls born into an Amish community that believes them to be part of a Satanic prophecy.
On June 6, six women in a close-knit Amish community go into labor and deliver six girls, sparking fears that they could fulfill an ancient prophecy. The prophecy states that six girls will be born on the sixth day of the six month (6-6-6) and that one of them will become the "Devil’s Hand". Out of fear, one mother kills both herself and her daughter shortly after her birth, and the remaining five girls grow up with relative ignorance of the prophecy. As they come closer to their eighteenth birthday, their actions are constantly monitored by the community, especially Elder Beacon (Colm Meaney), who views any ungodly actions as proof that one of them is Satan's minion. This is all made more troubling by the fact that one of the girls, Mary (Alycia Debnam-Carey), has started having terrifying visions that could suggest that she is the Devil's Hand. As tensions rise, a mysterious figure begins to murder the girls one by one.
Fangoria and The Dissolve both panned The Devil's Hand, and Fangoria wrote that although the cinematography was nice and the film had some talented actors, the film "plays more like a CW-style teen melodrama than a serious theological terror film, especially when Mary begins hanging out with Trevor (Thomas McDonell), a boy from the next town over who just happens to be the son of the local sheriff. The movie seems more devoted to their lovey-dovey subplot than to exploring its own darker sides—including developing insinuations that Elder Beacon is a perv in addition to being a zealot. Then, at the very end, it finally remembers it’s a horror film and delivers a suitably spooky conclusion; but all the blood and thunder of the last few minutes serve mostly to point up how half-hearted the previous 80 are."Dread Central was more positive in their review, stating "While The Devil’s Hand is not the most intelligent nor tightly plotted or creative thriller to come along lately, it is well-acted, very gory and has a great-guns ending zinger that’s a fitting nod to the old school."