First, I'm really starting to hate this bald guy. Really. He was the rat bastard sadistic rapo sheriff in the latest I Spit On Your Grave. In that one he was richly and ingeniously rewarded for his evilosity. In that one the raped girl shoved a shotgun up his fundament and blew his teeth out the hard way (the really hard way?) But in this flick he gets away with all his crimes and seems to be going off on a further murder spree. Okay the spoiler: there is no chair. He says so. The old shrink, "Gandalf", says too that what's happening, ie the Cthulhu monster part, is not real. It's all in his head. But um he's just a psycho this bald guy. A psychopath. But that's the twist, you see: the psycho turns out to be a psychotic. Sure. Get to neckin' with a gal who ain't there and, yep, you're nuts, baby. So it's metaphor of course. The hoity-toities who buy into the psychobabble are just as gullable and stupid as those who buy into the supernatural hooey. The psychopath knows that and toys with them on that basis. The yob says they're weak. And proclaims himself strong. At the end, the twist has another twist: it's all con. The psychopath is pitching directly across the "4th wall" and he knows it. So the imaginary necking at the end is just more bullshit from a bloodthirsty goon. He's not talking to an imaginary girlfriend: he's talking to us, the audience. The punters. Let's call this thing "Try To Make A Jason Franchise". But, no thanks.

I have a lot of sympathy and respect for the duo Simon Boyes and Adam Mason, because they write and direct – at a relatively high tempo, I may add – horror films that are at least somewhat "wayward" without necessarily obeying to the public's mainstream demands of remakes, teen slashers and lousy sequels. Their movies certainly aren't groundbreaking or highly innovative, but they do appeal to die-hard and experienced fans of the genre because they're brutal, grim and thoroughly sinister. Their film "Broken" is still my favorite, as it's a rudimentary but very disturbing survival movie, and I really liked the quirky atmosphere of "Blood River". "Pig" I merely found a pointless effort and I haven't seen "Luster" yet. "The Devil's Chair" is a downright terrific movie throughout two-thirds of the running time! The film opens like an interesting throwback to old-school asylum horror and gradually shifts into a clever and ultra-macabre supernatural monster movie, reminiscent of the brilliant "Hellraiser" I & II, with extremely brutal violence and enormously grim set pieces. Adam Mason's regular lead protagonist Andrew Howard (who looks a lot like a lesser muscular clone of Jason Statham) stars as junkie Nick West who, together with his blond bimbo girlfriend intrudes an abandoned mental institution for a wild night of sex and drugs. The find a creepy death chair in one of the rooms and suddenly, without properly realizing what triggered it, the girl is trapped and tortured in the chair before vanishing entirely. With his criminal record and pockets full of dope, Nick naturally gets convicted for murder and, because of his crazy stories, institutionalized for four years. He's released by Dr. Willard and politely forced to return to the place of the horror, along with the Doctor himself and a couple of his students. Supposedly for a psychology study, but Willard actually other sinister things in mind, as he discovered that Nick spoke the truth and the chair is actually an invention from a formerly acclaimed scientist who created a device to separate the soul from the body. "The Devil's Chair" is tense, compelling and contains some of the grisliest ambiance and imagery that I've seen in the past decade. The asylum's interior truly looks nightmarish and also the titular chair is an effectively unsettling piece of scenery. When set in motion, it turns into a diabolical killing machine and I wouldn't advise squeamish people to watch that process. The acting performances are more than decent, the pacing is fast, and there are a few nifty details that also contribute to the entertainment value of the film, like Nick West's brief but often very witty voice-over narration in between the regular dialogs. It's a very good and horrifying horror flick with a plot, atmosphere and a fantastic monster to boot. But then … and I wish I didn't have to write these final words. The plot undergoes a very bizarre and abrupt metamorphosis and gone is all of a sudden the carefully built up intrigue and plausible morbidity. Did Boyes and Mason run out of inspiration? Where they bored and/or fed up with the direction the movie was heading? Did they want to do something totally unexpected and experimental? No idea, but all I know is that – for me personally – the movie suddenly lost all my admiration and praise. Perhaps it's just me and my miserable intellect, as I encountered several reviews stating that the twist was sheer genius. You decide.

The Devil's Chair follows the story of Nick west who after taking his girlfriend out for a crazy LSD induced night with in the walls of a deserted asylum, finds himself accused of her brutal murder and is shipped off to a mental hospital. Years later a doctor who is writing a book decides to take Nick back to the scene of the grisly murder along with some other students to find out the truth about what happened that night.It's very rare that after I watch a horror movie these days that I'm totally blown away and speechless. But The Devil's Chair did just that too me, for anyone who has become jaded and heartbroken with what horror has become in the eyes of the mainstream, it will remind you of all the reasons you fell in love with the genre to begin with. This movie has it all a well written and acted script, beautiful special effects, and a ending that will leave you running the entire film over and over through your mind as if it's stuck on repeat for weeks to come.It's really sad that a movie like this did not see a nationwide theater release as it would have been a very fun and intense experience on the big screen. And I believe audiences would of left very happy with what they paid too experience something that I'm sure a lot of today's mover goers don't have the pleasure of saying too often. If you have not seen this film it should be added to the top of your too watch list. Adam Mason does a wonderful job at keeping your attention and makes it all worth your while when it comes to the end leaving you satisfied and lost in a state that can only be described as pure horror bliss. The special effects and overall setting in this movie is beautiful. The blood and gore are realistic and the kills are very intense. I was very impressed with the way this movie was filmed, at first when I was going into this movie I was expecting something along the lines of the quality you'd find in most B horror movies. But I was very wrong the special effects and overall visuals of this movie are on par with what you see Hollywood churning out these days.But unlike Hollywood horror your also blessed with a mind blowing story that's backed up with very solid and believable acting. The dialog in this movie at times is very thought provoking and really makes you take into consideration what the main character is saying. I was highly impressed with the writing in this movie, something I don't get to say about to many horror movies these days.In the end when all is said and done and I think back to the experience I had while watching this movie I believe it deserves the rating of 9 out of 10 and a spot on my list of important horror movies to see before you die.9/10Ritualistic The Liberal Dead http://liberaldead.blogspot.com

I only bought this film because it was on sale for £3, I didn't expect much from it but strangely I enjoyed it. That's not to say I thought it was a good movie, to be honest I thought it was a pretty bad movie but I still got a kick from watching it.I think as long as you don't expect a brilliant plot, you can enjoy this film. There's a couple of overblown gore scenes but it kinda feels like a cheap 80's horror film which, if you're a fan of those, is nicely nostalgic.Because they haven't over thought the plot in an attempt to seem clever, you can tell what's going to happen from about five minutes in, but the acting in the film is surprisingly decent & the effects are pretty good to boot. I liked it a whole lot more than the likes of 'Shrooms' but then this film was never going to be as good as 'Severance'. Although if you consider they only had 2 weeks to prepare this film, with only 3 days to write the script, then they did a great job.I'll be interested in seeing the other films these guys have made to see if they can do any better.