Fantastic Fest 2011: THE DEVIL'S BUSINESS Review

A man sits in a chair, talking. His name is Pinder (Billy Clarke) and he's telling a story for the benefit of Cully (Jack Gordon), his young associate. Though it's late at night, and Pinder relates the details in a calm, even voice, it's anything but a bedtime story, for Pinder and Cully are assassins, and they are waiting for their target to return home so they can kill him.

From that simple set-up, writer/director Sean Hogan develops a feeling of unease that turns on a dime into something other, perhaps the occult, perhaps hocus-pocus, but definitely something that's very, very odd for two common criminals to discover while they're invading a posh home for the purposes of murder.

By choice or force of circumstance, Hogan has become something of a specialist in making low-budget independent horror films with stylish touches. He made his directorial debut with Lie Still, which played at Fantastic Fest 2006; at the time, I wrote that Hogan "swam against the horror tide ... and came away with a very suggestive, distinctive picture," a quiet psychological horror think-piece. House and Home, Hogan's short film that was included in the Little Deaths anthology, played at SXSW earlier this year and prompted me to describe it as "a kind of chamber horror piece," playing around with mood and tone before getting quite ugly.

The Devil's Business fits in quite nicely with what Hogan has done before, while expanding his palette. For one thing, there's a good deal of easily-relatable humor in the banter between the well-seasoned Pinder and the extremely-green Cully. And the exasperated cell-phone conversations between Pinder and his superior are a snappy way of conveying information while also showing Pinder's relative position in the criminal underworld. (Hint: low, but not as low as Cully.)

As I recall Lie Still, there were long stretches where very little happened, accompanied by low buzzing noises. The Devil's Business achieves something similar by not having any background music at all for the opening sequences, and for many thereafter. The silence emphasizes the surroundings in an upscale neighborhood late at night, and manages to build tension out of, basically, not much at all; it's funny how not hearing sounds or music can be so unnerving.

Billy Clarke, a veteran character actor, is very good as Pinder, a career criminal who has become blase about what he does for a living. (His storytelling is a highlight of the picture.) But even he has his limits. Jack Gordon contributes nervous work as the young man who would be an assassin -- if he can ever work up the nerve to fire a gun.

The Devil's Business is nicely off-beat throughout its running time before snaking in for the kill. I appreciated the markedly different approach to a familiar premise and I thoroughly enjoyed the chilling delivery.