Ursula Dabrowsky has been slowly crafting her Demon Trilogy to continue her fascination with demonic possession and the fragility of the human mind. Where Family Demons (2009) and Inner Demon (2014) fostered the fears and anxieties that unfold through isolation and complexities of a disturbing or unsettled ménage, her third instalment, Devil’s Work grounds these ideas and gradually shifts the sands of perspectives in an almost seamless single take.

Once again, Dabrowsky chooses a remote setting as her playground, following a couple, Charlie (Cassandra Kane) and Dustin (Mark Fantasia (Bad Girl Boogey) who plan a romantic getaway at a quiet cottage away from life’s ailments; only to be hounded by Charlie’s sibling, Linda (Luca Asta Sardelis – Storm Boy).

Dabrowsky delightfully unfolds the traumatic episode with ripples of paranoia, meticulously crafting a simmering storyline, ready to boil over at any given moment.

As the audience is tantalisingly told about Lindy by her sibling Charlie, we begin to paint the picture of a disturbed mind, who is on the brink of sanity, harbouring some ill feelings and terrorised by a darkness that consumes her. Once the scene is set or our predetermined ideas settle about Lindy and her deranged behaviour, the audience is then presented with a harrowing notion; Charlie and Dustin are not alone. Somehow Lindy has found out where they are and is about to rip apart any ideals of mystique that the couple had hoped would be born out of their weekend.

It is the solitude that will haunt them and determine if they are to survive their ordeal and the extremes that Lindy will put them through.

The Prognosis:

Every family has their ailments, but what if a sibling was so dangerously unhooked that a very real danger could threaten your world?

Ursula Dabrowsky is well and truly in her comfort zone, revisiting similar themes for her third feature.  Beneath this simple premise is a dark and disturbing tale that moulds itself around you and slowly consumes you.

Dabrowsky not only has the gift of piloting the voyeur through a disconcerting vision, but she is also ably supported by cinematographer, Maxx Corkindale to lure into a false trance, before subjecting us with Luca Asta Sardellis’ wonderfully fractured portrayal of Lindy.

These are how stories should be told to unsettle the soul.

– Saul Muerte

Devils Work is screening as the Opening Night feature for A Night of Horror International Film Festival on Thursday 28 Sept @6.30pm.

Plus Q&A with Ursula Dabrowsky and Cassandra Kane.

It also screens with short feature, Mother Tongue