The Five Devils

The Five Devils can be read as a metaphor for the sixth sense of children, who are able to perceive things that remain hidden to adults, and as a reflection on entangled human relationships that cannot be rationally tamed. My partner and I may have a child that we love above all else, but that does not mean that we are meant for each other and must stay together until death. While the film does not stylistically approach the experiments that the notion of temporal flashbacks triggered by olfactory reactions conjures up, it does present a gripping story of one seemingly ordinary family whose members are given a second chance through slightly fantastical events. The ending is rich in interpretation and Léa Mysius works with supernatural motifs and humorous interludes in a natural and effective way. I was pleasantly drawn in all the time, and not only thanks to Adèle Exarchopoulos, with whom I managed to fall in love five times after Blue Is the Warmest Color. She’s like fine wine. (07/03/2022)

The Five Devils is a catchy genre piece, and the premise certainly had the makings of a solid and fateful thriller, but it unfortunately ended up somewhere in the middle, as if the filmmakers had thrown away their higher ambitions and settled for the safe confines of a family melodrama. In other words, instead of hitting all the strings in the finale, it quietly fizzles out into the void. And that’s a shame. [KVIFF 2022] (07/12/2022)

This review contains spoilers. Wow, I'd really like to see a serious horror story about a kid from the future terrorizing his parents' past homosexual partners to get a chance to be born! That has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, The Five Devils hints at that motif only slightly and never fully develops it. As a result, the film doesn’t have enough of the genre and fantasy to satisfy me, but at the same time, it's too fantastical and far-fetched to be taken as a serious drama and to relate to the characters. (56th KVIFF) (07/10/2022)