THE DEVIL TO PAY/ RECKONING
US, 2019, 87 minutes, Colour.
Danielle Deadwyler, Catherine Dyer, Jayson Warner Smith, Adam Boyer, Brad Carter, Luce Rains, Charles Black, Tim Habeger, Parisa Johnston, Donnie Johnson.
Directed by Ruckus and Lane Skye.
At the opening of the film, information is given about various groups who took refuge in the Appalachian mountains in the 18th and 19th centuries, and their descendants still there, laws under themselves.
At the centre of this small, low-budget drama, written and directed by husband-and-wife team, Ruckus and Lane Skye, is an African-American mother, her husband missing, caring for her young son with tenderness and with discipline and resolve. She is played by Danielle Deadwyler, who strongly resembles a young by Viola Davis (and of Viola Davis role).
Two men, one in suit and tie, the other rough, arrived to demand that she goes to see the matriarch of the mountains (Catherine Dyer), who is always seen baking in her kitchen. She is tough but also smarmy, demanding compensation for a stolen watch by Lemon’s husband. The film shows Lemon going to a local dealer, getting the job of delivering sulphuric acid to a strange sect who are performing a ritual “back to the ether”, despising the body and actually ritually dropping sulphuric acid on the cult leader who dies. The cultures let Lemon go.
There are further complications when members of the dominant family threaten Lemon, especially after she discovers her husband’s truck with “Thief” smeared in blood and his severed hand.
The revenge becomes somewhat bloodthirsty with various killings, with Lemon enticing one of her pursuers into the cult community and their pouring sulphuric acid over him. There is also revenge on the matriarch.
This is a law and order, bloody law and order, within the harsh traditions of the mountains – but also a focus on a strong woman who is able to escape from the community who operate by what they call the Creed.
- The titles? Debts, the language of the devil, and the taking account of debts?
- The Appalachian setting, the beauty of the mountains, the frequent vistas of the mountains, the audience, the motion photography of the skies? Light and darkness?
- Lemon, age, the marriage to her husband, his disappearance, suspicions, finding his truck, the severed hand, the writing of Thief in the car, his injuries, his bleeding on his long walk to the hospital? With her son, the tenderness, the meals, his being tired, the chores, the story about the crows and commitment?
- The arrival of the two men, business, on behalf of the matriarch, sending Lemon off to meet the matriarch, their staying with the little boy? Drawings with him? Lemon’s return, challenging the men, making them sleep outside? Their digging the grave, the puzzle, later the shootings and putting the bodies in the grey, burying the man alive?
- Lemons walk through the mountains, meeting the matriarch, tough, her smile, her family, always baking, comments on bad ingredients, the demands for compensation, the watch? Lemon bringing back the watch, the wrong watch, the debt to be paid? Lemons final return, shooting the matriarch, taking her money?
- Lemon on the job, the sulphuric acid, driving through the countryside, the cult, the Creed not applicable, the dress, tattoos, the ceremony, the leader, the chant of “return to the ether”, his being naked, the acid on him, his death? Lemon’s reaction? Fleeing? Her later returning, leading her pursuer to the cult, the leader laid out in death, the assistant taking control, the confrontation by the pursuer, the gun, the command for the community to attacking, the sulphuric acid, his death, his corpse on the truck, buried?
- Lemon, meeting the other family member, his gun, his being shot? Lemon taken, the pursuer and his philosophical discussions, language?
- Lemon, her abilities, using her wits, driving the vehicles, interchanging with the family vehicle at her truck, finally packing, taking her son, driving away, to a new life?
- Audience reaction to this revenge story, the harsh laws and an eye for an eye?
