I stumbled upon Here Comes the Devil while searching for something to stream on Kanopy and I’m glad I did. Its IMDb score sits at a measly 5.6, so clearly it is one of the more divisive, putting-my-reputation-on-the-line films included on The Midnight Selections- but regardless, I seriously don’t have no issues defending this one. It deserves a proper critical re-evaluation.

Here Comes the Devil is a film that begins with a gratuitous, exploitative lesbian sex scene and it ends on abrupt bang. And in the middle, there is a barrage of uncomfortable suggestive sexual imagery infused into a story about a mystery involving two pre-teens. On the surface, Here Comes the Devil seems like it only exists to make others angry. But if you are willing to come along for the ride, then there is a lot to appreciate in this niche horror that, like House of the Devil, pays homage to filmmaking from the 70s and 80s, a period that was fittingly a high point for psychosexual thrillers with supernatural twists.

Here Comes the Devil is a Mexican horror by indie director Adrian Garcia Bogliano. It is about a family that stops at a truck stop when returning from a day trip to Tijuana. The children see a mountain and ask if they can explore, and their parents, Sol (Laura Caro) and Felix (Francisco Barreiro), agree hoping they can get a little alone time. Then things get weird.

The children enter an odd cave resembling a vagina while Sol and Felix get aroused in the car while talking about their first sexual encounters. (Yep.) But then the children don’t return to the truck stop after their hour is up and the parents find themselves caught in the nightmarish scenario of having lost their kids just as the daytime is coming an end. Fortunately, the police find the two children early the morning. But after the family returns home it becomes increasingly obvious that the kids are not their usual selves.

Just what happened in that vaginal-shaped cave?

Though many criticize Here Comes the Devil for his lack of restraint, I believe the film only works because Bogliano balances his indulgences with tremendous reserve. This is a film that explores mortifying subject matter, particularly because it involves the potential sexual violation of minors. The cusp of this film is its exploration of three different outcomes that might had happened in the cave, and the first two are particularly disturbing because they are grounded in the real-world. In fact, it almost comes as a relief when the film begins to offer an otherworldly explanation for the children’s behaviour, since no matter how horrible it may be, at least it is based in fiction. (There certainly are some things worse to think about than the devil.) Bogliano’s reserves his use of graphic sex and violence for scenes that deal solely with interactions between the film’s adults and in doing so, he creates an atmosphere that allows our imaginations to run wild when those other horrors involving the children are suddenly suggested.

Where Here Comes the Devil truly delivers is in its subtext. Its horrors serve as a metaphor for the distance that often grows in filial relationships after children hit the age where they become sexually aware. Bogliano depicts adolescence as a time when children realize that parents have kept secrets from them, and when children start having secrets of their own. His script also speaks to the unwelcome, uncomfortable truth that parents will have little to no awareness of their child’s early sexual encounters and that if things take a terrible and deviant turn it could lead to severe and lasting trauma. 

As the parent of a pre-teen child, I can appreciate Bogliano’s messages and empathize with the parents- or at least Sol and her desire to learn the truth, even though she is obviously not winning any parent of the year awards. But then again, speaking as a parent myself, who is? Still, Sol’s failures as a parent pale in comparison to the “act and ignore” approach of Felix, which feels like an intentional critique on the differences in parenting styles between the genders. 

This is a screenplay that offers a lot to unpack.

Boglino’s stylised direction also creates an illusion that Here Comes the Devil has a larger budget than it actual had. Its use of impressive camerawork and practical effects gives the film a 70’s feel that would allow it to sit comfortably if shown as part of a double-feature with, say, Cronenberg’s The Brood. As a director, Adrian Garcia Bogliano is not afraid to make members of the audience uncomfortable, and though critics might blast him for an opening sequence that feels juvenile, there is enough serious drama and weighty themes in the final product that it deserves recognition as a significant modern sexualized horror for adults. Bogliano passion for making original low budget horrors the way he wants is on every frame of Here Comes the Devil.

I hope Bogliano keeps making movies that are mature and divisive. As we see a new crop of horror films emerge out of Mexico, his name is one worth keeping in mind.