The Demons in My Head

Should have been prepared I guess. After some 5 odd years as a fan of Australian horror, digging everything I saw from the big guns to the barely seen, finally I come across two in a row that I don't get along with. The Demons in My Head is especially unfortunate, since it actually has a pretty interesting story and some potential. Essentially it uses the standard narrative of a good hearted man driven down a bad path by his frustrations and failures, but weds this to the rather inspired lunacy of a gateway to other dimensions residing within a helmet found inside a meteorite, a gateway capable of transporting matter through mind. This could have been an at least semi inspired science fiction parable, but writer/director Neil Johnson sadly uses his science fiction and horror elements as little more than dressing for a sexual comedy, sexual comedy which barely raises a chuckle and fails even harder at being sexy. The characters of this leaden piece are Travis, who lusts after his blonde housemate (who isn't interested) and later transfers his affections to a religious weirdo (also blonde) who similarly isn't interested. And all the while Travis has to fend off the advances of his snarky gay stereotype other housemate Regis, Travis not being gay. And he also has to contend with the possibility of all his possessions getting repossessed. As comic set-ups go it isn't too bad at base, but the writing makes a self obsessed dimwit of every character with several of them shrill to boot and the sub-Neighbours standard acting does nothing to shade or endear any of them, resulting in an embarrassing morass for much of the film. The forays into genre territory are laughably cheap in a bad way, the effects mostly of a standard that recalls TV programming for the under-5's spawned from producers who assume their audience just won't care. Towards the end there are one or two short but nicely bloody gore shots but its too little too late and the startlingly asinine ultimate resolution to the tale discolors pretty much every meagre bright spot of the rest of the film. I'll give the film a little credit for sheer WTF value, but overall its terrible and only masochists should consider watching it. 2/10.

I got this movie at FYE for a measly 3 bucks. Sounded interesting and I figured, what have I got to lose, other than 3 bucks. So anyway, this movie is basically about this sweet guy named Travis and his roommate Regis. So Travis gets dumped, a meteor crashes in his backyard, he finds a crown and demons come. Sound simple enough? The gore in the movie is okay, we see some intestines and stuff. Also, the subplot between Regis and Travis is quite interesting and hilarious at the same time. THis movie actually does have lots of good camera angles, and a good use of color and black and white fused together. The acting isn't great, but isn't bad. The DVD I got is kind of screwy and wont work on one of my DVD players, I don't know if it is just my DVD or all of them. The "Other Trailers" section doesn't work for me, I should return it but the movie works so it is all good. IMO, worth a watch.

Poor SOB Travis seems to be having no luck in life, not financially nor romantically. One day a strange meteorite crashes in his backyard wherein he, along with help from two devoutly religious neighbors, finds cryptic writings on a headband from a fabled space race. Said headband lets Travis make objects appear out of thin air.

I have no clue what I just saw, a comedy that isn't funny, a horror film that isn't scary, or perhaps a sci-fi flick that is hackneyed and needlessly convoluted. I haven't the foggiest. What I do know is that if the first film in the Catacomb 50-movie box-set, "Addiction" gave me a false sense of hope with how good it was, than this one brought me back to the stark reality that the following 48 films might be a true test of endurance. Doubly a shame as my curiosity was piqued by the Writer/director's numerous collaborations with Man-O-War (an amazingly great band)

Eye Candy: Amber Allum gets topless

I don't hate low-budget movies, nor do I watch a movie trying to hate it. There are some entertaining movies even on a low-budget, and I always try and judge a film fairly regardless of others' opinions or the reputation of its company or director. These in mind and despite its interesting idea, I just couldn't bring myself to like The Demons in My Mind. As I've said the concept is interesting and there is some decent if not great gore, but even they are not enough to salvage the movie. Visually, it is an eyesore. Now I knew it was going to be low-budget and when effort is made I try to be lenient. But here, the editing is just all over the place, the green filter is incredibly distracting(I can see why they did it but it was just done badly) and the special effects are enough to make even Ed Wood, if he was alive, turn down. It fares even worse from a written quality standpoint. The script is a joke, humourless, padded out and even with jargon that I imagine that even the writers were confused by. The characters are stereotypical, now that is not a problem if the character is well written or likable, instead the characters are obnoxious and we learn little about them. The acting does nothing to help, in fact the actors just couldn't do anything with what they were given, some try but others look as though they wanted to go home. In the directing, like in To Become One there is an attempt to do something innovative but in the end not only does it distract from the storytelling but it further cheapens the movie itself. But my main issue with The Demons in My Head was that the story didn't seem to know what it wanted to be. There seemed to be a hybrid of horror, comedy and sci-fi. The problem wasn't having more than one genre going on at once, I've seen that being done in movies very effectively. The problem was how these genres were executed, there are not many movies around that manage to make a mess of doing a movie this way, but The Demons in My Head did it. The horror elements had no suspense and just looked unconvincing as well, the comedy just wasn't funny due to bad dialogue and non-existent comic timing and the sci-fi elements were just muddled. The pacing was fairly strong to begin with, but very quickly as all the flaws kicked in meandered into tedium. All in all, seemed interesting but in the end it was cheap, poorly written and acted and just didn't seem to have any idea what it wanted to be. 1/10 Bethany Cox

This is a frightening movie because of the extraordinary directing skills of Neil Johnson. His superb vision enhances the surrealism and brings tension levels to virtually unbearable levels. The Demons In My Head works symbolically on many levels, but is basically about human shortcomings and the way they can be exploited by unconscious forces combined with weakness of will. I couldn't stop watching. This is a clever little film and a powerful example of how great a movie can be even with limited resources when superb writers, directors, actors, and others work at the top of their craft. All this is complemented by great lighting, interesting camera angles. Highly recommended!