This Satan doesn't give away tacos

Pity poor Tom. He puts in an intense last minute effort on his economics paper, sprints to his professor's office, arriving minutes after the deadline to find only a locked door with an angry note attached to it. He ends up getting a D on the paper and agonizing over the fact that he doesn't even like econ—he's just majoring in it to please his overbearing parents. His post-D angst irritates his girlfriend Beth, who suggests that they take some time apart from each other.

COURTESY PEDRO KOS Blake Edwards, SM '02, and Clarissa Ward, JE '02, share a devilish moment with hot wax.

We can all empathize in some way with Tom's situation, and that's just what Blue Devil, the new feature-length student film written and directed by Pedro Kos, SY '01, is relying on. The plot, which finds Tom (Blake Edwards, SM '02) signing away his soul to a very alluring devil named Sadie (Clarissa Ward, JE '02) for reasons both mental and physical, takes a backseat to countless references to Yale life. CAs, protesters in Beinecke Plaza, Mental Hygiene, and improv groups all get skewered or name-checked in the process.

As it turns out, this is a good thing. Blue Devil knows its audience and does well at getting it to laugh at itself. This is mostly due to Edwards' fantastically dry performance, which perfectly captures a student who has gone through the Ivy League wringer and emerged stressed-out and cynical. His delivery makes Tom's endless laments about his inadequacy ("I'm not smart, I just got into this place because they needed another white Anglo-Saxon male") droll and entertaining. Ward evolves smoothly from charming to sinister and is at her best when she's hovering somewhere in between the two, as when she reassuringly tells Tom, "I think you're very charming" and then seductively adds, "And I also think that you should come upstairs." Although the character of Beth (Margaret Miller, BR '01) is a bit underdeveloped, Miller does a solid job of playing the straight woman amongst the soul-selling shenanigans.

Kos and his crew make fine use of their surroundings, which adds to the self-referential quality of Blue Devil. Harkness Tower and the stacks both look appropriately creepy when they pop up in Tom's dream sequences, and Sadie's dark, candlelit Saybrook dorm room contrasts nicely with Beth's sterile Swing Space apartment. Perhaps most effective is the floodlit fantasy sequence when Tom first sees Sadie— which ironically takes place in the Saybrook dining hall, a location not exactly known for its amorous atmosphere.

For a student film, Blue Devil is technically impressive. There is some shaky camerawork and mismatched sound, but there are an equal amount of clever scenes, and Kos generally stays true to the horror-movie style that he is satirizing. The ambitious "party" (most parties I've been to don't involve leather-clad people fawning all over each other) scene, a disorienting series of quick cuts, colored lighting, and skewed camera angles, works particularly nicely. At times Kos relies a bit too heavily on montage; the series of shots documenting Tom's newfound academic success, athletic prowess, and popularity with the ladies drags on but is redeemed by the humorous titles of his A-garnering econ papers.

Film

Blue Devils Written and directed by Pedro Kos Produced by Aaron Kogan Nick Chapel Fri., Apr. 7, and Sat., Apr. 8, 8 p.m. $5, $3 student Davies Auditorium

Although Blue Devil resolves itself a bit hastily, the quick ending leaves Kos more time to focus on the breezy, tongue-in-cheek take on Yale life that works so well in the film's first half. Comedy is paramount here: unlike another current film about an Ivy League university beginning with a Y, Blue Devil wears its campiness on its sleeve. Thankfully, pot shots at obvious targets—i.e. Harvard and John Stamos—are kept to a minimum, and the film primarily directs its wit inward. In an atmosphere that's all too serious, Blue Devil is a reminder that Yale students need to have a sense of humor about themselves. And avoid business dealings with Satan.

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