Devil’s Domain, directed by Jared Cohn, follows Lisa (Madi Vodane), a teen girl viciously bullied by the kids at school into bulimia and self-harm, when she’s contacted by a beautiful, mysterious stranger (Linda Bella) who offers to help her take revenge on her tormentors. Once she begins to claim her vengeance, however, she starts to have second thoughts as their relationship turns sinister. Can she finish what she started without losing her soul in the process?

The film establishes early what lead to her current state with a flashback to happier times, hanging out with a friend who she tries to kiss, but is rebuked. Because of this, she instantly earns the ire of the entire school, all of whom seem to have nothing else to do other than to shout obscenities at her and another boy they refer to as “shemale,” presumably because it’s insinuated he’s gay, though he doesn’t seem to exhibit any feminine traits outside of wearing bright blazers. Devil’s Domain falls into the trap of trying too hard to hammer in its anti-bullying/anti-homophobia message that it fails to create believable characters and ends up coming off like an after-school special. The main bully feels like he came out of a cartoon and the mean girl squad that ultimately finds themselves as both the tormentors and then the victims of Lisa’s revenge are so committedly evil and devoid of human emotion that the film undermines its own efforts later to try and humanize them to create a sense of disgust in how the whole thing has gotten out of hand. Far from the meek, introverted outcast, Lisa seems to be a reasonably confident and well-adjusted girl outside of the bulimia and the cutting, despite the tremendous toll the undivided hatred of her peers must take, which makes her complete social downfall seem less realistic, but perhaps kids are crueler these days.

After a particularly traumatic incident involving one of her former friends, Andrew (), she receives a mysterious note asking if she “wants them all to die.” She checks the box marked yes, which is constitutes a binding contract at American public schools. Later that day she’s contacted over Skype by Destiny, who offers to punish the wrongdoers and invites Lisa back to her gothy sex club for some Netflix and negotiate the terms of your eternal soul. After discovering she has just lost her virginity to Satan, Lisa is initially hesitant to accept the terms of Destiny’s plan, but as often happens in these situations, she reasons the dark lord is probably on the level and just wants what’s best for her and signs on, with the stern warning that there are no refunds and attempts to deviate from the plan will be harshly punished. Most of what follows is the unfolding of Destiny’s retribution, as Lisa’s enemies begin to disappear and her social life begins to improve while her guilt and regret intensifies.

Where do I start with these characters? I guess we’ll get the parents out of the way. She has them. Her mom, Carol (Kelly Erin Decker) is an overbearing harpy that seems intent on hastening her daughter’s mental decline, who ultimately gets something of a redemption arc and starts caring, unfortunately this came after I had stopped. Her dad, Bill is an ineffectual sack of potatoes played by Michael Madsen who manages to growl his way to collecting another paycheck. There’s also Andrew (Zack Kozlow), who is said to be one of Lisa’s former friends, but isn’t given any positive qualities here to suggest why she would ever have wanted him around and ends up only factoring heavily into the film’s highly uncomfortable and tonally dissonant conclusion. That’s not a critique of the portrayal however, and when the scene calls for him to turn up the creepiness, he delivers. Vodane has to be the highlight of the film, managing a rather nuanced character admirably. There is a lot of conflict going on with this character, filled with a justifiable hatred of her bullies as well as a repulsion over what she has done, the character’s journey makes sense and there is a strong emotional connection there. Sadly, she is usually sharing a scene with Linda Bella, who sucks all of the emotion out of the room like a humanity-harvesting alien. Perhaps that’s not wholly her fault, as the writing backs her into a corner with it’s one-note detached nihilism. Little attempt is made at giving Satan her trademark insidious swagger, but if there had been any it’s hard to imagine Bella pulling it off without tripping over her toes. Intonation and emphasis are peppered throughout her speech, seemingly at random, like a sort of female Tommy Wiseau, but lacking the stellar supporting cast of The Room needed to make that work.

Aside from the dodgy writing, the narrative here almost works, with a stark tonal shift occurring that could have been very effective if it only had the necessary support. Instead what you get is a film that starts taking itself really seriously and goes full ham with it’s morality lesson without bothering to make characters the audience cares about or that feel like people. They went for jarring and they achieved their goal in that sense, but some of what is attempted here wouldn’t be in particularly good taste even if the writing was more developed and the intended shock value falls flat. There is some good shock value to be found in the gore and special effects department, however. Pretty much everything here looks practical and is quite convincing given that this is and indie film; Destiny’s full body demonic form makeup and prosthetics are particularly well-executed. It looks fine for the most part, nothing too daring, but some nice colors. The soundtrack ended up being a letdown, boasting entries from Iggy Pop, DMX, and The Onyx, I expected something eclectic and ironic, but there doesn’t seem to be much intent in the placement of these tracks and much of the film ends up sounding like someone just left their soundtrack playing in the background.

Linda Bella’s performance deserves its own highlight reel, but outside of that, I cannot recommend watching Devil’s Domain.