Demon of Paradise

Someone wakes me up when something starts happening. Other

than Kathryn Witt's form fitting 80's jeans I see no reason to bother

with this stinker. Seems to have been fashioned as an excuse to

shoot a bunch of footage with one of those helicopter engine

pontoon swamp boats & discussion scenes at a Hawaiian tourist

resort during an off-season winter lull. I also love how the

hero/heroine are thrown out of the resort one scene & the next

they go back to have a drink. THEN they get thrown out again, and

are back four scenes later since that was the best set they had.

I love low budget horror trash as much as anyone else, but

something ought to happen every once in a while, and if you are

going to have an attractive woman play a herpatologist in a horror

film she had better be seen at least topless & getting far more out

of her career than she bargained on, or you have blown it.

As for the monster suit, heh, I thought it was kind of fun to see

someone not even bother to make something that looked "realistic" -- Kind of like Lamberto Bava's MONSTER SHARK, but

without any point to it & lacking that movie's ridiculous

entertainment value.

Best line: "It takes two to mate." [Flushing sound]

Dynamite used for illegal fishing awakens a man-like lizard creature on a Hawaiian island, which draws the attention of the local sheriff (William Steis) and a marine biologist (Kathryn Witt). A resort owner (Laura Banks) takes advantage of the region's mythological monster to attract business, but the situation turns horrific when bodies mount up.

"Demon of Paradise" (1987) is a creature feature that mixes the basic plot of "Jaws" (1975) with "The Great Alligator" (1979) and "Gargoyles" (1972). The helicopter scene from "Jaws 2" (1978) is ripped off, but is sophomoric by comparison. Some have called it an unacknowledged Filipino remake of "Up from the Depths" (1979) by the producer of that movie, Cirio H. Santiago, albeit with a different monster.

While the events purportedly take place in Hawaii, the scenery appears like the Philippines and the natives look like Filipinos, obviously because that's where it was shot. If you can get past that and the low-rent opening credits, this is a decent creature feature with a relatively unique-looking monster. I was expecting something more along the lines of the Gill-Man from "Creature of the Black Lagoon" (1954) or the creatures from "Humanoids of the Deep" (1980), and there's a little of that, of course, but it's different enough and effective enough.

The sheriff and marine biologist make for stalwart and likable protagonists, but they're offset by the shrill Banks (the resort owner) and the trying-too-hard to be "comedic" Frederick Bailey. Meanwhile the beauty department is limited to the too-thin tall blonde Leslie Scarborough.

The film runs 1 hour, 27 minutes.

GRADE: C

Mmm… the poster artwork looked alright; too bad the feature didn't draw out the same excitement. 'Demon of Paradise' isn't the complete pits, but for most part is quite an flatfooted cheapjack co-American/Philippines monster feature, which treads water for too long and then amusingly erupts in the unimaginative final quarter. Philippine exploitation director/producer Cirio H. Santiago ('Cover Girl Models', 'T.N.T. Jackson' and 'Naked Vengeance') manages to keep you fascinated, but I don't know how. Maybe it's those cheap looking explosions. Yeah it could be. Caused by no other than the creature? No really it's plain stupidity. I don't know why they want to destroy it. I could've sworn when it's bobbing out of the water it likes to wave (not clawing), asking to jump in so it can hug you to death. But wherever it is about, for some reason there's dynamite and then explosions seem to follow. Maybe the director was adding those bangs to wake-up the viewer from the miserable dialogue exchanges and mainly limp acting. One scene involving a helicopter and the creature efforts to get up close for a ride is embarrassingly shonky. No wonder why he went all out in the final twenty minutes, but this creature could've been mistaken for a machine since all of the punishment it encounters and still it doesn't bleed. Where's Arnold Schwarzenegger when you need him. But more than one grenade thrown at the same time will get you a result. BOOM!

Really there wasn't enough buzz. Everything here is a cut and paste job with the story lazily mixing 'Jaws (1975)' and 'Creature from the Black lagoon (1954)' together. The prehistoric underwater monster (formed by some superstitious groundwork) is a lousy looking rubber suit, and the rest of the make-up FX is quite tatty. Performances come across rather drab, but Laura Banks, Frederick Bailey and especially Leslie Scarborough kick up plenty of spruce. The music score was painful.

Pointless trite, but watchable.

Doyen of Philippine exploitation Cirio Santiago does a version of 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' (though closer in quality to 'Octaman' and the lead character is introduced as Dr Essex which seems too obvious to be coincidence) with this quaint action /horror where local folklore meets scaly reality when a swamp creature emerges from the depths to cause chaos on a small Hawaiian resort village.

The acting is variable, but the rubber lizard suit is really something to behold. Steis and Witt ('Tropic of Cancer') are decent in lead roles (local Sheriff and visiting herpetologist respectively) and along with Banks playing the selfish resort manager, the trio does a pretty good impersonation of 'Jaws' (there's also a 'Jaws 2' moment which you don't want to miss for pure ham value). Supporting actress Huntly is a minor highlight playing a busty model with a massive ego and a nose full of candy who dreams of making it in the movies.

As for the uncredited stuntman who gets to inhabit the Gillman suit, it's a thankless role which was never going to end well despite good intentions.

Not great, not awful, just mediocre with very mild gore, brief topless nudity, a couple of gunfights and a tonne of explosions shot on the grassy banks of an overcast Philippine river-bend.

Demon of Paradise (1987)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

A bunch of mean guys using dynamite to fish end up disrupting a lizard-like creature who soon goes on a killing spree where no one in the Hawaiian locations are safe.

DEMON OF PARADISE comes from the Philippines and is pretty much a wannabe CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. How much entertainment you get out of it will depend on your feelings towards ultra low-budget movies with bad acting, bad dialogue and just an all around "bad" movie feel. If you're looking for a good movie then go check out the Universal title. If you're just wanting to kick back, turn your brain off and have some cheap fun then you might want to check this out.

I will admit that I enjoy watching bad movies but this one here had a few too many boring spots to keep it at an entertaining level throughout. With that said, there are certainly some moments of hilarity that make it worth watching for fans of bad movies. For starters, the lizardman costume is so funny looking that you can't help but think the creature in THE GIANT CLAW had a baby with some sort of lizard. Another great moment happens when a helicopter is flying a tad bit too low. I won't spoil what happens but laughs will certainly follow.

It's really too bad that DEMON OF PARADISE didn't have more scenes with the monster because he's certainly the funnest part of the film. As it is, there are too many slow and boring scenes with talky dialogue that isn't entertaining.