One of my favorite sub-genres is theological horror. There are some really great movies like The Exorcist and Saint Maud, but there are also some really bad ones, as well, like The Remaining and End of Days. Seeing that Karl Mueller wrote this movie and he also wrote/directed one of my favorite found footage movies — Mr. Jones — I decided to give The Devil’s Hand a chance. Worse case scenario, I waste 86 minutes of my time on a crap movie, but best case scenario, I have another great movie in my collection.
The movie starts in 1994 in an Amish community where an end times prophecy seems to be coming true. It is said that six girls will be born on the sixth day of the sixth month and on their 18th birthday, one of them will become the “the devil’s Hand” aka the devil’s minion and will end God’s reign on earth. The community elders (headed by Colm Meaney) come up with a plan to kill these infants before they grow up and possibly allowing Satan to take over the world. One of the new mothers suffocates her new baby then kills herself before one of the other newborn’s father (Rufus Sewell) steps in and stops the elders and convinces them that he will watch over the girls as they grow up. If he sees any signs of Satanic tendencies, he will personally take them down himself.
Fast forward to the week before the girls’ 18th birthday. Mary (excellently played by Alycia Debnam-Carey) starts to have visions of a cloaked killer, but she doesn’t know who is being killed or who the murderer is. One by one, the five girls who were born on that stormy night in 1994 start being killed in horrific ways. Will any of them survive their 18th birthday? Can the sheriff solve these murders before the last girl dies? Is the prophecy true? You’ll have to rent this movie and find out.
The cast has some decent sized names, Colm Meaney, as Elder Beacon, was in “Star Trek The Next Generation,” Rufus Sewell, as Jacob Brown (Abraham Lincoln Vampire Killer) and Jennifer Carpenter as Rebekah Brown (“Dexter”). The actresses playing the five girls all did a great job, as well. The story is tight, the gore FX are good and I absolutely LOVED the ending. My only problem with this movie is some of the dumb choices characters make, but it’s not that big of a deal.
The Devil’s Hand aka Where the Devil Hides is a good watch and I would totally recommend it to my friends. I give it a solid B+.
It is currently available to rent on Amazon, Vudu, and most other streaming services.
