A Portal to Hell — and to Straight-to-DVD Limbo
If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if Indiana Jones went through a midlife crisis, mixed his meds, and ended up in a Spirit Halloween commercial, Devil’s Revenge is your answer. Directed by Jared Cohn, this 2019 supernatural slog stars Jason Brooks, Jeri Ryan, and—because life is sometimes mercifully absurd—William Shatner.
Yes, Captain Kirk himself co-wrote this thing, which explains a lot and nothing at all. It’s a movie that tries to be about ancient relics, family curses, and portals to Hell, but mostly it’s about William Shatner yelling at people in Kentucky while a CGI bird demon flaps around like a rejected Pokémon.
Let’s not mince words: Devil’s Revenge is bad. Gloriously, unapologetically bad. The kind of bad that could only exist in a universe where someone thought, “You know what would make this script better? A flaming cave and William Shatner doing Shakespearean dad rage.”
The Plot: Archaeology Meets Amateur Exorcism
Our hero—using the word generously—is John Brock (Jason Brooks), a once-promising archaeologist who’s now less “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and more “Tomb Raider: Tax Audit Edition.” John returns from an expedition to rural Kentucky—because obviously that’s where Hell is located—after failing to find a family relic his ancestors have been searching for since… who even knows. Probably since Shatner stopped returning their calls.
After returning home, John starts hallucinating a demonic bird-like creature that looks like it was rendered on a 2005 Xbox. This feathered fiend appears to him in daydreams, nightmares, and occasionally during what might be lunch breaks.
Turns out the cave he explored wasn’t just a cave—it’s actually a gateway to Hell, and naturally, the only way to break the curse is to go back into the cave. Because when you fall into a fiery supernatural pit once, the logical next step is “bring the wife and kids!”
The Cast: Faces of the Damned (and One Shatner)
Jason Brooks plays John with all the emotional range of a man who just lost his car keys but refuses to check under the couch. His performance could be described as “permanently confused and slightly sweaty.”
Jeri Ryan, of Star Trek: Voyager fame, plays Susan, John’s long-suffering wife. She spends most of the movie looking like she’s silently questioning her life choices—which, to be fair, we all are.
The supporting cast includes Brendan Wayne as a guy named Paul who does very little, Phillip Andre Botello as someone called R.J., and Ciara Hanna as Dana, who might as well have been named “Doomed Blonde #1.” None of them seem entirely aware that they’re in a movie, which, given the script, might be the healthiest coping mechanism.
But the real star here—the reason anyone even knows this movie exists—is William Shatner.
Shatner plays Hayes, John’s father, a man who appears to live in a mansion made entirely of mahogany and testosterone. His role seems to consist of shouting vague occult exposition through clenched teeth while wearing a bathrobe. It’s as if someone told him to act like God in a community theater version of Dante’s Inferno, and he thought, “Sure, but I’ll need more yelling.”
The Cave: Now with 30% More Smoke Machine
The cave—our movie’s main set—is a masterclass in low-budget filmmaking. It looks like a high school haunted house designed by a theater tech who just discovered fog machines. Every scene inside it is so dark and overexposed that you start wondering if the camera operator was cursed too.
When the “portal to Hell” is revealed, it’s less “terrifying abyss” and more “Windows screensaver.” The CGI looks like it was borrowed from a forgotten episode of Power Rangers. You half-expect the devil to step out wearing foam armor and yell, “Prepare to be destroyed, Rangers!”
The Demon: Kentucky Fried Satan
Let’s talk about the titular Devil’s Revenge, which is apparently… a bird. Yes, an angry flaming bird demon that looks like Big Bird’s evil cousin who dropped out of Hell University.
It screeches, it swoops, it glows red sometimes—because fire equals evil—and it attacks with the terrifying power of… jump cuts and bad lighting. The creature is so unconvincing that even the cast looks like they’re trying not to laugh during the “scary” scenes.
The film wants you to fear the demon, but what you really fear is the next time it’ll appear in all its pixelated glory. It’s horror by way of clip art.
Family Drama, Now with Bonus Screaming
What makes Devil’s Revenge special—if we can use that word without laughing—is how it tries to mix supernatural horror with family melodrama.
John’s family curse apparently involves bad dreams, bad parenting, and worse dialogue. Every interaction between John and his family feels like an outtake from a particularly awkward Lifetime movie. There’s lots of crying, yelling, and meaningful pauses that go nowhere.
At one point, Shatner’s Hayes lectures John about their family’s destiny in a way that sounds like he’s describing a really disappointing inheritance. “The relic, John! It’s ours! It belongs to us!” he bellows, as if trying to scare the plot into coherence.
Jeri Ryan, bless her, plays it straight, but there’s only so much gravitas you can bring to a movie where your husband’s big plan is “fight Hell with a pickaxe.”
The Script: Shatner’s Inferno
Let’s address the writing. William Shatner co-wrote this film. You can tell because half the dialogue feels like it was written by someone who just discovered voice-to-text. Characters explain things that don’t need explaining, forget things they already explained, and occasionally shout exposition directly into the void.
The pacing is so uneven that you start to suspect the editor was possessed by a time demon. Scenes begin and end without reason. Emotional beats land like wet confetti. One moment we’re in the cave; the next we’re at a family dinner where no one seems to remember they were just attacked by a demon an hour ago.
It’s as if someone took The Mummy, removed the budget, charisma, and Brendan Fraser, and then added William Shatner with a fog machine.
The Horror: Satanic, but Make It Boring
For a movie about Hell, Devil’s Revenge is shockingly dull. There’s almost no tension—just a lot of yelling, glowing rocks, and Shatner dramatically pausing like he’s waiting for applause.
The few gore moments are cheap and unconvincing, the jump scares predictable, and the soundtrack is so generic you’ll swear you’ve heard it in a dozen other straight-to-streaming horror flicks.
Even the big climax—our hero confronting the demonic relic—feels like a wet noodle slap fight in front of a green screen. The editing cuts so frantically you can’t tell who’s winning, losing, or even still alive.
The Ending: The Devil’s Anti-Climax
Without spoiling too much (though really, there’s not much to spoil), the ending involves the family returning to the cave for a showdown with the relic. There’s fire, screaming, and enough shaky cam to qualify as a medical hazard.
Then it just… ends.
No catharsis, no twist, no sense of resolution—just the vague feeling that everyone involved would rather be somewhere else. Preferably anywhere without Wi-Fi so they don’t have to read the reviews.
Final Thoughts: A Hellishly Good Time (If You’re Drunk)
Devil’s Revenge is one of those films so bad it achieves a kind of perverse brilliance. It’s like watching your dad try to perform an exorcism using a leaf blower—terrible, yes, but you can’t look away.
If you’re a fan of Shatner’s uniquely theatrical overacting, bad CGI demons, and horror movies that feel like community theater performances of Doom, this might just be your personal heaven. For everyone else, it’s a cinematic cautionary tale: sometimes, the real curse is pressing “Play.”
Final Score: 1.5 out of 5 Screaming Shatners
Watch it with friends. Watch it ironically. But for the love of God, don’t watch it alone—unless you enjoy suffering as performance art.
