Professor Owen Lansing is researching human psychic abilities hidden deep in the mind and he experiments on his young son Cameron. They're going quite well, until Cameron's unintentionally uses his powers to conjure up a demon. Lansing tries to put a end to the trouble, but his killed in a horrific 'accident'. So Cameron goes to live with his mother and her boyfriend, but the demon also follows and takes up residence in the boy's closest. Meanwhile, police detective Sam Talliaferro, who has been put onto the case after the unusual death of his mother's boyfriend. Is having bad dreams that seem to be linked somehow to Cameron. A psychiatrist Dr. Nora Haley is looking over Sam, but she also gets the case of Cameron. She discovers the boy's secret abilities. Nora and Sam go on to connect that everything is contributed to a demonic presence who has its eyes set on Cameron.
Oh, "Cameron's Closest" is quite an unremarkable low-budget horror film. Well, it's not completely worthless, even though it's nowhere near as flavoured and exciting like many of its counterparts within the same decade. This late 80s horror junk was mildly enjoyable in some silly patches and icky make-up effects, but ponderous pacing and muddled plotting makes for mostly a bland outing that keeps us in the dark to what's going on. There's potential in the interesting and novel premise of mixing the supernatural with science (which "The Howling" author Gary Barndner adapted his screenplay off his novel), but director Armand Mastroianni's unevenly fruitless and ham-fisted execution leaves a lot of its brimming concepts unfulfilled and sticks to the gimmicks. Lucky there are some nicely imaginative and downright bizarre deaths handed out by the evil dweller in the closet. The nasty make-up, especially from the zombies and death scenes are well conceived. Even some atmospheric visuals, in the shape of few brooding dream sequences promise something, to only bungle it with unintentional goofiness that destroys any unsettling mood that was there. Like that of special effects designer Carlo Rambaldi's (think of E.T.) plastically tacky monster creation. Sometimes the FX is questionably dire and overly sugar-coated, just stick around for the lacklustre climax between demon and child. It's pretty hasty when it wraps it up.
The material dreams a good concept, but its talky nature, convoluted angles (so many to choose) and senseless inconsistencies engulf the monotonously vague script, which could've done with occasional wit. The presentation is well-photographed and production values hold up, but the musical score was flat, lighting hazily dim and editing was terribly hack-eyed. The cast do a fine job, maybe better then the material actually deserved. Scott Curtis gives an appealing turn as Cameron. Cotter Smith is sturdily efficient as detective Sam Talliaferro and Mel Harris impress with a steadfast turn as Dr. Nora Haley. Tab Hunter plays the unfortunate father who cops it in the opening minutes. There's sound performances by the support cast Kim Lankford, Leigh McCloskey, Chuck McCann and Gary Hudson as the jerk boyfriend.
It's saved by over-the-top deaths, some laughably shoddy developments and capable performances. Just like Mastroianni's other genre efforts; "The Supernaturals" and "He Knows You're Alone", it's watchable.
