Better the Devil You Know

April. 17,2009      PG-13
Rating:
4.4
Trailer Synopsis Cast

When Tom Anderson is visited by a deceased high school friend in a dream, she gives him only one warning. She tells him that the Four Horsemen (characters from his latest novel) are coming for him and his friends at noon. But once his friends get trapped in town with him, the battle for their future is about to begin. What they think is a dream is about to become a reality...and they are about to find out...the battle they must face has been inside of them all along. The first dream was a warning. Now, they have no choice but to face Tom's dream along with him...and survive.

Reviews

Beystiman
2009/04/17

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

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Neive Bellamy
2009/04/18

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

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Roman Sampson
2009/04/19

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

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Curt
2009/04/20

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

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jenny-498-185982
2009/04/21

I saw this movie on a first date with my now-husband when it first came out. It's a very slow kind of movie that builds up to the end in a way that sort of throws you around. I liked that it starts out very basic and gets the viewer settled into the world of the characters first before unleashing the impossible. I promised no spoilers so I must be brief. I will say this, you have absolutely no idea how things are going to play out, even though the main drag of the plot has to do with the main character believing something bad is going to happen to him and his friends. The movie isn't really suspenseful, as much as it is funny. I agree with other reviewers that the movie could have had more money thrown at it. The low budget nature of it adds to its charm. You will either be put off by it, or you will embrace it. Sam was my favorite character because he was the geek. Mark's role was just to be dragged along for the ride, but he has some great moments too. Just be warned, the movie is not the standard toilet humor that is so prevalent these days. It's a smarter than average film that you will either love or hate.

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James Lee
2009/04/22

I saw this in theaters with a group of friends and it was flawed, but good. I thought it was fun. You could tell the director's life was on the line, as he had very little to work with.I got this on Blu-ray and I truly believe the picture is 1000 times better than the theater was. Maybe it was the theater in Des Moines that had a bad projector. The presentation is way better on the Blu-ray disc. It's one of these movies that keeps you thinking about it after. The concept was good, you simply feel bad in places that it could've been done justice with more budget. The result is a quirky little movie, but I didn't believe the main character was a writer. That could've been fleshed out more. A former colleague is murdered and she uses the main character's mind to lead her killer, who is on the run, into another dimension where she can get revenge on him. Overall, it was enjoyable. A movie for aspiring filmmakers to study, if only to showcase what is possible with a micro-budget and a big idea. The bonus disc is alright, it mostly shows the day to day going on set. Check it out.

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kloysen5
2009/04/23

I've never seen a new movie take such hits. Better the Devil You Know was the very first of Augment Image's feature length movies. The movie played in select theaters across America last year, but most people missed it due to a new Harry Potter film and a Transformers movie. This was kind of a huge mistake on Augment Image's part, considering Better the Devil You Know isn't really a summer blockbuster. I don't know what they were thinking. Had this been released in the fall, I feel it would have done a lot better. On the flip side, the movie seemed to be doing really well in Illinois when I saw it. I actually caught site of the movie poster in the lobby. The Bench movie played before this. Better the Devil You Know started out slow. I think most people have trouble with the whole format because it is not your standard "goal oriented" protagonist type movie. You spend the entire movie simply getting to know the main characters. It's like your basically hanging out with them and finding things out along with them. The biggest problem is: people who want to be surprised and taken on the journey with the characters will love this movie like most positive reviews already said. People who want a familiar, paint by numbers approach that would've made this movie boring will be uncomfortable and turn it off. This is character driven, not really action driven. The whole movie is a build up to the end. The end was really cool.It's a movie that is really about the characters and not so much the action. It shouldn't have been released as a summer blockbuster. I think that hurt it and it might be why some people are out of sorts with it. It gets kind of serious at the end, but still stays fun. Better the Devil You Know is far too ambitious to be a run-of- the-mill independent film. It's also way too low budget to be a Hollywood film. It's just cool and doesn't take itself too seriously, which is what the filmmakers are about.

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RICHARD
2009/04/24

A new kind of humor for me.. . serious farce. quick wit almost "nit wit" but entertaining. subtle humor you could easily miss. But don't miss this flick. Loved Sam's job, and the drive-thru fast food scene. Andy McCain as Sam is a totally believable nerd as a person we all know in life. The attempts to escapes out of town are cool. Some lighting imbalance from character shot to another but added to the fragmenting of the story bits. There could be more about Sam and the techo-haunting of each character but what was there was fun to watch. I bought the 2 disk set from Amazon and suggest that the making of and the out takes give the viewer a full picture of the challenges and fun that goes into a one camera low budget indi film. PROPS.

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