The defence The Big-Idea Head
“Form is the argument.”
Every composed frame and deliberate cut is evidence that control can be thrilling in its own right.
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Devil's Knot
Crime · Drama · Thriller · 2013
The savage murders of three young children sparks a controversial trial of three teenagers accused of killing the kids as part of a satanic ritual.
Movie details
Devil's Knot
“They say the crimes were satanic. The truth may be scarier.”
2013 Crime · Drama · Thriller 1h 54m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.2 / 10
Community rating
The savage murders of three young children sparks a controversial trial of three teenagers accused of killing the kids as part of a satanic ritual.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Devil's Knot?
For the defence
The Big-Idea Head
“You watch with your brain, not your gut.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Popcorn Loyalist
“Big screen, big feelings, no apologies.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Cassandra's Dream
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A law student's theory about the recent deaths of two Supreme Court justices embroils her in a far-reaching web of murder, corruption, and greed.
Insomnia
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Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.
They Made Me a Fugitive
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After being framed for a policeman's murder, a criminal escapes prison and sets out for revenge.
The Parts You Lose
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An unlikely friendship unfolds between a young deaf boy, Wesley, and a fugitive criminal who takes refuge in an abandoned barn on the family’s rural North Dakota farm.
Perfect Sisters
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Tired of their mother's alcoholism and a string of her abusive boyfriends, two sisters plot to kill her.
Brute Force
Crime · 1947
Timeworn Joe Collins and his fellow inmates live under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey. Only Collins' dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's chains?
The Woman in the Window
Crime · 1944
A seductive woman gets an innocent professor mixed up in murder.
The Night of the Hunter
Crime · 1955
In Depression-era West Virginia, a serial-killing preacher hunts two young children who know the whereabouts of a stash of money.
In the Heat of the Night
Crime · 1967
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Atom Egoyan
Written by
Paul Harris Boardman · Scott Derrickson
Colin Firth
Ron Lax
Reese Witherspoon
Pam Hobbs
Dane DeHaan
Chris Morgan
Mireille Enos
Vicki Hutcherson
Bruce Greenwood
Judge David Burnett
Elias Koteas
Jerry Driver
Stephen Moyer
John Fogelman
Court is in session
Put Devil's Knot on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist
“Technique in search of a pulse.”
Immaculate construction is still construction. The film may be too busy proving its craft to feel alive.