Demon Lover Diary

This is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. People compare it to "American Movie," which I loved, but this film really gets some in-depth interactions behind the scenes of an indie film. All the backbiting, infighting, feelings of frustration after years of hope and planning. If you like this, I also recommend "Driver 23/The Atlas Moth" by Rolf Belgum, as well as the Half Japanese documentary "The Band that Would be King" and the Wesley Willis documentary "The Daddy of Rock and Roll." Just make sure you don't have any sharp implements around while watching the first and last ones, especially if you are an independent musician or filmmaker, it may hit pretty close to home.

In a perfect world, this movie would have launched the reality entertainment craze...but was too far ahead of its time to do so. I saw it at the Walker Art Center around 1980 with the filmmakers present. The film is both hilarious and terrifying. Excellent. Somebody beg the filmmakers to do a video release.

Oh were shall i begin? I think i'll start by saying that comparing this to American Movie is unfair. Why you may ask? Because this is 100% real, where as American movie isn't. Sure, i dug those wacky b*stards Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank just as much as the next person did. But that doesn't make up for the fact that some of that film was staged. Sorry to burst your bubble, but it's true.

I don't understand why Donald Jackson despises this film so much. I think it shows him to be a passionate guy, albeit dim witted when it came to the process of making a film. But hey, times change and people grow, i think films like Lingerie Kickboxer and Return of the Roller Blade Seven speak for themselves about the skill level of this "genius".

I'd really like to know what happen to some of these people,such as Ray Poll,Kyra Nash and the rest of the oddball lunatics that graced this film. I have read that the little guy at the party is some sort of comic book creator and may have had something to do with Howard The Duck!



I also happen to be a big fan of Demon Lover. It's one of those "so bad, it's horrible, but lets get drunk and make fun of it" kind of films. Sad but true, i own Demon Lover on beta and three different VHS labels.

Demon Lover Diary is a hilarious film from beginning to end. Starting with Jeff calling Don to discover that he's been fired before he even gets there. Then we have Ray, the token homosexual that goes way out of his way to maintain his heterosexual front. Some girl commandeers his jacket. He complains that "if it was a guy i'd go punch him and take it back". And then there's Mark(who's now a producer of DVD extra's i do believe)that has a "fling" with one of the "stars". How third grade was that whole debacle? Then we have yet another "star" doing a dead-on Charles Bronson impression and cracking up our resident Frank Zappa look-alike. And then of course the infamous Ted Nugent cameo, or should i say Ted Nugent and his firearms. We can't forget Don's mother. Jeff,Joel and Mark are staying at her house. Apparently they trashed their room. Old Mother Jackson gets medieval on their asses and goes off on a frothing tirade! Priceless!

It took me 5 years of lying, cheating and stealing to Finally track this sucker down. And you know what? It was more than worth the effort. BUT i'd give my left testicle to own a DVD of this CLASSIC.

How about it Jeff?

I better now go before Ted breaks out the automatic weapons..................................................................... ...............................................................

10-10

This film is hard to get a hold of - the copy I saw on VHS was pretty bad but it still was amazing to watch. The reason I think this movie is better than American Movie is because by the time they decided to make a documentary on the struggling filmmaker in American Movie - hell, everyone has seen reality tv - documentaries were making money in theatres, it was no big deal to shove a camera in someone's face - nowadays people almost EXPECT it. But to do that back in 1975 was pretty daring and original and for this girl to show up with a camera on her shoulder and follow her boyfriend around as he tries to shoot this chaotic, low budget truly awful horror film is fascinating. It's Project Greenlight circa 1975 with a bunch of hippies running around disagreeing about pretty much EVERYTHING!!! Entertaining, frustrating, insightful. Seek this out.

This excellent documentary follows a hapless young film-maker (Jeff Kreines) deep into suburban Michigan circa 1975 to film a wretchedly bad B-movie at the behest of a pair of clueless and somewhat deranged producers (Donald Jackson and Jerry Youngkins). The filming of the B-movie ("The Demon Lover") never really gets off the ground due to the inept actors and technical crew, which consist mostly of the producers' buddies and their ditzy girlfriends. The "actors" and "technicians" spend most of their time lolling about the set guzzling beer and making out while the producers quarrel with the Kreines over all kinds of nonsense. Tensions between the producers and Kreines mount, culminating in the hasty flight of the camera crew after... get this... a shoot-out with rock star Ted Nugent. This is a documentary, folks... I'm not making this up.

Jackson, the crazed producer and writer of "The Demon Lover," went on to make a number of B-movies with titles such as "Toad Warrior," "Guns of El Chupacabra" and "I Like to Hurt People." Ironically, the maker of this documentary (Joel DeMott) and Kreines made only one other movie that is listed in the IMDB. This is a sad testament to the triumph of monomaniacal persistence in the face of reason and decency.