Netflix Junkie: Bedeviled Review

Netflix is life. As I’ve already established while writing these articles, I watch way too much Netflix. Due to the fact that I practically live on Netflix, I came across a relatively obscure horror movie. It’s not a Netflix original, but Netflix is the only place I’ve ever seen it. If you’re into horror movies, especially those that are kind of meta and a little funny, you definitely need to watch Bedeviled.

The premise of Bedeviled is that soon after this girl dies, her close group of friends gets an app request from her. They assume it’s just an automatic invite and accept the app request. The app is basically a cooler version of Siri, one that can tell if you’re feeling sad and will play music for you. Mr. Bedevil is a really intuitive personal assistant app. They all love him until things start to go really wrong. A lot of people assume that horror movies based around apps or phones are dumb. Not many people realize just how close to reality they really are. Now, I’m not saying a demon is going to possess your phone in an attempt to possess you. I’m saying that our phones, our laptops, our watches, and our cars know everything about us. Our information is out there for anyone with enough hacking ability to see and use. If that’s not a real-life horror movie just waiting to happen, I don’t know what is.

My opinion of Bedeviled is complicated. I really enjoyed the movie, but I can’t tell if I actually enjoyed the story line because I was laughing too hard. The plot is interesting. It really does call into question how we live. Why didn’t these kids question the fact that their dead friend is sending them app requests? Why don’t they realize everything is wrong when Mr. Bedevil can turn off the lights in your house, but he’s not connected to them? Why don’t they get it? There is a simple answer to all of these questions. Our generation completely trusts technology because it’s all we know. We assume that things will continue to advance, so these kids assumed the app is just able to do all of that. The movie makes you more aware of how you’re living. It makes you really think about how much you trust technology. It’s really an intriguing idea for a film, but maybe just not executed well.

In addition to having a really interesting plot, Bedeviled is also hilarious. Some things are funny on purpose, and others are not. The film is very meta. It makes jokes about horror movies. It jokes about the order that people die in horror movies. Mr. Bedevil says awful things to the kids that are so funny. These things were meant to be funny, even though they added to the creep factor as well. The main source of humor in this movie, Mr. Bedevil himself, was not meant to be funny. Mr. Bedevil shows himself in shadows throughout the movie and becomes more and more visible as time goes on. At the end of the movie, Mr. Bedevil is completely shown, and I could not stop laughing. The design of this character looks like a cartoon. He’s not scary; he’s hilarious. His eyes bulge out of his head and he looks like something out of an old cartoon. I don’t know if I wouldn’t have laughed so hard if Mr. Bedevil was designed better, but I do know that I enjoyed the movie regardless. Horror movies don’t tend to scare me. I never expected to be scared during Bedeviled. I watched it late at night, by myself, simply because I wanted to. Even though I wasn’t scared, maybe you will be. If you like horror movies, check out Bedeviled. You’ll either have fun being scared or laughing your head off. You’ll love it either way.