The Devil’s Tail

The Devil’s Tail is an independent Canadian film made by director Christopher Comrie and writer Samantha Swan about the effect that one charismatic, egomaniacal sociopath can have on the lives of all those around him, while simultaneously endearing himself to all of them, such that they will do or believe almost anything for or about him. It is at once surreal and unbelievable but also strangely familiar as we see that the need to believe in someone we think is better than ourselves is, in fact, a universal truth.

This is the story of Pete, a kind and generous man who lives in Toronto with his girlfriend Zoe. One day Pete comes home through the frigid Canadian winter to a message from Kate, childhood friend and long time (lost) love, pleading with him to come to Mexico where Eddie, Kate’s boyfriend and Pete’s best friend, has gone missing. After a very minor amount of debate he takes Zoe and his friend Dave and starts on Eddie’s trail. When they arrive they find that things are not all what they seem, but when they finally meet up with Kate, Eddie mysteriously appears and begins stirring the pot of old emotions in Pete. It would seem that Eddie has not spent the last three weeks on location shooting yet another “Spring Break” movie, but what he has been doing is dangerous to all three of them, as Eddie’s infectious evil begins to spread through the group.

My first reaction to this movie was that, while incredibly well made and compelling, I really didn’t like it. It has some very severe subject matter and people doing horrible things to one another – or letting them happen to themselves – out of hatred, lust or just plain old boredom. As I’ve let it sit with me over the last day, I realize that I actually did like it quite a bit. There are facets of all of us in each character. All of us, at one time or another, has done most of these things. All of us have been a victim unwittingly, while other times we have been a victim because we wanted to be. We’ve all pined hopelessly over someone we know will never have us. We have all inflicted pain because we’re hurting ourselves. We’ve all manipulated someone. Rarely do we do any of these things as consciously as these characters do, but that’s the beauty of the film. It’s as if the characters are frozen in a time when it would be acceptable to display all of those behaviours at once. It is designed so that we are both reviled and comforted by seeing these things happen. You really don’t like anyone in this movie but you have no choice but to sympathize.

Shot on location in Mexico over about 3 weeks on a very, very tiny budget this film is an excellent showing by a pair of fledgling Canadian film makers. Saturday night was the cast and crew and selected private guests screening of this film and I am quite pleased to have been invited. Still in its infancy, the film has already been a selection at the Orlando Hispanic Film Festival and the Mexico International Film Festival and I would love to see this film get into TIFF. Originally created to be a direct to DVD picture, it certainly plays well on “the big screen”, but it saddens me that due to such little local interest in stories about Canadians, told by Canadians, that direct to DVD was their original plan. Trust me, these are the kind of smart filmmakers you want representing you on the world stage Canada, so catch this one if you can – hopefully in a theatre.

I strongly recommend this film to those who love dark, moody, character driven personal thrillers, but I also recommend this to people who love transformative film. Truly great films should push you further and show you something about yourself that makes you question things. This is one of those films.

Tagged as: cancon