At the Devil's Door | Film review - Creepy scenes fail to add up

At the Devil's Door Naya Rivera — (Image credit: © The Works LTD)

It's looking for a home.

Supernatural horror thriller At the Devil's Door pays an In Memorium tribute in the credits to Spanish filmmaker Jess Franco. But its tale of an immigrant real-estate agent (Catalina Sandino Moreno) who falls foul of a demonic entity while trying to sell a haunted house in southern California owes far less to Franco’s brand of pervvy erotic horror than to the likes of Rosemary’s Baby and The Omen. Writer-director Nicholas McCarthy (The Pact) does a good job of building a mood of dread in individual scenes but fails to bind them into a compelling whole.

Certificate 15. Runtime 91 mins. Director Nicholas McCarthy

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A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.