Heavy-metal painter Jesse Hellman (Ethan Embry), his equally metal daughter Zooey (Kiara Glasco), and his amused-but-exasperated wife Astrid (Shiri Appleby) move into a house, in which some "accidental" deaths have occurred. Jesse begins to hear vague, demonic chanting, and finds himself falling into trances. His paintings take a darker turn. And Ray Smilie (Pruitt Taylor Vince), the deranged former occupant of the house, begins to come by...
This movie contains the following tropes:
- Ax-Crazy: Ray Smilie, the crazed serial killer.
- Black Comedy: Jesse's creative use of Ray's guitar at the end.
- Black Speech: The demonic voices throughout the film speak in some sort of otherworldly tongue.
- Color Motif: Red. Ray's tracksuit, the crucifix on the front door window, the Flying V guitar, the gas tank and lighter, the copious amounts of blood, and, of course, all the Big Red Devil imagery.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The morbidly obese Ray trying to win over Zooey with gifts and later licking her sweat and calling her the "sweetest candy" has some pedophiliac overtones.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Jesse starts having violent, hazy red visions in his sleep, which eventually come to pass by the end of the film.
- Extreme Mêlée Revenge: Ray's fate at the hands of Jesse and the Flying V guitar.
- Hearing Voices: The men who live in the house seem to be plagued by what is implied to be the Devil speaking to them. The voice(s) tells him Ray to kill children. And it inspires Jesse to paint bizarre satanic art pieces that seem to be prophetic of Ray's crimes.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Ray is beaten to death and impaled by his own guitar.
- Mad Artist: After moving into the house, Jesse is compelled to paint extremely vivid and haunting artwork of fire, children in peril, and demonic imagery.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Is Satan really talking to Ray and Jesse? Or is Ray just crazy, and Jesse just... Jesse?
- Obviously Evil:
- An art curator named Leonard (who is likely named after a demon from the Dictionnaire Infernal) who owns a studio called "Belial" probably isn't trustworthy.
- Also Ray. A dirty, clearly unstable, overweight man in a bright red track suit. He manages to get around pretty easily, even after the police are on to him.
- Papa Wolf: Jesse is very protective of his daughter Zooey. Ray finds out firsthand just how far Jesse will go to protect her.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Ray is clearly a little... off.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The police handle things pretty well. But despite their competence, they don't manage to be much help.
- Reluctant Psycho: Ray doesn't want to kill anyone, but he believes he has to to appease the voices in his head.
- Satan: Possibly the film's Greater-Scope Villain.
- Serial Killer: Ray.
- Sweet Tooth: Ray is seen eating from a big bowl of candy while sitting alone in his car.
- Tragic Mistake: Played with. It looks like Jesse's meeting with the art gallery owner will make him late to pick up Zooey. But then his car backfires on the way to her school.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Zooey calls out Jesse for threatening to call the cops on Ray. Although considering that he was an intimidating, clearly mentally unstable man, you can hardly blame him. Especially once you learn that the guy's a child killer.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: One may not be blamed for feeling sorry for Ray, at least before he goes off the deep end.
- Would Hurt a Child: Ray murders children to appease the Devil.
