Reel Review: Devon (2024)

A great location and ample atmosphere serve “Devon” well, but reality TV star JWoww’s directorial debut doesn’t make enough of its assets.

Jenni “JWoww” Farley, of Jersey Shore fame, makes her directorial debut in the ultra-low-budget, found-footage horror film Devon, which she also scripted. In the film, a group of individuals from different backgrounds are brought together for a singular purpose: to unravel a mystery and locate clues to explain the disappearance of a young girl named Devon.

Each player has responded to an online call posted by Devon’s parents, promising a five-way split of $100,000 for a team willing to visit the abandoned mental hospital Devon once called home. Those chosen are armed with video cameras and instructed to record and document everything.

It’s unclear why they have been chosen, what they are expected to find, or why Devon’s parents are looking for clues so many years after her disappearance. Most people would ignore such a sketchy setup, but the promised payout is enough to lure a ragtag team of explorers.

After some awkward introductions, the five of them—the emotional center Kat (Tara Rule), the somewhat troubled Carly (Lauren Carlin), the odd and reserved Alison (Rotisha Geter), the level-headed Jared (Hank Santos), and the snarky William (Steven Etienne)—enter the asylum and immediately get locked in.

Action is captured through a combination of handheld cameras carried by each member of the group and security cam footage throughout the asylum.

Most of the runtime is spent immersed in darkness with lots and lots of screaming. This is intercut with a police station interrogation of Alison, the sole survivor of the doomed expedition.

Undoubtedly, this is an ultra-low-budget affair, but Farley works to make this an asset rather than a hindrance.

The best way to maximize a limited budget when making a horror film is to keep your characters trapped in a single location. Securing the right location is more than half the battle in making a compelling, effectively terrifying film. The perfect setting does a lot of the heavy lifting, creating atmosphere and intrigue from the start.

To Farley’s credit, she hits this challenge out of the park.

Devon was shot at the long-abandoned Pennhurst State School and Hospital, which closed in 1987 after years of controversy. Originally built to house physically and mentally ill individuals, the institution had a history of abysmal, inhuman patient conditions—first exposed in a 1968 investigative series and later in a 1981 Time magazine article.

The historic building has now been partially converted into a popular haunt attraction known as the Pennhurst Asylum. It’s sprawling and imposing, aesthetically impressive on the outside but effectively unnerving on the inside.

Farley was inspired to shoot there after filming Snookie and JWoww there in 2011/2012. She smartly leverages the location’s grim history, incorporating it into the film’s plot.

Farley knew she wanted the film to be reality-based, bringing together a diverse group of people who all responded to a random online casting call (of sorts) in a nod to her time on Jersey Shore. She also wanted her first feature to be shot similarly, largely unscripted and with a filmed-on-the-fly feel to enhance the authenticity.

When beginning the project, she admits to having little more than a great location, a rough concept, and a strong idea for an ending.

Ultimately, that start-shooting-and-see-where-it-goes mentality is evident, as Farley relies on atmosphere alone to keep audiences engaged, with very little narrative development.

For fans of found footage, seeing people scream and run through the dark halls of an abandoned location may be enough to maintain intrigue.

Others, however, will quickly become bored and frustrated with the lack of anything substantial happening.

There’s a lot of unfocused, handheld, shaky cam footage. It’s intentionally low-tech, designed to look like the characters believably shot it, but it’s often hard to watch and grows tiresome quickly. It’s meant to be found footage, but we quickly pan from one character perspective to another, with no rhyme or reason about how or why this footage was edited together in this chaotic way.

There’s almost no narrative setup, and it makes little sense why these characters are in this situation.

For most of the film, I felt like I was watching people in a YouTube walkthrough of a haunt. There were a lot of loud noises, screaming, and implied spookiness, yet you can’t see much of anything. You believe it’s scary for the participants, but you never feel scared yourself.

We get some overt Blair Witch references, which may or may not be charming for found footage fans (like me). Unfortunately, Devon offers nothing new, innovative, or exciting to the subgenre.

For me, the characters were very hard to invest in. The acting is incredibly rough.

We can assume that’s somewhat intentional to make them feel more real, but it mostly just feels off-putting and makes it hard to care about their plight. We spend much time in the “let’s get to know each other” phase as they attempt to explain why they are there. It was painful to watch with dialogue like, “I just literally love money.”

It all starts to wear too thin—which isn’t great, considering Devon clocks in at just over an hour.

On the plus side, the revelation about what’s happening does a decent job of providing some answers, but its effectiveness will be a matter of personal taste. I hoped for a far more satisfying resolution, especially given how much of the film’s success hinges on the mystery element.

The lure of a significant financial reward helps somewhat to address that common found-footage frustration: that point when we all collectively scream, “Why the hell are you still filming?!”

I did appreciate how Farley tried to make the most of her creepy location and invited viewers to stare closely at the screen for spooky happenings in the background.

Ultimately, however, too much didn’t work for me. This includes a thin story, a lack of legitimate scares, uneven pacing, and simply too little happening. As is often the case, the found footage concept feels like a forced conceit to make a film on the cheap with little scripting or polish.

I respect filmmakers, especially those venturing behind the lens for the first time, who get creative to maximize their resources and obfuscate their lack of technical expertise. However, using found footage isn’t a free pass, and you must be thoughtful about utilizing it.

I wanted to enjoy this more than I did. I believe Farley is passionate about horror, and she has a lot of great ideas. Despite it failing to resonate with me, there is likely fun to be had if you manage your expectations—especially at a lean seventy-two-minute runtime.

I’ve seen some found footage fans respond much more favorably to Devon, so it might be worth checking out if you truly love the subgenre.