[Film Review] The Devil to Pay (2019)

From director and writer team Ruckus and Lane Skye (Becky) comes The Devil to Pay, a backwoods thriller based in the mountains of the Appalachians. It is a slow burning story, focused mainly on developing rich characters and maintaining a tense build-up toward an explosive end. 

The film opens on the close relationship between Lemon (Danielle Deadwyler, The Harder They Fall) and her young son on their small farm. It is revealed that Lemon’s husband has been missing for a concerning amount of time and the two must run the farm in his stead. The connection between Lemon and her son is very close, with Lemon being both a loving mother and stern caregiver, protecting her son as best she can from the truth she fears about her husband. 

When two men arrive at Lemon’s doorstep, it’s the things not said that clearly reveal the seriousness of Lemon’s predicament. She is summoned to visit Tommy (Catherine Dyer), the matriarch of the Runion clan, one of the self-governing families on the mountain, who informs her of the debt she believes she is owed from Lemon’s husband. Lemon is forced, with her son’s life left in the hands of two Runion goons, to pay the debt.

The politics of self-governance and the political nature of family rule is an interesting aspect of The Devil to Pay. There’s a certain amount of frustration watching Lemon being threatened by the woman who holds power over her purely through violence and threat alone. The hierarchy on the mountain is infuriating, with Lemon seeming to be on the bottom of the chain and therefore easily manipulated. But while Lemon is in a vulnerable position, she at no point is an incapable or weak character. She pushes back when threatened, and when it comes down to it, fights like hell when she is backed into a corner. 

While some may find the first half of the film a bit slow, this is an amazing example of the importance of building character and world. It isn’t immediately easy to understand why Lemon and her husband would be pulled into the Runion’s world and under their thumb, but as the rules are spelled out, it’s like learning a different language. Seeing Lemon stand up against the status quo is truly terrifying, as those she is fighting against see her as little more than a mild flame easily snuffed. 

The Devil to Pay is without a doubt a horrific story, but the film avoids gore and graphic violence, relying instead upon well-paced tension and a few choice moments of action. Deadwyler’s performance is spellbinding and heartbreaking, and Dyer’s Tommy is a chilling portrayal of pure cinematic evil. For those willing to sit with the emotional complexity of the story, The Devil to Pay will certainly delight. 

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