The Devil’s Muse is a very independent film, written and directed by Ramzi Abed, and released on DVD in 2008 by Halo 8 Entertainment, an independent film company “specializing in iconoclastic and music-driven cult movies and their related soundtracks.” If by “iconoclastic” they mean “amateurish, disjointed, and undeservedly pretentious,” then this movie fits the bill.
Let me try to synopsize the story. Lisa Small, a struggling actress in Los Angeles, auditions for a role in a small movie about the Black Dahlia (a/k/a 22-year-old Elizabeth Short, found gruesomely murdered in 1947 — found in a vacant lot in L.A., Short had been cut in two and all her blood drained, and the corners of her mouth had been slashed like the Joker’s). As Lisa reads through the script, reality starts to slide and she has difficulty differentiating herself from Short. Meanwhile, a serial killer is on the rampage, killing off all the other girls who are in the running for the lead in the Black Dahlia movie.
That’s what I guess is the plot. It’s difficult to tell for sure because the timeline is extremely disjointed and the movie is full of scenes that are trying very hard to be surreal, but are really just foolish. It doesn’t help matters that the pacing is uneven (too many art shots) and the acting is pretty bad too. The music is decent, however, although it’s not used subtly. I couldn’t decide if the movie was trying to make a point about how treacherous Tinseltown can be for women (hence the tagline: “Hollywood Murders Women”) but if it was, it should have trod a little lighter on the distracting weirdness. My prediction is that David Lynch fans will love this movie (I am not so much a David Lynch fan myself).
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