Devil’s Double Next Level movie review: Starring Santhanam, this meta horror comedy is an excruciating watch

Devil’s Double Next Level movie review: Fails to capitalise on its unique premise of film reviewers, devolving into a confusing mix of horror and comedy.

Devil's Double Next Level Movie Review
Director: S Prem Anand
Cast: Santhanam, Selvaraghavan, Geetika Tiwary
Rating: ★

Another comedian turned hero, Santhanam has been making films for the masses and numerous ones have worked for him luckily. His Dhilluku Dhuddu horror comedy directed by Rambhala was a hit in 2016 and the Kollywood actor has followed it with a series of others with Devil’s Double Next Level being the fourth instalment. This one, however, is written and directed by S Prem Anand who also directed the third film, DD Returns.

Devil’s Double Next Level movie review: Despite Santhanam's comedic talent, the film's execution results in a confusing mix of horror and comedy, lacking in humour and coherence.

DD Next Level: What is the story?

As the movie starts, we are introduced to the world of film reviewers and directors. Kissa 47 aka Krishna (Santhanam) is a film reviewer on YouTube and what is unique about it him is that he raps out his reviews. With 10 ‘bros’ in every sentence, Kissa tries to be an uber cool guy despite his poor education, lack of job skills or financial income. Despite this, he has a pretty rich girlfriend Harshini (Geetika Tiwary) who’s desperate to marry him. Now, comes the twist. He is invited to a special screening of a movie by director Hitchcock Iruthyaraj (Selvaraghavan) who wants Kissa to review it. When Kissa somehow lands up at Cinema Paradise with his family, they get sucked into the scary film as Hitchcock Iruthyaraj has plotted this as means of revenge on film critics. In the movie, they are no longer a family but assume different roles and things go haywire. How does Kissa and his family escape from this nightmare?

Now, Devil’s Double Next Level is a spoof film that combines aspects of several other films like The It Factor, White Lotus, Scream, and our own Tamil films as well. Santhanam has always excelled in comedy thanks to his sharp wit and comedic timing that always elicits a laugh. He’s is known for punchy one-liners, sarcastic humour, and the ability to deliver dialogues that often become viral catchphrases. The premise of the movie is funny but the writer/s clearly lose the plot given how they have written the screenplay post that major twist. Sample this - Kasthuri Shankar who plays Kissa’s extremely religious mom is seen wearing a tight mini dress and chugging beer when she gets sucked into the movie. Meanwhile, his dad (Nizhalgal Ravi), an auto driver, becomes the captain of the ship and has a PYT hanging on his arm.

And there are a whole host of random characters that crop up in this second reality along with the slasher and an evil force. There is Gautham Vasudev Menon as inspector Raghavan, spoofing his own films (Kaakha Kaakha), speaking only English and trying to romance a young woman (Kissa’s sister played by Yashika Aannaannd). We also have comedians Redin Kingsley, Rajendran, Lollu Sabha Maran, Ganesh and others. The movie is hardly funny given that it tries to create innumerable ‘funny’ situations with references to other films and the sappy dialogues elicit very few laughs.

Wasted potential

The idea of having a take on film reviewers, especially those who do YouTube reviews, was an extremely novel one and one that had a lot of potential for a relatable comedy. Sadly, director and writer Prem Kumar didn’t capitalise on this idea and in order to appeal to the masses threw in arbid horror elements as well. Santhanam sadly ends up as a caricature in this flick with nothing going for him; not even the so-called punchlines.

Ever so often through the film, Hitchcock Iruthyaraj keeps reiterating to Kissa that he has to suffer through this second reality as reviewers so easily write off a film saying ‘first half lame, second boring’. In the case of watching and reviewing Santhanam’s Devil’s Double Next Level, one can’t even write ‘first half lame, second boring’ - the entire experience of watching the film was excruciating to say the least.