The creators of Devil Makes Work
“The goal was to create something that looked like a feature film, but which told a story and was also incredibly visual, dark, graphic, powerful and had great characters.”

Well, they certainly achieved their goal. I got a chance to watch the full short Devil Makes Work recently, and it definitely had that “Feature Film” look. Everything in this movie, from make-up, cinematography, special effects, and acting, was spot on. The amount of thought and work put into the film is obvious but most shockingly, is that it was it accomplished on a very tight budget. It’s understood that all involved in this film worked on it for pure passion of the film itself, making it that much more awesome.

The initial feeling wasn’t that i was viewing a traditional short story, but more of a “teaser trailer” for a much bigger project. The story itself is more of a brief description of humanity and good vs evil, from the brutally honest perspective of the devil. It is a summary told by the devil like a poem, with astonishing visuals and references to ,and with characters from, religion and mythology.

To be honest, at first I was a little put off by how great it looked. I felt almost as if they were purely showing off, due to the perfect cinematic look of each shot. There is a lot going on, but it held my attention well. I will say that I had to watch it multiple times to really catch everything, which I didn’t mind. I found myself liking it more with each viewing, and quickly realized my initial feelings were nothing more than jealousy of their ability and accomplishment with this film.

The character of the Devil, played by Shaun Dooley, has the most screen time in the film and with a dark, sinister voice and overall angry tone, tells our scary (but probably true) story. Just over seven minutes long, Devil Makes Work kept my attention and pulled at quite a few emotions. The end did leave me a little uncomfortable, but also encouraged. Although I was left disappointed with the film, it wasn’t due to lack of content or any fault of the film, the disappointment was only that the film was a short, and not  a bigger project. I want to see more from them, maybe a full length version of the vision they had here.

Guy Soulsby and his team have proved themselves capable of creating a unique cinematic piece of art with practically no budget. We can only imagine what they could do given the proper resources and funds in the future.

Until you get a chance to watch the full short, if you haven’t already watched it, check out the trailer for Devil Makes Work here –