Written & Directed by Harold Brodie

With
- Emmeline Hawthorne as Theresa
- Christopher Brown as John
- Cal Wilson as Kim
- Aaron Ward as Billy

There's no doubt that this is a low budget film. The constraints show in that virtually every aspect of the film could stand some improvement. Some of the dialog needs tightening up, the actors probably wish that they could have had another take on some scenes and the score is often just kind of sitting there for no apparent reason. The overall production values remind me of a daytime soap opera. They don't make the product unwatchable, but they don't add anything to it either.

That's as ruthless as I'm going to get though. I attribute all of these problems more to a lack of budget than a lack of talent because they are sporadic. Sometimes the acting, writing, editing and even the score are good. And most importantly, the film has a strong story line. I guess that's another similarity to a soap. When an actor pauses for too long, or a piece of music isn't right for the scene, you don't care so much because you want to know what happens next. The difference, of course, is that I could care less if Sammy wakes from her coma on "Days of Our Lives," but I was fully taken in by this story of a boyfriend who is gradually exposed as a monster.

The big question of the film is whether the boyfriend is literally a monster, possibly Satan, or just an evil asshole. The answer is not totally clear, and possibly the film is meant to be ambiguous on this question. My interpretation, however, is that the boyfriend is just an evil human and that the Satanic imagery is meant to be symbolic. This approach is an improvement over the old "Satan incarnate" shtick. Why get lost in superstitious mumbo jumbo? The idea of a girl falling for someone who acts as Satan is more interesting than a girl falling for The Devil because the former could actually happen. I mean, why is a destructive, evil being so much more interesting if he turns out to be the devil? On the one hand, you have someone murdering your friends, warping your mind and ruining your life. On the other hand, you have someone murdering your friends, warping your mind, ruining your life and he has a funny birthmark.

The other thing I likes about this film was the ending. It cut through the BS in the same way as the film's premise (assuming I've got that right) did. I won't give it away too badly, but the film's protagonist is in one of those situations where you say "why doesn't she just do X?" But before you can even ask the question, she does X.

Check out the website for Orphans and Angels here.

Special Ruthless Ratings:

• Number of times the movie was paused to do something else: 1

• Pints of whisky needed to enjoy the movie: 1

• Does that mean that the movie sucks? No.

• Is it reference to something in the movie? Yes.

• What? A pint of whisky.