captain-balrog I can't think of another instance where I've felt the need to comment on a film that wasn't especially good, or especially bad. I think it might be because this film is nearly brilliant.--- THE SPOILER ---It's the end that lets it down. I don't mean the homunculus. I do like a homunculus. I mean how it was done. I can't say there was anything wrong with any of the elements, and I think the bit where the dead bloke leads the homunculus away like a child could have and should have worked really well. Maybe just poor execution of a good idea.--- END SPOILER --- A lot of the film was really nicely acted and it did a great job of building tension. Billy Clark's monologue about the dancer at the club was excellent. He really stole the show for me. I suppose a bloke from Belfast his age working as a hit man for a mainland gangster is nicely plausible now that the local hooding industry has dried up. Even so I thought he really carried some real menace, and it's just nice to see a fellow Belfastard in a central role once in a while.It's also nice to see another film about the occult. It was all the rage back in the 80s but it's really fallen out of favour in the last decade or two. The very mighty House of the Devil seems to have revived it a little, and I'm very much in favour. The Devil's Rock, The Devil's Business – Bring back films with 'The Devil' in the title! Overall I think this film deserves a six for a brilliant first fifty minutes.

spotlightne Years ago, the BBC in the UK used to screen new adaptations of familiar ghost stories written by leading authors of the past.These ghost stories were screened every Christmas and usually lasted anything from 30 minutes to an hour.The Devil's Business reminded me of those old BBC programmes. It was well-acted and scary in parts, with a very creepy ending. And like the BBC's output, the cast was limited to a few players.Basically the plot revolves around a gangster called Bruno who hires two hit-men, a seasoned veteran and a young man, to kill off another man who apparently lives alone.But things are not all as they first appear. And who is that little boy lurking in the dark, dark cellar? Black magic and bumps in the night are abound.Worth a rental or purchase of this DVD. Perfect for Christmas. Don't forget to keep the lights switched on.

gorguruga The Devil's Business just came across as an extremely low budget made-for-TV movie. It was heavily dependent on the conversation between just 2 people for the majority of the movie duration. In order to carry that sort of setup off you're going to need some top quality acting and while the acting was occasionally decent in this movie, it was also sometimes below average.Both Billy Clarke and Jonathan Hansler gave decent performances for the most part but Jack Gordon couldn't really match them for most of his on-screen time, although there was one scene where he demonstrated his true capability and that just about saved his credibility. Perhaps the scripting for his character was part of the problem. All the actors showed promise but they really needed more time and more takes to film the scenes perfectly. I assume either the budget didn't allow them to do this, or the director didn't spot the potential for improvement.The writing overall was good and could even be considered the stand-out feature, it's just a shame that the budget couldn't be stretched considerably to make this into a real film and bring out the writing with cut-scenes and great cinematography. Instead, nearly all the action takes place in a darkly-lit small house somewhere in England. As a result, the visual imagery is just dull and boring for most of the movie and it gets tiresome rather quickly.The production value was just a notch above the sort of movie a student might make at college or university, it was just so low that it was almost filmed like an episode of some British television show from the 80's, just sadly not with the same sort of entertainment value.All the actors had some passion to their work, the writing was decent, the direction, while flawed, showed promise. But as a complete package, a fairly terrible movie that I just can't recommend. Maybe with a bigger budget it could have been a totally different story..

perkin2000 Two hit men arrive at a house under instruction to kill the guy who lives there. They sit around talking waiting for him to get home, one of 'em goes for a Pooh just as he gets back. Timing, eh?The cast, all four of them, are very good, especially Billy Clarke as Pinner, the elder, experienced hit-man. His unblinking 10 minute monologue is flipping ace, a great, weighty centrepoint of the film. The majority of the runtime is the verbal exchange between the two hit men, there is gore and jump scares but they're not over used and the script will hold your attention as it creates a nice creeping tension.The only weak point is the very end of the film, without giving anything away, it gets, we thought, a little silly. It's a let-down, but a forgivable one as the hour leading up to it was so enjoyable and well made.Well worth a purchase/rental!