News
Join The Battle Between Angels And Demons in ‘Devil’s Hunt’
Waiting for the Son of Sparda to get back to what he does best sucks. Lucky for us, publisher 1C Company and Warsaw-based developer Layopi Games have announced a brand-new IP and game in the form of Devil’s Hunt, a third-person action game due out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in 2019.
Based on the novel “Equilibrium” by Polish author Paweł Leśniak, Devil’s Hunt has players taking on the role of Desmond, a man with demonic powers caught in the middle of the war between angels and demons. “The game features a heavy storyline that brings you back and forth between hell, modern USA, and an ancient city,” says game director Michał Sadowski.
“We plan some puzzles to solve, as well as many other obstacles that the player will have to cope with. Devil’s Hunt is intended as the first game of the series, and we want to put a strong focus on introducing the player to the game world and lore behind it.”
Like Devil May Cry‘s Dante, Desmond will rely on his supernatural abilities to put a hurt on his enemies, which involves “a robust skill and combo system,” says Sadowski. Unlike DMC, however, you’ll be able to reassign skill points at any time to mix up your play style, tailoring your strength towards physical combos or your magic abilities.
Sadowski and company are also making a point to focus on the story of the game, which from the looks of things, involves a choice for the player to make. “We focus more on showing the internal struggle of Desmond,” Sadowski says. “He’s caught up in the middle of the conflict he yet doesn’t understand. Everybody is trying to convince him to join their cause, and he tries to stay away from the agony of choice for as long as possible. Eventually he realizes that it’s not the choice that is a problem, but the people demanding it. So the story is more about growing up to the point where you can say ‘screw you!’ to the world and make your own decisions (while ripping some hearts out and smashing demons’ heads on the way).”
While there’s no gameplay footage to speak of, there is the slick teaser below showing off some pretty graphics. Obviously, we’ll be hearing more about this one in the future.
Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
You must be logged in to post a comment.