Reviews
[Review] ‘Devotion’ is a Masterful Slice of Taiwanese Horror
Red Candle Games follows up its modern classic horror game Detention with another great entry into the genre. Find out why we have an early Horror Game of the Year contender in our Devotion review.
Scene 4: Child’s room, night, interior
[Close-up]: Candles illuminate the bed and the herbal tea remedy.
Child (weakly): Father, when will we go down into the big city?
Husband: We cannot do so under these troubling circumstances. Son, when your illness has passed, Mother and I will take you anywhere you’d like.
Child: Father, the needles are painful. This treatment is unbearable!
The husband pulls the acupunctural needles out of his child.
Husband: No more pain, no more pain! Father won’t have you suffer any longer!
The child, tired from crying, drifts into sleep.
Wife: How is this going to work? It’s been such a long time, my heart clenches.
Husband: Set your mind at ease, I’ve another way.
Red Candle Games made a name for itself with Detention, a side-scrolling horror game that managed to remain intriguing due to the facets of Taiwanese culture ingrained in the story wrapped within an unsettling art-style. With Red Candle Games’ newest title, they have taken what made their first game an excellent piece of psychological horror and transitioned their talents to a first-person perspective eloquently.
Devotion centers around a Taiwanese father, a screenwriter named Du Feng Yu. Together with his wife Li Fang, a prominent actor, they have a daughter named Mei Shin who is subjugated to an illness. Playing as Du Feng Yu, players traverse a small yet densely detailed house over numerous years that explores the family’s various struggles. There was a care in making sure that every part of the house felt lived in. As newspapers used as tablecloths are fully detailed, books are messily strewn about, and there are even notated calendars signifying important events. Ultimately, the set-dressing is thoughtfully put-together and compliments the game’s story thoroughly.
Yet, the genius of Devotion is found within this non-linear form of storytelling. As the house shows increasing development through the various time jumps that the player subjects themselves to within the game. For example, in one of the earlier years that you explore the house, Du Feng and Li Fang are moving into the house. Organizing their furniture, portraits, and trophies onto empty walls and bookshelves. The puzzle design is fascinating in this regard, as the gameplay is contextual with the story rather than an attempt to pad out the game’s length. At some points, you’re hanging photos of Li Fang’s various photoshoots on walls, or sometimes you’re assembling the x-ray of Mei Shin like a jigsaw.
In terms of the quality of horror, the game has the typical ghosts and various scary monsters you expect from a horror title. However, there are also life-size woodblock figures adorning the house in certain pass-throughs, recreating various events that the family has been through. The terror comes from how the inanimate objects follow the logic that should your back be turned on them they will be in different places than they were before (much like the Weeping Angels in Doctor Who), and sometimes they’re looking directly at you or adorning weapons. This is also utilized to portray various holidays and life events with the dolls recreating these moments with the turn of a head. This factor is one of many in the game that creates a uniquely unsettling experience attributing to the game’s overall effort to be horrifically moody.
Various other environments do get introduced such as a hospital but are all still under the guise of the house. Inside the house as well, is a constant utilization of Taiwanese entertainment programs. As you watch various broadcasts, such as singing competitions, the window is open to Taiwanese culture in the 80s and states intriguing things on this specific era’s commercialism and how it was used by various cults. The broadcasts are replications of the style that was found during the time, and the effects that are used to resemble a CRT television with FMV cutscenes makes for a riveting experience.
Another tool of storytelling that’s used is a radio that plays various broadcasts, as you hear on various talk shows characters calling in for advice. As well, tabloid articles are utilized as a device for exposition that lets the player uncover the mysteries of the family at their own meticulous pace, with just enough information being withheld in a 3-hour playthrough to keep someone engaged in completing the experience in one sitting.
The sound design in Devotion is also excellent, as ambient noises unique to each year and contribute to the overall atmosphere. It’s highly suggestible that this game is played with headphones, as the 3D audio work is meticulously designed. Another factor of the game’s production that is unique to each year is with the distinct lighting variations of the environment. Utilizing a variety of warm colors to set a specific tone for each of the various encounters.
Collectibles in the game are also purposeful. Across photographs, various childhood scribbles, and even television scripts that detail and flesh out the Shin family. The plays into the factor that the story is the strongest part of the game, and that the heart comes from the familial dynamic. Each of the three central characters gets the progression and details that they deserve, going through various arcs via the numerous details that you learn over the years. With Devotion, it’s evident that you can learn a lot about a person just from reading a to-do list for shopping, an essay a child writes for school, or the ramblings of a dissatisfied wife.
Devotion is a revelatory horror game, one that manages to remain unsettling and horrific through the mood and tone that’s imparted from the game’s design and storytelling. This is refreshing since rather than relying on unearned jump scares and unending chase-sequences, the thematic elements of the game bring the experience to life. Making this arguably the first great new horror title of 2019, and a must-play for any enthusiast of the genre.
Devotion review code for PC was purchased by the reviewer
Devotion is currently unavailable on PC. More details here.
Reviews
‘The King Tide’: An Island Town Rots with Moral Decay in Canadian Folk Horror Fable [Review]
The opening scenes of director Christian Sparkes’ The King Tide set an ominous tone: a powerful storm takes down the power lines of a small island town as a pregnant woman loses her child while her dementia-suffering mother sits nearby. In the morning, as the town takes stock of the damage and the power is restored, a surprising discovery is found in an overturned boat in the harbour: a baby girl…with the ability to heal.
Writers Albert Shin and William Woods, working from a story by Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby, treat the story as something of a morality tale mixed with a fable. Following the cold open, the action jumps ahead 10 years at a point when the unnamed island (the film was shot in Newfoundland, Canada) is thriving. The fishing is bountiful, the islanders are self-sufficient and have cut ties with the mainland, and most everyone is happy.
As characters are prone to saying, it’s all thanks to Isla (Alix West Lefler), the miracle baby who has grown up worshipped by the islanders. While Mayor Bobby Bentham (Clayne Crawford) and his wife Grace (Lara Jean Chorostecki) endeavor to raise Isla like any other little girl, the reality is that the island’s entire ecosystem revolves around her miraculous powers. It is only because of Isla that they survive; every aspect of their lives – from medicine to food – relies on her.
Each day the citizens line up for their allotted time with the young girl – be it to stave off breast cancer, like Charlotte (Kathryn Greenwood), or recover from another night of heavy drinking like former doctor, Beau (Aden Young). There’s even a predetermined schedule for when she will go out on the boats and use her power to lure fish into the nets.
One fateful day, Bobby succumbs to peer pressure and alters Isla’s schedule at the last minute to accompany cod fishermen Marlon (Michael Greyeyes) and Dillon (Ryan McDonald). A childish game with fatal consequences is played, but with Isla indisposed, a young boy, who would have otherwise been fine, dies. And while the rest of the community grieves, it is Isla who is completely shaken and, unexpectedly, loses her powers.
Suddenly the entire balance of the island is thrown off. Folks like Grace’s mother, Faye (Frances Fisher), who relied on Isla to keep her dementia at bay, suddenly reckon with mortality, while the food security of the town is called into question. Faye’s late-night “support group” meetings take on an urgent and secretive tone and the townspeople claim ownership of Isla’s time despite Bobby and Beau’s protests that she needs rest to recover from her trauma.
Like the best thrillers, the politics and personalities within the community come into play as morals are compromised and the good of individuals vs the collective is played out in increasingly desperate situations. The King Tide excels because it is interested in exploring the competing motivations of the townspeople, while also resolutely refusing to paint anyone as inherently good or bad. These are desperate people, determined to remain independent and free from outside interference, while protecting their trapped-in-amber way of life.
These developments work because there’s a humanity to the characters and The King Tide wisely relies heavily on its deep bench castoff character actors to drive the conflict. Crawford is the de facto protagonist of the ensemble and he’s also the most straightforward character: Bobby is a good man and a loving father, but he’s no white knight. At several points in the film, his willingness to acquiesce to the demands of the community and retain his power causes events to spiral further out of control.
Even more fascinating are Grace and Faye, two commanding women whose capacity for maternal love is matched – or eclipsed – by their own self-interests. A mid-film discovery about Isla’s power reframes Grace’s priorities, ultimately pitting her against her husband. As a result, Grace is incredibly compelling and frustrating (in a good way) and Chorostecki, who has done great genre work on both Hannibal to Chucky, plays the moral ambiguity exactly right. Grace is a fascinating and flawed human character in a film filled with them.
The same goes for Fisher, who deftly balances Faye’s grandmotherly love for Isla with the needs of the community and, by extension, her own health demands. In the hands of a lesser performer, it would be easy to hate Faye for her actions, but Fisher’s performance perfectly captures the fierce determination and fear that drives the island’s matriarch.
Finally, there’s Aden Young, The King Tide’s secret weapon. The ten-year jump reveals that Beau has undergone the most significant transformation: while everyone else has benefitted from Isla’s powers, her presence has eliminated the need for a doctor. With the clinic effectively shuttered, Beau has become an alcoholic; a shell of his former self with no purpose.
Like Bobby, Beau is the easiest character to root for because of his selfless desire to protect Isla, but Young (renowned for his work with Crawford on Rectify) unlocks the character’s tragic pathos and, in the process, becomes the film’s emotional anchor.
Framing the moral decline of the islanders and anticipating the unexpectedly devastating climax is the natural beauty of Newfoundland. As shot by cinematographer Mike McLaughlin, there’s a steely beauty to the geography, resplendent with rocky cliffs, pounding surf, and gusty bluffs that reinforce the islanders’ isolation.
There’s a fierce pride in their struggle to survive independently, evident in the simple lodgings and the antiquated alarm bell that is rung whenever fishing ships from the mainland stray too close. It’s a chilly, atmospheric calling card for one of the most picturesque provinces in Canada, but it is a perfect complement for the folk horror narrative.
Armed with serene, beautiful cinematography, murky moral developments, and a deep bench of talented character actors, The King Tide is a quiet gem that demands to be seen. It’s one of the year’s best genre films.
The King Tide is in theaters April 26, 2024.
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