Demonic (2021) Review

Horror Film Reviews Sci-horror
Alex Humphrey
August 29, 2021
0
558
6 minutes read

Opening FrightFest 2021 Neil Blomkamp’s Demonic is not only a great Sci-Horror it is also a testament to what can be achieved even during a pandemic. Written and directed by the Chappie director when one of his other large scale projects ground to a halt the whole movie was made during lockdown with any and all resources Blomkamp could get his hands on.

This low budget horror made with a crew of around 25 to 30 people, is high on ideas, pushing the Hollywood director to innovate in ways he would never have to do on big budget star studded epics like Elysium. In fact, though totally different in subject matter, Demonic is most reminiscent of his social charged Sci-Fi District 9 in its dark tone and genre shifting narrative.

Opening in the nightmarish setting of the sanatorium, so closely linked to the main character Carly’s (Arrow star Carly Pope) disturbed mother Angela (Nathalie Boltt from Riverdale), we quickly learn that the mother and daughter are deeply estranged after Angela committed a series of unspeakable acts in Carly’s past.

Attempting to move on with her life, the bad relationship has left a festering wound, one that is ripped open when Martin (Vampire Diaries Chris William Martin) an old friend with some strange ideas, says he has been contacted by a treatment center where her mum is being looked after.

Letting her curiosity get the better of her, Carly heads to Therapol, a high tech facility where she meets the business-minded Michael (Michael J Rogers) and the kinder hearted Daniel (Terry Chen from Jessica Jones) who both inform her that her mother was transferred to them from prison and is in a coma, totally unresponsive and suffering from lock in syndrome.

Specialising in cutting edge experimental methods, Therapol has developed a simulator that will allow Carly to go into her mother’s mind with a view to asking how she is. Skeptical at first Carly sees this as the perfect opportunity to confront the person who caused her so much pain and emotional anguish and tell her to go to hell. However when Carly enters Angela’s inner world she finds far darker things than she ever imagined.

Featuring a great cast, the dramatic side of Demonic which runs throughout the film dealing with the fractured family relationship is very well handled. As mentioned Blomkamp seems to switch styles a several points during the story with the Therapol scenes playing as pure Sci-Fi while other times we are treated to flashes of a conspiracy theory thriller, explosive over the top action and of course all out terror.

Proving he can handle horror as well as the more familiar territory of science fiction that he has become known for, Blomkamp’s story and style are not revolutionary but they do work. Reveling in the surreal and dream-like side of things, we get jump scares and creeping dread along with reoccurring bird imagery that is particular petrifying especially when played out in a late night visit Carly has from one of her friends.

Blending Tarsem Singh’s sensational psychological Sci-Fi chiller The Cell with a clever twist on the staples of the possession genre, Demonic suffers from its own explicit and obvious title which telegraphs the films direction from the first few seconds. This is a shame as a more cryptic name would have allowed the audience to be blindsided by what transpires upping the enjoyment and excitement for sure.

That said Demonic still has some clever tricks up its slick sick sleeve – best of all being the Therapol simulator and the visually stunning way it is presented. After being scanned in a motion capture machine, Carly dons some futuristic looking head gear and is instantly transported into the fractured and frightening landscape of her mother’s memories.

Using a classic top-down, side-on point-of-view recognizable to anyone who has played role-playing computer games like Diablo or The Simms, and with a heads up display in the corner, Carly wanders through half-rendered rooms, impossible spaces and strange scenarios. Part human psychology, part video game logic, it is a hypnotic, disjointed effect achieved with some excellent computer imagery. These scenes within the sim are by far the most effective and evocative in the whole film.

With his previous work for Hollywood Blomkamp perhaps fell afoul of simplistic moralising and sickly sentiment. However, none of that can be found in Demonic and it is all the better for it. Here’s hoping he has become possessed by a new love for horror and his future films will tread the same petrifying and experimental path.