Jessica Raine and Peter Capaldi and a weird unblinking little boy are superb in this timely horror – which has all the creepy components to be essential viewing
I think it would be really fun to cast a child actor in the role of “freaky little creep”. It can’t be fun casting child actors for literally any role other than that. Can you imagine the plummy audition tapes you have to trudge through. The unbearable earnestness of their polite little voices! The whispering encouragement of parents off screen! How weirdly unconvincing children are when you ask them to play a “child”! No wonder the industry tried to get as many movies out of Macaulay Culkin as possible before puberty got to him. He was the only kid who could ever act.
Anyway, there’s a weird little creep boy in The Devil’s Hour (from Friday, Prime Video), you will be pleased to hear. He’s really horrible. He’s always staring through windows at nothing while not blinking. Every time you hug him in the dead of night he goes: “Mummy, who’s that man?” then you turn round, afraid, and stare at nothing. All his teachers are frightened of him. His own father is frightened of him. He looks like he’s cold to the touch. He waves too slowly to be in any way normal. I want him very far away from me.
