Produced by Jenni “JWoww” Farley, DEVON 2024 Horror Movie on Screambox is a found-footage horror film. It is an absolute failure on almost every level. The only saving grace is its running time of 72 minutes, which still feels much longer. Read more about Devon in our full review below!
The film in question is the latest horror offering to tick all the boxes that come with the found footage genre: a haunted asylum, a notion that’s been explored ad nauseum by not only the plethora of released films but the niche TV show as well, all together combining for some similar content.
Sadly, Devon is one of the weaker spins on this conceit. The premise can be tantalizing, but if the execution fails, it amounts to nothing. The lighting is terrible (even beyond the handheld POV shots) and the acting is, at best, suspect.
Found Footage in a Haunted Asylum: A Well-Trodden Path. Five strangers spend a weekend in an abandoned asylum in Devon as part of a challenge to search for a missing girl called Devon. The asylum is allegedly haunted as well, which made me hope that maybe some petty supernatural being would give me the answers.
Years before, Devon vanished from this “notorious asylum,” leaving her parents hungry for closure. Strangely, the movie glosses over why the girl was in the asylum at all, making her disappearance something of a subplot. Instead, the attention turns to the five participants filming themselves out in the creepy wilderness. Sadly, we’ve seen this setup handled much more skillfully in other films.
There’s a twist up its sleeve toward the third act, but it is easy to see how the characters fall into their respective roles, how the ending unfolds, and very mostly is a stretch of belief, due to the unconvincing nature of performances in the big reveal. That particular scene? Cringe-factor is painful, even for low-budget horror.
To be fair, the film leaves one feeling cynical and jaded. As if that weren’t an embarrassment enough, a cast member then wrote on social media that a “real ghost” showed up in the movie—an obvious PR stunt straight out of the infamous Three Men and a Baby ghost rumor book.
These might have been persuasive tactics decades ago, but now they appear stale, even desperate. The Prisoner of Heaven: A Lackluster Attempt at HorrorAnalysis of Movies, January 23, 8:06 p.m.
Horror on a low budget tends to require creativity and innovation to flourish. Devon, sadly, does not rise to the occasion. Though the film’s reported budget was $100,000, it looks cheap, and its IMDb score — 2.8 — seems wholly warranted.
This is the directorial debut of Jenni “JWoww” Farley, who gained fame from her time on Jersey Shore. While perhaps helpful in securing financing, her reality TV fame certainly has not made filmmaking a sprint — her name alone isn’t enough to qualify her as a filmmaker. Rather than new ideas or a whole new pool of skillful collaborators, this production comes off as the product of an echo chamber of “yes men.”
The Verdict
If there’s a takeaway from Devon, it’s that you could pretty much damn well make a better horror movie on your own. The genre is built upon craft and love, neither of which is apparent here.”
Devon premiered digitally on November 12, 2024, and is scheduled to stream on Screambox beginning November 26, 2024.
Details
Director: Jenni Farley
Writer: Jenni Farley
With: Tara Rule, Hank Santos, Steven Etienne, Rotisha Geter, Lauren Carlin
