Hostage To The Devil review: Presents an atmosphere that is most definitely chilling, but then the rest of the documentary comes across as something disappointingly tame.
Hostage to the Devil review
Marty Stalker’s well-shot documentary, Hostage to the Devil, takes its title from one of the books written by its central focus figure; Father Malachi Martin. Father Martin was an Irish Catholic priest and prolific writer on the Catholic Church. During the course of his life in the church, Father Martin was heavily involved in the preparations of the Second Vatican Council, before becoming disillusioned by the churches’ reforms. Asking to be released from certain Jesuit vows, Malachi moved to New York in the 1960’s and became a prolific writer f a total of 17 novels that were often very critical of the Catholic Church. Some of his most work focused on Satanism and exorcism. This is what predominantly takes the focus of Stalker’s feature, a documentary that while initially quite provoking, fails to truly strike a strong argument and ends up being somewhat aimless.
The figure of Malachi Martin is undoubtedly interesting. His dismissal of his Jesuit lifestyle and his further attacks on the Church following his break with their traditions. His life in New York, in which he became involved in a number of exorcisms seems to be the focus of this film initially, with some stylish recreations of Malachi’s home and strong sense of foreboding. What follows is an account of Malachi’s career, inter-cut with interviews of those who followed him and were friends, without really taking much note of the other side of the argument.
Hostage to the Devil review
This documentary becomes much more of a focus on the charismatic character of Malachi than it does his more controversial aspects. His line of work as an exorcist is touched upon, mainly his last case which many of his friends believe was more a battle for his soul than it was for the little girl he was exorcising. Much of the film is mostly focused on a lot of Malachi’s friends who thoroughly believed that he went toe-to-toe with demons. With a lack of the other side of the argument, you get the sense that the filmmakers themselves believe the stories too. It’s an issue particularly when a lot of what is claimed to be truth can be quite easily explained away logically amongst yourselves.
The main problem with this account of Malachi is that it constructs that strong of a through-line. Where initially it seems to be wanting to focus on Malachi’s last exorcism, it becomes much more of an account of his life without touching on some of the many more controversial aspects of his career (which involved hiding aspects of his past, and cases of mistaken identity, not to mention the possible fraudulent nature of his exorcisms). As a result, Hostage to the Devil never sinks in its hook and doesn’t become all that engaging. Malachi is, without a doubt, an interesting figure, but the film never seems to have the nerve to delve into the more controversial aspects of his character.
There are flashes of a strong talent in Stalker. The recreations that book-end the movie have a well-dressed sense of dread, and do present the notion that we may dive in to something quite chilling. It presents an atmosphere that is most definitely chilling, but then the rest of the documentary comes across as something disappointingly tame. There is an interesting central figure here, and a great deal of potential to create an interesting portrait of s controversial figure both within and outside the Catholic Church. Get James Wan on this and we may get something juicy.
