The Devils Hand (2014 film)

Plot

In a close-knit Amish community, a prophecy appears to come true when six girls are born on June 6. The prophecy states that six girls will be born on the sixth day of the six month and that one of them will become the "Devil’s Hand" when she turns 18. Jacob Brown (Rufus Sewell), the father of one of the girls, manages to prevent the community's Elder Beacon (Colm Meaney) from killing them all, but one mother kills her daughter shortly after her birth and then takes her own life.

As the remaining girls come closer to their eighteenth birthday, they live with relative ignorance of the prophecy, but their actions are constantly monitored by the Elder Beacon and much of the community. Furthermore, Jacob's epileptic daughter Mary (Alycia Debnam-Carey), begins experiencing terrifying visions. As tensions rise, a mysterious figure begins to murder the girls.

After all the girls but Mary are murdered, the killer is revealed to be Mary's mother Susan (Stacy Edwards), who had been exiled from the community. As the prophecy stated that the remaining girls would be killed, Susan sought to ensure Mary would become the Devil's Hand, guaranteeing her survival. Upon turning 18, Mary assumes her role as Satan's minion and massacres the community's elders.

Cast

Reception

Fangoria and The Dissolve both panned The Devil's Hand, and Fangoria wrote that although the cinematography was nice and the film had some talented actors, the film "plays more like a CW-style teen melodrama than a serious theological terror film, especially when Mary begins hanging out with Trevor (Thomas McDonell), a boy from the next town over who just happens to be the son of the local sheriff. The movie seems more devoted to their lovey-dovey subplot than to exploring its own darker sides—including developing insinuations that Elder Beacon is a perv in addition to being a zealot. Then, at the very end, it finally remembers it’s a horror film and delivers a suitably spooky conclusion; but all the blood and thunder of the last few minutes serve mostly to point up how half-hearted the previous 80 are." Dread Central was more positive in their review, stating "While The Devil’s Hand is not the most intelligent nor tightly plotted or creative thriller to come along lately, it is well-acted, very gory and has a great-guns ending zinger that’s a fitting nod to the old school."