Na Mente do Demônio

A decade ago I loved South African director Neill Blomkamp for his wonderful sci-fi movie DISTRICT 9, and I thought ELYSIUM was pretty good too (although CHAPPIE not so much). The last I heard of him was of his thwarted idea for an ALIENS sequel with not only Ripley but Hicks and Newt returning alive and well too; I thought that sounded like a great idea, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. So out of nowhere comes DEMONIC (2021), Blomkamp's newest movie as director, but watching this very ordinary possession movie you wouldn't notice his presence.

The first thing apparent is that this was shot on a very low budget during the pandemic, so expect closed sets and a small cast. The second thing is that it simply isn't very good. Possession flicks are ten-a-penny these days and all kind of roll into one, and this one goes through the same motions with contorting bodies and histrionics. I found it very tiresome, and to try to make it different they add in a load of CGI effect "dreamscape" stuff, but that bored me too. Let's hope Blomkamp bounces back from this misfire and gets some of the old magic back.

WTF did I just watch? This isnt the Neil I remember. It felt like watching a low quality horror sci fi flick. Every Neil short movie and movie shows all the violence and chaos but this just skips over everything. The acting was good but this just isnt it. Very disappointing.

Oh dear me , was interested in this film because I'm a big fan of blomkamps other work but this is so dull and boring , the effects are pretty poor as well , ok gutted someone who brought us district 9 and elisium has fallen so far from grace , his oats studio work was better than this , a film from the short rakka could of been great , this film is not scary nor sci fi it's just stupid and boring .

You'll know it's bad when they enter a VR world in someone's mind. Monster wasn't very scary. Poor Neil, guy needs a hit and this ain't it.

Carly (Carly Pope) is estranged from her mother Angela who was convicted of burning down her care home workplace and killing some 21 people some twenty years ago. She further poisoned another five. Carly is haunted by nightmares of Angela. She has also been estranged from longtime friend Martin after those events and then he contacts her with news about her mother.

When this popped up, I didn't realize that it's a new Neill Blomkamp film. I figured it to be another low budget inconsequential B-horror movie. The initial assumption is not far from the reality. The premise is similar to Jennifer Lopez in The Cell except its visuals are nowhere near as imaginative nor compelling. This story needs something much more basic than that. It needs a ticking clock and stakes and motivation for Carly. If an evil corporation is going to all that trouble, it should do something much more coercive to bring her into the experiment. It has non of that. She just agrees to join this weird experience for no apparent reason. At least give her a beat and a nightmare in between the asking and the doing. She could do the procedure to confront her nightmarish visions and her mother. There is a clear deterioration in Blomkamp's writing and his visual style has stalled at best. There are basic concepts of motivation and characterization that are missing.