Demonwarp

My review was written in March 1988 after watching the film on Vidmark video cassette.

"Demonwarp" is a moderately successful sci-fi/horror pic that could have used more sci-fi and less routine horror. Film is going out as a direct-to-video entry, presumably to avoid cutting its gory and sexy material to achieve a theatrical R rating.

A group of teens for the umpteenth time in the past decade is camping at a remote cabin in the woods, attacked by a Bigfoot monster (well-executed by makeup specialist John Buechler, but shown too often to be credible). George Kennedy's daughter was carried off by Bigfoot from the same cabin a while back and he shows up to help the teens fight the unknown.

Farfetched plot peg has Bigfoot turning out to be the creation of space aliens who landed nearby many years back. Pic climaxes with the aliens' stooges sacrificing nubile, topless Earth girls (Michelle Bauer and Pamela Gilbert) to their gooey monster boss. A corny multiple-nightmare ending sabotages much of the buildup effect.

Technically well-made, "Demonwarp" is ultimately an excuse to show off naked women (definitely prime voyeur material), gory makeup and some interesting monster garb. More creativity and less exploitation could have qualified for theatrical usage.

Demonwarp is low-budget horror/sci-fi fare, that despite its flaws does end up being a pretty memorable entry into the genre and fairly entertaining. Some of the enthusiastic reviews here, however, sound almost like the VHS box marketing hype... be aware that most of the madcap stuff doesn't happen until the final 15 minutes, and the bulk of the film is a trudging, predictable bore.

The premise for the first 70 minutes is well-worn: a group of teenagers visit an isolated cabin the in woods where a bigfoot-like beast runs amok. Poor old George Kennedy appears as a man whose daughter was taken by the beast and has avowed to seek revenge. It feels sad seeing him reduced to such roles, but whenever he appears onscreen he does bring a touch of class and elevate proceedings. The teenagers are mostly typical 80s fodder, save for Billy Jacoby who brings some pep and personality for the short time he's around. The lead protagonist is very poorly written and woodenly acted, coming across as deeply unlikable, which does sap the spirit of the action. Michelle Bauer turns up to add some scream queen appeal, being chased around the woods topless. Other meaningless characters cycle in and out as prey for the beast and things become fairly rote and dull. At this point I was complaining, "I've not seen one demon, nor anything approaching what could be considered a 'warp'". Well, my criticisms were answered...

In the last 20 minutes the director makes amends by chucking as much weird freaky sci-fi and horror stuff at the audience as he can muster, and all of this was really good fun. Transmutation, zombies, space ships, demented priests practising human sacrifice and a bizarre Davros-like space demon that genuinely looked really good. If you've been paying attention to earlier scenes a few plot points come together in a way that's quite satisfying.

This could have been a lot better with a tighter script and better editing to ensure some pace and urgency. There's a really cool and bizarre story in here that just needed some refinement to really translate to the viewer in an exciting manner; as it is, it's kind of muddled and confusing, but hey - it doesn't all need to make sense and you can just sit back and enjoy this for what it is - silly b-movie fun!

This film, while no film great (or even genre giant), is oddly entertaining. The acting and direction are pure mid-to-late-80's B-movie cheese, but somehow the ridiculously convoluted plot and hysterical performance by George Kennedy make this film a good time waster-especially if you've got a few friends who appreciate this sort of crap.

I rented this movie at Rogers video, and may I say that it was quite alright even if it was made on a low budget, but it would definetely stood a chance at playing in theatres. A neat horror-science fiction gorefest. There's good supporting roles by Billy Jacoby(whom I remembered being a regular for a while in that bland sitcom "Silver Spoons") and by cult B-movie scream queen Michelle Bauer and boy did she ever scream when she first spotted that alien monster and was topless too running away from it. They both had quite good parts. It's a rare video to find, but if you come across from it, rent it! Worth checking out!

The creators of this film really broke the goofy meter with this one. The movie begins routinely for the horror genre - five twenty somethings alone in a cabin in the woods (Demon Woods no less) with a murderous bigfoot type monster on the loose. Typically, the twenty somethings are slowly killed off and from this point on the flick gets incredibly asinine. Turns out that bigfoot and people in zombie masks are being controlled by a master alien in a Bronson Canyon cave. The zombies bring victims to the slaughter for the alien so it can partake of various body parts (one scene in particular shows one of the topless females on a slab getting her heart torn out and fed to the master alien). And how the hell did George Kennedy get involved with this mess? It always amazes AND saddens me to see fading veteran actors take embarrassing roles like this. Prepare to be astounded and puzzled if you watch this debacle.