Film Review:
Demons
SO, this one is just stupid.
True Horror
FAMOUSLY, there are three primal fears: illness, madness and aggressive high-street leafleters, and Demons starts with a thrilling chase as one of our protagonists Cheryl is unable to evade a man inviting her to a special showing of a movie. Truly, director Lamberto Bava knows the real horror of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Oh, and then an eclectic cast of characters gather to watch the movie, and its horror spills out from the screen and into the audience, who then have to battle for their survival.
A Real Horror Show
ANYONE who has seen any number of terrible 00s teen slashers understands the formula by now: gather together a group of loud and obnoxious teenagers, then enjoy them being murdered one by one. It's an exercise in vacuity, junk food for the mind. Demons may have dissimilar trappings initially to that audience, but once the core ensemble-ish cast takes its place, it becomes clear enough that is the story we are very much in for.
Ensemble-ish because Demons is a fundamentally muddled film. There are audience-insert protagonists that are mostly de-emphasised through much of the movie, most of the characters move as one big screaming mob. The really fun premise becomes sort of muddled quickly and receives absolutely no development. Nothing, really, receives any kind of development. Often the physical locations are is unclear: the geography of the rather beautiful cinema is under-utilised. About halfway through a subplot is introduced only for nothing to happen with it. The result is basically a big, incompetent mush - although it has great productions and a lot of the shots actually look really good too.
Ew
FOR what it is worth, once the demons show up the film absolutely commits to being disgusting. The special effects are great, and horrible. Transformations and costumes are cartoonish in all of the right ways, and the violence is unflinching. It is everything that a horror B-movie can, and should, be in this case.
A special shout-out goes to a specific moment later on in the film, where one of the characters appears to give birth out of her back to a distorted gremlin-type creature. It is so over the top and demonic that it feels like it is entirely wasted on this movie.
A Big Surprise
DEMONS is a silly horror with great 80s special effects, no shortage of gore and some really big silly set-pieces. It is very far short of a good film, and yet it should at least be a highly entertaining romp. It isn't. It just really isn't. A large chunk of the movie you're not really sure what exactly is happening, if the movie is really going anywhere or why you should give two shits about any of the characters. In any real way it is difficult to engage with whatever is going on at any point.
Part of the problem is it is a little too competent to be properly incompetent. A lot of it looks good, and structurally the narrative very classic. Some of the cheesy moments feel very self-knowing and play up to it. It's just not bad enough to be properly entertaining or in any sense interesting, but its not good enough to be, you know, good.
Finish With a Bang (Or At Least a Decapitation)
THINGS do eventually turn around when everyone except the final two characters die. Suddenly it feels like the film recovers a sense of direction and narrative drive, aided by the escalation in ridiculous set-pieces. The movie is able to translate into something of a romp, and feel entertaining by then. Before long it becomes extremely 80s, even rather post-apocalyptic.
Not enough, however, to really save an underdeveloped and unengaging mess.
Ew
FOR what it is worth, once the demons show up the film absolutely commits to being disgusting. The special effects are great, and horrible. Transformations and costumes are cartoonish in all of the right ways, and the violence is unflinching. It is everything that a horror B-movie can, and should, be in this case.
A special shout-out goes to a specific moment later on in the film, where one of the characters appears to give birth out of her back to a distorted gremlin-type creature. It is so over the top and demonic that it feels like it is entirely wasted on this movie.
A Big Surprise
DEMONS is a silly horror with great 80s special effects, no shortage of gore and some really big silly set-pieces. It is very far short of a good film, and yet it should at least be a highly entertaining romp. It isn't. It just really isn't. A large chunk of the movie you're not really sure what exactly is happening, if the movie is really going anywhere or why you should give two shits about any of the characters. In any real way it is difficult to engage with whatever is going on at any point.
Part of the problem is it is a little too competent to be properly incompetent. A lot of it looks good, and structurally the narrative very classic. Some of the cheesy moments feel very self-knowing and play up to it. It's just not bad enough to be properly entertaining or in any sense interesting, but its not good enough to be, you know, good.
Finish With a Bang (Or At Least a Decapitation)
THINGS do eventually turn around when everyone except the final two characters die. Suddenly it feels like the film recovers a sense of direction and narrative drive, aided by the escalation in ridiculous set-pieces. The movie is able to translate into something of a romp, and feel entertaining by then. Before long it becomes extremely 80s, even rather post-apocalyptic.
Not enough, however, to really save an underdeveloped and unengaging mess.
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