Demon Wind

My review was written in August 1990 after watching the movie on Paramount/Prism video cassette.

There's a screw loose in "Demon Wind", a nonsensical horror film that fits the description one damn thing strung after another. Direct-to-video title has a tilt back and forth 3-D style box and not much inside.

Writer-director Charles Philip Moore has trouble presenting a coherent storyline in this overlong gore opus in which young people gather at a haunted house, intored in a cryptic prolog filled with religious imagery.

Hallucinations proliferate as the kids are victimized by satanists and their creations amidst exploding gore. Hero Eric Larson literally goes through hell and is defeated by the demon only to wake up and find his teen friends alive and well after all, unless that is another hallucination. Any way you slice it, film makes no sense.

"Demon Wind" shows some imagination in the early going...but by the last 20 minutes or so it has become an insult to anyone's intelligence. It has some OK (for the budget) special effects and some eerie moments (the best is easily the one involving a door that, at first sight, appears to be leading...nowhere), but just like the characters do battle with an army of demons (or are they zombies? They sure walk and moan like zombies), those good points do battle with the mostly laughable acting and an inconsistent, often moronic script...and they lose. (**)

Demon Wind (1990)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Corey (Eric Larson) wants to know what happened to his grandparents so he takes a group of friends out to the grounds where they died. Even though a local warns the kids not to travel there, they do it anyways and sure enough they unlock the secrets, which includes demons.

Charles Philip Moore's DEMON WIND is a rather interesting horror movie that has a lot of good things about it but also some bad things that really keeps it from being better. Going back to the 1970s there have been countless movies about people going onto sacred ground and having to battle a variety of evils. The evils here are some demons with a connection to Satan and whenever the movie is focused on them it's quite entertaining.

The biggest issue with this film is the fact that it runs way too long. At 97-minutes the film really do seem to last at least fifteen-minutes too long and it also didn't help that there were a lot of slow moments. The pacing is another issue as it just moves way too slow and this isn't helped by the extended running time. In all honesty this here was the biggest issue I had with the film and sadly it brings down the good moments.

Where the film does succeed is with its make-up and costume design. I've seen a lot of low budget movies in my life but there really aren't too many out there that contain as good of costumes as this film does. I was really impressed with the look of the demons and we're also given some pretty good bits of blood and gore as the demons rip into people. The make-up team certainly deserves a lot of credit for their work here and it's what keeps the film entertaining.

The performances are also decent for this type of production and best of all is that the cast at least make for some good characters to keep you interested in them. DEMON WIND isn't a complete success due to the issues I mentioned but if you're a fan of the genre then it's worth watching.

Ah, Demon Wind. I've seen this movie so many times I can actually quote it now! Cory and 9 of his friends travel to his grandparents' farm to figure out what happened to them decades earlier. What proceeds is a virtual remake (or ripoff)? of Evil Dead. One by one, the friends either become possessed by the demonic force that has inhabited the land or are killed by the demons and in turn become possessed. The special makeup effects were rather poorly done, but remained effective on a cheesy level. The director did quite well with maintaining a dreadful atmosphere. Demon Wind is high on the suspense, that's for sure. The acting was from the cast was very convincing for a film of this type. The ending was definitely lifted (or "inspired", if you will) from Night of the Living Dead, but not as effective as that film was. It also left it open for a possible sequel. Let's pray we do see a sequel! Demon Wind is a nice time waster. I don't believe it has ever been legitimately released on DVD, but you can bet the VHS and bootleg DVD's are floating around on ebay or ioffer. Check it out.

Only here and watched this because I was playing High on Life. Didn't know this even existed.

Comical watch. Granted I was watching it with the added dialogue from the game but it was so worth it.

The acting in the film is typical 90s B movie acting with a questionable storyline but still gets laughs. Not sure if that is the script writing or the delivery. Or the additional commentary provided by the game. I don't think I could watch this as it is, as I know I would struggle with the pacing and general progression and predictability of the storyline.

Did load up imdb as I needed to check whether I actually knew the actors.