Watch The Devil's Chair For Free

Crappy film

Better Late Then Never

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I have a lot of sympathy and respect for the duo Simon Boyes and Adam Mason, because they write and direct – at a relatively high tempo, I may add – horror films that are at least somewhat "wayward" without necessarily obeying to the public's mainstream demands of remakes, teen slashers and lousy sequels. Their movies certainly aren't groundbreaking or highly innovative, but they do appeal to die-hard and experienced fans of the genre because they're brutal, grim and thoroughly sinister. Their film "Broken" is still my favorite, as it's a rudimentary but very disturbing survival movie, and I really liked the quirky atmosphere of "Blood River". "Pig" I merely found a pointless effort and I haven't seen "Luster" yet. "The Devil's Chair" is a downright terrific movie throughout two-thirds of the running time! The film opens like an interesting throwback to old-school asylum horror and gradually shifts into a clever and ultra-macabre supernatural monster movie, reminiscent of the brilliant "Hellraiser" I & II, with extremely brutal violence and enormously grim set pieces. Adam Mason's regular lead protagonist Andrew Howard (who looks a lot like a lesser muscular clone of Jason Statham) stars as junkie Nick West who, together with his blond bimbo girlfriend intrudes an abandoned mental institution for a wild night of sex and drugs. The find a creepy death chair in one of the rooms and suddenly, without properly realizing what triggered it, the girl is trapped and tortured in the chair before vanishing entirely. With his criminal record and pockets full of dope, Nick naturally gets convicted for murder and, because of his crazy stories, institutionalized for four years. He's released by Dr. Willard and politely forced to return to the place of the horror, along with the Doctor himself and a couple of his students. Supposedly for a psychology study, but Willard actually other sinister things in mind, as he discovered that Nick spoke the truth and the chair is actually an invention from a formerly acclaimed scientist who created a device to separate the soul from the body. "The Devil's Chair" is tense, compelling and contains some of the grisliest ambiance and imagery that I've seen in the past decade. The asylum's interior truly looks nightmarish and also the titular chair is an effectively unsettling piece of scenery. When set in motion, it turns into a diabolical killing machine and I wouldn't advise squeamish people to watch that process. The acting performances are more than decent, the pacing is fast, and there are a few nifty details that also contribute to the entertainment value of the film, like Nick West's brief but often very witty voice-over narration in between the regular dialogs. It's a very good and horrifying horror flick with a plot, atmosphere and a fantastic monster to boot. But then … and I wish I didn't have to write these final words. The plot undergoes a very bizarre and abrupt metamorphosis and gone is all of a sudden the carefully built up intrigue and plausible morbidity. Did Boyes and Mason run out of inspiration? Where they bored and/or fed up with the direction the movie was heading? Did they want to do something totally unexpected and experimental? No idea, but all I know is that – for me personally – the movie suddenly lost all my admiration and praise. Perhaps it's just me and my miserable intellect, as I encountered several reviews stating that the twist was sheer genius. You decide.

I do appreciate the effort but a pair of suspenders have more suspense than this rotten egg of death. The story evolves around an evil chair adorned with a skull and placed conveniently (probably by some deranged carpenter) in a desolate building, a former asylum. To top it off the main character - a mental patient - continuously delivers a voice-over with a lisp which I believe he suffers from, listening to which is as thrilling as a boat ride on dry land.Believe me you've seen it done before and better (Session 9 anyone?), don't punish yourself by watching the "Chair". I dosed off countless times which was about the most refreshing thing about the whole experience.

Very nice angle on the horror genre. The rant at the audience was a bit pompous (apart from anything else, why is the narrator/delusional killer concerned with the viewing habits of the masses?) A couple of folk have commented that the narrator is a "poor man's Jason Statham". (What a crushing indictment!) I think it's a bit harsh - though accurate - and it's not helped by the fairly lame use of freeze frame: it gives a kind of 'guy ritchie' feel to the proceedings. A feel that this film certainly doesn't need. Mind you, NO film needs the 'guy ritchie' feel... I thought the over-the-top swearing at the beginning was a bit naff/ stilted. Do lots of rude words at the start = this film must be good? My only other moan is that the opening sequence gave us far too many of the closing scenes and that made the (genuinely chilling) closing scenes a little less surprising/effective. Some nice work though.

I just found this movie on my "on Demand" function for my TV.... I finished watching it about an hour ago, and I am STILL sitting here wondering what in GOD's NAME happened at the end. The last twenty minutes or so, I kept thinking "What??? When did this happen?" I feel totally stupid for saying it, but I just didn't get it. At ALL. if someone would please explain why in god's name he axe-murdered everyone t the end of the movie (well, maybe not so much why, more of how in the world the filmmakers got there from the alternate dimension of blood-eating demons) I might think better of the movie, but for now, i give it three stars for leaving me utterly confused...