Film
A group of five friends receive invites to a new mobile app, after a friend of theirs is killed. Soon, they are being terrorised by a supernatural entity.
Yes, indeed, Bedeviled is actually as bad as it sounds. A sub-par b-grade attempt at a horror. Starring Saxon Sharbino (Poltergeist) as Alice Gorman, and Bonnie Morgan (Rings) as her dead grandmother, the films plot had potential, even if seeming like several other low-budget horror films. But the story drags along with awkward dialogue, and with the characters seeming determined to make the most incorrect decisions at the most inopportune time, in a deliberate attempt to steer the plot along in a certain direction, in order for the story to drag out so we can finally encounter the evil entity that is after them.
The friends being stalked feel like templates for typical persons to be in a horror film, and this, coupled with so many fortuitous moments, make for some cases where one merely shakes ones head, and begins to cheer on the demon (or whatever it is, in clown form).
Bedeviled has a really weak story, with some bad writing. Watch it if you’re really that bored, else perhaps go look elsewhere for something with a bit more substance.
Disc
Overall, the Bedeviled DVD is of a decent technical quality, but lacking in bonus material, and with a rather mediocre main feature.
Bedeviled is available now, to purchase on disc, in South Africa.
Video
Video is encoded at a high average bitrate, with no visible artefacts on-screen. Colours are vibrant, with no colour bleed. Detail is maintained in darker scenes.
Video on the menus and trailers is also of a decent quality.
Viewers with the relevant hardware or software, could scale up to a higher resolution, or larger screen, should they wish.
Audio
Audio is encoded at a decent bitrate, and presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtrack. Dialogue clear via the centre channel, for the most part. There are a few occasions when one would need to be concentrating in order to catch what was said, but these are few and far between. Volume does seem a little low on dialgue at times.
There is an options for a stereo 2.0 downmix soundtrack.
Navigation
Navigation is simple, and easy to follow. The main menu is a text menu, with items to play the main feature, chapter selections, and audio. The main menu is a static menu, with background image, and accompanying music.
The chapter selection sub-menus comprise of six small, motion thumbnails each, for a total of twelve chapters. While these are numbered, they are not labelled, making navigating to a specific part of the main feature a bit difficult, and some guesswork is required.
The audio sub-menu has text options to select between the 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo soundtracks.
Bonus Features
There are no bonus features on the disc, other than trailers for First Kill, The Lost City of Z, and Atomic Blonde that autoplay at the beginning of the disc.
These can be individually fast-forward, and skipped, but can not be accessed again via the disc menu. When skipping the final trailer, the disc will navigate to play the main feature, and not access the main menu.
