In
“Devil’s Due,” a young couple, Zach McCall (Zach Gilford) and Samantha (Allison
Miller) is about to tie the knot. A bright future lies ahead for them – and
after an emotional wedding ceremony, they take off for a honeymoon in the
sun-kissed Dominican Republic. Their trip
takes a bizarre turn after an uncomfortable session with a psychic, who
ominously warns the couple that “he has been waiting.” More than a little taken
aback by the encounter, Zach and Sam find themselves lost on some dark and
empty streets when they finally find a cab driver, who insists on driving them
to a subterranean bar for an “autentico” Dominican Republic experience. Then,
things get really unsettling.
Sam
and Zach soak up the unusual surroundings – as well as copious quantities of
alcohol. Along the way, fleeting
glimpses of disturbing images accompany them from the revelry: a heap of bones, a grinning skull, a hideous
flash of a limp and bloody female body, muffled voices…and a low, insistent
chanting. Flash forward to the next
morning. The newlyweds remember little
of the previous night’s events. Shortly
after their return home, Sam learns she is pregnant. Despite the surprising news, the couple makes
plans for an addition to their new family.
Soon,
however, disturbing clues emerge that their situation is anything but
normal: an ultrasound exam and
amniocentesis take a troubling turn; on a grocery shopping expedition, Sam, a
vegetarian, crams raw, bloody meat into her mouth; in a shopping mall parking
lot, she cracks the rear window of a car with a strength and ferocity that
doesn’t seem possible for a woman several months pregnant; and her belly seems
to stretch and contort, as if the baby is pushing from the inside with extreme
force.
Along
with the scares, the filmmakers focus on the two lead characters. “The style of
the movie allows you to be involved in the relationship between Zach and Sam in
a really intimate and almost voyeuristic way,” says director
Bettinelli-Olpin. “And we wanted to own
the pregnancy from the start; we didn’t want to hide it and make you wait. So,
the scene where Sam is impregnated is about 15 minutes into the movie.” Casting
the two leads was a key element in the filmmakers’ goal to bring audiences into
Sam and Zach’s world and their increasingly dire circumstances. Zach Gilford’s “everyman” likability – so
evident in his signature role as high school football quarterback Matt Saracen
in the acclaimed TV series Friday Night Lights – is on full display in “Devil’s
Due.” And, says Gillett, “Allison Miller
was one of the first people we auditioned, and she blew us away. We just fell
in love with her, and with Zach; it never feels like they’re acting.”
Filmed on location in the
Dominican Republic, at Carnivale and various other sites, including a nightclub
in a ruined catacomb, where Zach and Sam spend the fateful final night of their
honeymoon, the production then moved to New Orleans, where most of principal
photography took place.
Directing quartet Radio Silence
embraced the typical scheduling constrains that befall some genre fare shot
with “guerilla-style” filmmaking. “We
felt like we had an abundance of time and money, just based on the films we’ve
made in the past,” says Gillett. “The
biggest challenge was getting people on board for how we wanted to make the
movie. “So
it was more about giving everyone the sense that we’re a part of this together,
so let’s jump in and have fun with it.”
Still, no amount of
experimentation could address some of the unexpected challenges during
production, including a tornado that blew through the church set, which not
only had the production scrambling to reschedule the day’s shoot, but had the
cast and crew hiding in the building’s stairwells to avoid the fearsome winds.
Later, there was a fire – on the
same set. “Just the fact that it was
happening in a church, and we’re making a movie about the Anti-Christ, was just
kind of creepy,” says Bettinelli-Olpin.
“To this day, it makes me smile every time I think about it.”
“Devil’s Due” opens March 19 in
theaters from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.