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The Devil in My Heart
Blood Runs Thick
USA 2018
produced by Romane Simon for Lucky Strike Films, RS Films
directed by Romane Simon
starring Emily Killian, Alexander Man, Tom Sizemore, Judi Evans, Matthew Ashford, Zachary Alexander Rice, Brooklyn Robinson, Braxton Davis, Isaac Rhino, Carolyn Dupree, Lilian Lev, Emily Eruraviel, Ewart Chin, Karra Mane, Nic Bradly, Romane Simon, Layla Dideban
written by Romane Simon, Rhonnie Fordham, music by Alejandro Villanueva Medina
review by Mike Haberfelner
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By all accounts, Vikki's (Emily Killian) life ought to be good one,
she's happily married to Marshall (Matthew Ashford), a successful lawyer,
she lives in a nice house in a nice neighbourhood, and the only things
threatening her are her nightmares ... nightmares so vivid though that she
at one time wakes up in the middle of one to realize she's strangling
Marshall, taking him for a masked killer. Marshall promises to help her
through whatever she's going through, but Vikki's nightmares only get more
vivid, and she starts to see the masked killer during her waking hours,
too, him as well as a little girl (Brooklyn Robinson), who's seemingly
trying to tell her something. And then, from one moment to the next,
Marshall just disappears, and Vikki's last memory of that is that they
were hugging. Now the police are quick to suspect foul play and have a
couple of detectives (Isaac Rhino, Ewart Chin) placed outside the house
for protection and observation. Vikki's parents (Judi Evans, Braxton
Davis) meanwhile decide to move in with her for the time being, and also
call in Robbie (Alexander Man), a high school friend of hers who had a big
crush on her back when and who's a psychotherapist now. She starts seeing
him for treatment, and they're making some progress, as he uncovers that
she's forever haunted by her real father, a very violent man who committed
suicide decades ago for her to find him, and she thinks she has inherited
his thirst for violence. And thus she also blames herself for her dad's
disappearance. However, that the treatment is a full success couldn't be
further from the truth, as once Vikki tries to kill herself on Robbie's
toilet, plus her visions of the little girl get more and more frequent.
Robbie however doesn't think Vikki's a violent person - but once people
start turning up dead, there's a chance that this is a misconception
stemming from the feelings Robbie has for Vikki ...
Now ok, in writing The Devil in My Heart's storyline
looks a little forced, but on film it actually is a pretty cool psycho
thriller, inasmuch as it plays with genre motives but refuses to follow
any tired old genre formula, instead uses genre expectations to surprise
the viewer, and by not just explaining everything away it successfully
disorients its audience, to the effect that the tension rarely lets up in
this one, only augmented by a suspense-heavy direction, while a solid
ensemble keeps things believable. And the sum of it all is good thriller
entertainment.
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