Demonwarp

This overambitious, overlong, sci-fi/monster mish-mash, tries throwing in everything, including the proverbial "kitchen sink". The results are decidedly mixed. George Kennedy is the only semi-competent actor in the film., The hero is annoying and unlikable. The thankfully sparse dialog is completely inane. Finally, the wheels come off with an ending that makes even less sense than the nonsense that precedes it. However, the women are all attractive, and there are ample "boobs" on display throughout. Overall, this is nothing more than a chased in the woods affair. The bigfoot, who is frequently seen in daylight, and the alien/ zombie makeup, is marginally acceptable. It is interesting to note that the same cave featured in "Demonwarp" was used over 20 years later in another bigfoot related film, "Strange Wilderness". - MERK

In the eyes of the majority of splatter fans across the globe, John Carl Buechler has always played second fiddle as a serious contender for king of the horror crown. Despite Roger Corman crediting him as 'the best in the business' and being the only make up effects guy to work on all three of the giant franchises (Freddy/Jason/Michael Myers), he never quite attracted the cult appeal that Tom Savini held throughout horror's heyday. As a director he showed potential with kids favourite Troll; but Paramount's stringent censoring of his Friday the 13th sequel (part VII) left the movie ranking among the series' worst. His directorial career pretty much faded following The New Blood's dismal reception and his recent slasher – Miner's Massacre – underlined the fact that he would never share a stall with the likes of Wes Craven and John Carpenter. Demonwarp was my first taste of Buechler as an author and in all honesty I felt quite optimistic. There's no denying that he possesses extreme talent, it's just unfortunate that a few of his greatest moments have suffered under the hands of the MPAA.

Demonwarp chucks everything but the kitchen sink into a horror cocktail that sounds extraordinary on paper. Zombies, aliens, UFOs and a murderous big foot all play a part in a plot that's riddled with gore and mayhem. But it can really only be categorised as a slasher movie, because the majority of the runtime plays almost identically to cult favourite and former video-nasty Night of the Demon.

The opening scene is actually supposed to be set in the 1880s, but we're not told that until much later in the feature. A priest is wandering leisurely along the top of a cliff reciting bible psalms and giving his horse a personnel sermon. (I know that sounds strange, but there was no one else anywhere near him!) As he reaches the peak of the mountain, out of the corner of his eye he spots an unidentified flying object hurtling directly into his path. It crashes down to create a huge crater just a yard from his feet. Despite leaving a chasm the size of a football pitch, the impact doesn't even unbalance the churchman and his trusty mule! Don't forget that this guy is so religious that he even preaches to his horse, so it's understandable that he believes it's the second coming. I'm less convinced.

Transport forward a century to the glorious eighties and things are already looking hackneyed as we enter a remote cabin in the woods. That old hamster George Kennedy must have been in desperate need of a bit of extra 'beer money'; because here he is further degrading his one-time Academy Award garnished status. You can tell that he did this just BEFORE the first Naked Gun job was offered, because that pretty much lifted his career beyond the realms of B movie plop for a few years or so. Anyway here he plays Bill Crafton, an old coot that's just trying to spend a little quality time with his bubble-permed daughter. We can tell that this reunion isn't going to last much longer as soon as we see those classic growling POV shots creeping up the road in front of the cabin. Before you can say 'Friday the 13th', the door flies off the hinges and Julie Crafton is victim numero uno. She gets brutally smothered to death by what looks to be a huge Big Foot creature, whilst her dad's left fighting for consciousness on the floor.

Next up a van full of clichés pull up outside the cabin, presumably for a woodland break, although Jack (a creditable Kurt Russell look-alike) has his own reasons for visiting that particular spot. Apparently his uncle Clem disappeared around that area and so he's brought along some psycho-fodder to help track him down. As if you hadn't guessed Big Foot is still out roaming and he continues his rampage upon the group of eighties space fillers. Will George Kennedy's numerous explosive traps save them? Or will they have to stop the beast by themselves?

Demonwarp traipses through the trappings like a programmed robot for the first hour or so, with nothing to separate it from any other killer in the woods flick from around that time. As soon as scream queen extraordinaire Michelle Bauer turns up only to rip off her top, I knew that this was going to be cheese by the bucket full. But then on the hour-mark things get even sillier as we're given zombies, aliens, satanic rituals and even spacecrafts all in the space of about thirty-five minutes. I won't ruin the plot by telling you how Buechler's story tried to incorporate every known horror icon in one movie; but let's just say that by the end it wouldn't have looked out of place if we had seen cameos from Frankenstein, Dracula and Jekyll and Hyde.

The acting is as below par as you might expect and Kennedy just looks to be waiting for that paycheck to be written. There's a couple of OK-ish gore scenes that brighten things up, which include a gooey head ripping and a disembowelment by stick. Unfortunately there's nothing here that we haven't seen somewhere else before. Emmett Alston fails to lift the shocks above passable, but what do you expect from the guy that directed New Years Evil?

So all in all a run of the mill eighties hack and slasher, despite the promise of everything rolled into one. The ending leaves you wondering just what drugs Buechler was snorting when he dreamt up this little beauty? Average

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.

It is everything you would expect from a low budget 1980s movie about aliens that look like Bigfoot. Ridiculous fun, cheap effects and costumes, terrible writing, screaming. It's fun though! A real cheese fest.

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!