History Film / TheSudburyDevil

''The Sudbury Devil'' is a 2023 independent PsychologicalHorror period film created by Creator/AtunSheiFilms and written and directed by Creator/AndrewRakich. Set in UsefulNotes/{{Massachusetts}} Bay Colony in the 1670s in the aftermath of King Philip's War, it follows two Puritan {{witch hunter}}s -- John Fletcher and Josiah Cutting -- who arrive in the small town of Sudbury to investigate rumors of devil worship. In addition to Rakich himself, it also stars Benton Guinness as Fletcher, Linnea Gregg as Widow Gavett, and Josh Popa as Josiah Cutting.

* SelfAbuse: Goodenow is prone to this, which is taken by the witchfinders as a sign of his demonic taint. Flora also masturbates in front of Fletcher to tempt him, which works. All if it is framed as the Puritans would have seen it, being weird ritualistic violence rather than self-pleasure.

''The Sudbury Devil'' is a 2023 independent {{horror}} film by Andrew Rakich of the Website/YouTube channel Creator/AtunSheiFilms. Set in UsefulNotes/{{Massachusetts}} Bay Colony in the 1670s in the aftermath of King Philip's War, it follows two Puritan {{witch hunter}}s -- John Fletcher and Josiah Cutting -- who arrive in the small town of Sudbury to investigate rumors of devil worship. In addition to Rakich himself, it also stars Benton Guinness as Fletcher, Linnea Gregg as Widow Gavett, and Josh Popa as Josiah Cutting.

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:Fletcher fails to stop Patience from giving birth to the Devil's child, only asking that said child forever curse New England with its haunting]].

* {{Expy}}: Magistrate John Fletcher is a very deliberate one of [[Film/Ravenous1999 Captain John Boyd]]. Both are seduced into evil by the main villain [[spoiler:but persevere and end up {{Mutual Kill}}ing them at the end, except in Fletcher's case TheBadGuyWins and he winds up using his seed to birth the Devil's child]].

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Rakich's "Birth Of an American Town" series on his main Youtube channel discusses how this was actually ''illegal'' in Puritan New England, although even Cotton Mather admitted it was so rampant that the laws against it were never really enforced. [[spoiler: Goodenow is prone to this, which is taken by the witchfinders as a sign of his demonic taint. Flora also masturbates in front of Fletcher to tempt him, which works.]]

* AmbiguousSituation: Enforced in one scene, with a trick self-admittedly borrowed from ''Film/AmericanPsycho''. It was shot twice, with Rakich giving two completely different performances in each; one where Mr. Gavett is just a normal, kindly fellow offering hospitality to the witch hunters and in another a flamboyantly proud servant of the devil barely able to conceal his glee at manipulating the protagonists. Shots from the two were then spliced together, making it just as hard for the audience to discern which is the truth as the witch finders.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: [[spoiler: Goodenow is prone to this, which is taken by the witchfinders as a sign of his demonic taint. Flora also masturbates in front of Fletcher to tempt him, which works.]]

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Most of the characters portray the regressive social attitudes of the time, especially the protagonists Fletcher and Cutting. They routinely denounce Native Americans as savages who deserved to be wiped out, and cast Africans as unthinking brutes. Fletcher actually comes to a ''more'' racist opinion about Africans than even the source he quotes, who at least [[YouAreACreditToYourRace felt that some with African ancestry could demonstrate intelligence and humanity]]; Fletcher dismisses all non-Christians as [[CreativeSterility incapable of creative thought]].

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Night falls hard here, sirs. And with it comes a most dreadful dark and a most heavy silence."'']]

* EvilVersusEvil: [[spoiler:Ultimately, the film depicts a struggle between the LawfulEvil of the Puritan witch-hunters and the ChaoticEvil of the Satan-worshipping witches.]]

* LovecraftCountry: The town of Sudbury is very isolated and remote at this point in history, making it an ideal setting for spooky gothic horror.

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Most of the characters portray the regressive social attitudes of the time, especially the protagonists Fletcher and Cutting. They routinely denounce Native Americans as savages who deserved to be wiped out, and cast Africans as unthinking brutes. Fletcher actually comes to a ''more'' conservative opinion about Africans than the racist source he quotes, who at least [[YouAreACreditToYourRace felt that some with African ancestry could demonstrate intelligence and humanity]]; Fletcher dismisses all non-Christians as [[CreativeSterility incapable of creative thought]].

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Most of the characters portray the regressive social attitudes of the time, especially the protagonists Fletcher and Cutting. They routinely denounce Native Americans as savages who deserved to be wiped out, and cast Africans as unthinking brutes. Fletcher actually comes to a ''more'' conservative opinion about Africans than the racist source he quotes, who at least [[ACreditToYourRace felt that some with African ancestry could demonstrate intelligence and humanity]]; Fletcher dismisses all non-Christians as [[CreativeSterility incapable of creative thought]].

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Most of the characters portray the regressive social attitudes of the time, especially the protagonists Fletcher and Cutting. They routinely denounce Native Americans as savages who deserved to be wiped out, and cast Africans as unthinking brutes.

''Be the devil that we so richly deserve.''