Film Review: Devil’s Angel (2010)

SYNOPSIS:

A fertility specialist takes up a post on a Government-funded cloning project; desperate to have a child of her own she artificially impregnates herself in the laboratory. Years later, her child begins to demonstrate powers that cause her to question where he really came from.

REVIEW:

DEVIL’S ANGEL is a terrible mess. Originally released under what is possibly the world’s worst title of I’M NOT JESUS MOMMY it has been retitled and marketed as a demon child movie. However, for the first half hour it’s actually a cruddy sci-fi flick in which nothing interesting happens. I mean, what kind of film has two scenes within the first half hour of its leading lady going to the toilet?

The central character is Dr Kimberly Gabriel (Bridget McGrath, although she’s listed in the credits as Shar Stephanie) who because of her successful work at a fertility clinic is offered the chance to work on a top secret government research project on cloning. We know it’s top secret because they have an underground car park. The project leader is Dr Roger Gibson (Charles Hubbell) and we know he’s up to no good because a) he hacks pieces from dead foetuses, b) he listens to classical music while he’s doing it, and c) he’s bald.
Kimberly’s not under any illusions about the nature of her work but she has a hidden agenda: she desperately wants a child and thus far her attempts to conceive have failed. But armed with one of the government’s super-embryos (or whatever they are, it’s not entirely clear) she impregnates herself in the executive washrooms.

She dashes home to tell her boyfriend who, unsurprisingly, is less than impressed to hear his girl is up the duff via artificial means of unknown provenance. He storms out and drives straight into a fatal car crash. At this point something very odd happens. Following the caption ‘Several years later’ we find ourselves inhabiting a post-apocalypse environment. It’s never really made clear what happened but it must have been bad because it’s very cold and people are fighting over food. Despite this, Kimberly and her young son David (Rocko Hale) (are you keeping a note of all these subtle Biblical references?) are managing to eke out an existence. He has an imaginary friend, as most kids in horror films do, and a sideline in resurrecting dead mice from mousetraps.

Meanwhile, across town, bad Dr Gibson has turned into a religious fruitcake. We know this because a) he prays a lot, b) he threatens his family until they say grace before their meagre dinner, and c) he’s still bald. But disaster strikes! Kimberly gets sick and the only person she can think of to turn to is… you guessed it – Dr Gibson. This engineers perhaps the film’s most ludicrous scene. Having broken into Gibson’s house, Kimberly hears the doc approach the front door. Quickly slamming the chain on she breaks Gibson’s hand as he tries to get into his own house. Kimberly says “Roger!” and, despite the intervening seven years, apocalypse, and thick wooden door, Roger immediately recognises who it is.

I can only conclude that the film’s abrupt lurches from one genre to the next, with little or no explanation offered, indicate either a huge uncertainty on the part of the director as to what sort of film he wanted to make or desperate post-production hacking in an attempt to create something watchable. However, there simply isn’t enough incident or atmosphere to sustain either a sci-fi cloning picture or a post-apocalypse picture so scenes drag on endlessly in order to pad out the running time. Just so as not to post an entirely negative review there is one effective sequence where Dr Gibson deals with his family as he imagines God would want him to but I’m afraid to say it’s the only decent moment in the film.
It’s as terrible as it sounds and dull to boot, so please don’t think of renting it as some sort of bad taste classic. Remember – I watch these films so you don’t have to.

Devil’s Angel (2010)