Have you ever thought to yourself, “Man, I loved The Exorcist, but I wish it had more xenophobia and infuriatingly shoehorned-in B-plots”? Then you’ll probably like Of The Devil more than I did.

We open on revelers at a nightclub dancing to some decent post-punk, then sacrificing a girl and pulling a cocoon from her stomach cavity. We cut to the Cortez family. They seem blissful, until their son collapses while playing with a bad CGI butterfly that hatched out of the aforementioned cocoon, which had been placed conveniently in a neighbor’s yard. This will basically never be relevant again, except as part of a sort of half-baked butterfly motif that kind of gets abandoned. They rush poor Alex (Lucas Sequiera) to the hospital, where brain scans show that he has an inoperable brain tumor. The scene would be genuinely sad if it wasn’t trying so hard to be creepy.

The hospital room looks like a walkthrough haunt set, and inexplicably flashing lights show us glimpses of the ghosts little Alex can now see. Mother Norma (Dani Palavecino) insists on bringing her son home to be with his family as he’s dying. With her mother-in-law already having to receive in-home care, it’s something she’s used to. Her husband, Ben (Jonathan Stoddard), is a priest who has fallen out of faith, because of course he is, but Norma’s faith only gets stronger the more she frets over her son’s condition. When nosy neighbor June (Eileen Dietz) tells her about an unconventional surgeon in Mexico who heals with medicine and faith combined, Norma is desperate enough to try anything, and to ignore how awfully convenient the whole situation is. But things don’t go quite as planned when Ben takes Alex to see this mysterious surgeon…

Of The Devil has all the makings of a decent spoof film. Horrible CGI, shoddily constructed sets, actors selling everything like they’re playing opposite Orange Cassidy, the works. I laughed my ass off at a scene that’s supposed to be emotional, except it also features Ben setting a tortilla directly onto the burner of a gas stove and lighting it on fire while he argues with Norma. There’s also a guy creeping around in what looks like a Creature From The Black Lagoon costume in a couple scenes. I’d say you have to see it for yourself, but the rest of the movie isn’t funny enough to justify it.

The amount of stuff that’s in this movie just to add drama/scares also feels very reminiscent of a spoof more than a serious movie. Maybe it could work with different execution, but the plot just feels overstuffed with, “oh, and ALSO, [this bad thing is happening at the same time]!” moments. I don’t want to give too much away, but the logic of this movie just goes in circles, and for what? Horrible child acting and the implication that indigenous Mexicans worshipped the devil? Pass. There are better Exorcist ripoffs out there.

2 out of 10