The Sudbury Devil is a 2023 independent supernatural horror film written and directed by Andrew Rakich in his directorial debut.

The film is set in late 17th century New England and follows a pair of witch hunters as they venture into the wilderness outside the town of Sudbury, Massachusetts, in search of demonic forces.

The film is notable for its detailed authenticity to the era, including period sets, wardrobe, dialogue, and especially its use of the Early Modern English dialect.

[1] In 1678, two years after the end of King Philip's War, the Puritan witch hunters John Fletcher and Josiah Cutting travel to the small town of Sudbury, Massachusetts, investigating rumors of devil worship in the area.

There they meet Reverend Thomas Russell and a disturbed local man named Isaac Goodenow, who claims to have seen demonic forces at work in a clearing outside of town.

While searching the forest nearby, they come across the campsite of a seemingly mad black woman named Flora, whom Goodenow identifies as a slave of the widow Patience Gavett.

When Fletcher pleads for her to spare his friend, she mocks him and tells him that she knows of the crimes he committed during the war fighting in the company of Captain Samuel Mosley.

The next day, Patience, still disguised as Mr. Gavett, leads Fletcher to Cutting, who appears to be rotting alive, and leaves them to kill Reverend Russell.

Pre-production on The Sudbury Devil began when Rakich wrote the first draft of the script around Halloween 2019 while he worked to expand his YouTube channel "Atun-Shei Films."

[2] Rakich was able to use funds raised from his Patreon page and YouTube channel during the extended pre-production to further finance the film, bringing the production budget up to roughly $25,000.

In an interview with Daily Grindhouse, Rakich remarked, "Part of the reason we went with self-distribution was that by releasing through Vimeo's VHX service, we could basically get a much larger slice of the pie than by going through a traditional distributor.

"[3] Giallo Julian of Dread Central highly praised the film, describing it as "beautifully shot, well-performed, suitably eerie, and appropriately grotesque," adding, "any other indie flick will be hard-pressed to surpass The Sudbury Devil by this year's end.