Witchouse 3: Demon Fire

Two girlfriends are interested in witchcraft, so one night after their third girlfriend shows up with a bruised eye courtesy of her boyfriend, they hold a mock satanic ritual. Something goes wrong and they wind up conjuring up a 300 year dead witch named Lillith (played by scream queen Brinke Stevens). I've not seen the previous two Witchcraft films so I can't vouche if this one is a step-up or a let down (I really hope its the latter and not the former) compared to those, but I can still judge the film on it's own merits. Nothing really happens until the last half hour or so and when it does it relies on a ridiculous plot twist that took me out of the movie. It DID make me want to see some of the better films that Tina has been in, but not much else.

Eye Candy: Tina Krause gets topless in a shower scene

My Grade: D+

Aside the boobfest, this is a Witchcraft-movie.

Has nothing to do with the previous Witchouse films aside the namedrop for the demon/witch, from which it's still the best, because it has a script that went through the basic checkings, and simply fits the tone and quality of the Witchcraft-movies, however low standard that means. There is a reason why that franchise reached 12 installments. I don't know what that reason is, but this definitely catched the same wibes.

Three attractive drunken girlfriends perform a magical ritual and inadvertently summon Lilith, a female witch played by scream queen Brinke Stevens. A Charles Band Full Moon production on the Film 2000 video label is not usually a good omen, so I certainly didn't have high hopes for Demon Fire. The film obviously is low budget, the plot flimsy and the acting is on the wooden side. However it wasn't actually too bad. Good use is made of it's Californian coastal location, the film has a modest running time so it doesn't drag and although there is very little in the way of gore we do have a gratuitous topless shower scene. Ignore these ridiculous 8+/10 scores, 4/10 from me.

OK: I haven't seen 1 or 2, so diving straight in with Witchouse 3 maybe isn't the best approach.

The downside:

The plot doesn't make a lot of sense - it isn't REALLY horror, or suspense

* Brinke Stevens has nothing to do apart from trying to look menacing * Debbie Rochon's character is far too "guarded", you don't really get under her skin and find out what she's about until very late in the film, making most of her appearance seem a bit wooden * Tanya Dempsey's character is not well defined, so again the acting seems lacklustre * Paul Darrigo's character is also poorly defined

So as such, I honestly can't recommend the film at all, except that I feel honour bound to say that Tina Krause demonstrates moments of genuinely good acting abilities, (given the character she has to portray), and what she really lacks most is some decent direction.

(No, I'm not a long standing fan of Krause, in fact I'd never heard of her before watching this film).

I'd honestly like to see her work on a major budget horror film, with someone like Stephen King, to see the extent of her acting ability.

You probably won't suffer by avoiding this film, but watch out for Ms Krause in case she makes the move into big league films!

After watching this film I'm kind of going to throw this bit of advice out to horror film makers: Death by carbon monoxide poisoning isn't really that great a way to dispatch one of your characters, especially if your films contains only two or three deaths.

That aside, Demon Fire isn't too bad of a film. It involves three woman who are researching Witchcraft, unwittingly conjuring up some demon called Lilith. That's basically the plot, but instead of it turning into your generic demon on the loose type film, Demon Fire keeps it kind of interesting by throwing in a few twists near the end, and it's not your usual film of this type.

Still, I could have done with a bit more bite to this one. After the carbon monoxide killing, you only got an off-screen kill. That's a bit light for a horror film, eh? Of course, you've got a shower scene and plenty of skimpy outfits to keep you awake, so there you go.