The Devil's Rock: Movie Review

The Devil's Rock: Movie Review

The Devil's Rock
Rating: 6/10
Cast: Craig Hall, Gina Varela, Matthew Sunderland, Karlos Drinkwater
Director: Paul Campion
Horror and Nazis combine in this Kiwi flick.
Hall stars as Captain Ben Grogan, who along with his comrade Sergeant Joseph Tane (Drinkwater) is on a top secret government mission to destroy positions on the eve of D Day.
But when the pair end up on an apparently deserted bunker in Guernsey, they find more than they can handle - a series of bodies with entrails hanging out, a sole Nazi officer and a woman chained up.
However, it soon transpires that there's more to this story than meets the eye and Grogan finds all manner of problems and fears within...
The Devil's Rock is a pacy attempt at a good psychological horror; in many ways, the tense quiet opening as the pair negotiate the beaches is a traditional tale of any duo who find themselves in a minefield.
But when they get inside the bunker, it's here Campion abandons a lot of the war tenets and heads into horror territory as we hear screams, shots of tortured and mutilated bodies and see blood all over the walls.
Yet, it doesn't veer into OTT territory either with Campion preferring to give the film a more intimate and psychological feel as Hall and Sunderland's characters match wits and engage in verbal sparring initially as part of a two hander conversation. Gina Varela manages the right level of seductive menace as the Devilish woman chained up as the film heads into Exorcist meets Saving Private Ryan boundaries.

There's a lot of gore in this outing and that may put some off but as a well researched horror which is based on a degree of fact, it really does offer something a little different to the genre and may impress more than you'd initially expect.