Devil's Dilemma
2025 · 8m
Directed by Darren Coyle
Genres: comedy, dark comedy, horror
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, whimsical
Two fearsome demons arrive to inject poison into Kathy's soul, but their haunting takes an unexpected turn toward awkward empathy.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A horror-comedy that flips the haunting formula by making the demons the ones learning to feel—it's exactly the kind of premise that makes people groan until they realize it actually *works*, which is when you know Felix was right about it.
Coyle demonstrates sharp control of tonal registers, threading the needle between body-horror and sentiment with the kind of formal precision that recalls early Kaufman, though the film's embrace of whimsy edges it slightly outside the lineage of rigorous dark comedy.
The turning point hinges entirely on a single beat—the moment empathy cracks through the demons' performance of villainy—and Coyle's restraint in *not* scoring it, letting awkward silence do the work, is the decision that transforms a high-concept gag into something genuinely unsettling.
Festivals
- Spooktacular Film Fest for Horror & Sci-Fi 2025, Official Selection