The Demonic Dead

It amazes me that people invest money, time, resources and effort into movies like this. Do they actually think they're making something that viewers will enjoy watching? I can't believe I kept this on for 15 minutes. This Vargas guy must think he's the next Robert Rodriguez. Try again...or don't.

I've been a Rick Vargas fan since the late 90s. Now I also have a few more talents to follow in the future.

It took me 2 nights (the first try put me in a coma), but I sat through the whole thing. Some bad movies are funny. This ain't. There needs to be a certain amount of charm present to laugh at a bad film. No charm here. The movie starts with a flashback with the title card "A long time ago." Oh boy. Eric Roberts shows up in that first scene for literally maybe 10 seconds, filmed from above and behind. That framing, and his dark glasses, suggest his reluctance to be associated, as if he's challenging anyone who sees the film to pick him out of a line-up. As for the rest of the "film," it's atrocious. Bad acting; lines are recited as if in a vacuum rather than actually relating with the other characters. Wound make-up that looks like it was made with one of those old Creepy-Crawler machines. There's an exorcism scene where the possession victim's wounds disappear immediately upon dismissal of the demon (jeez, even Regan MacNeil still had scars after her exorcism.) I almost gave up when, halfway through, a montage scene of the main protagonist and his main squeeze goes overlong, set to the most insipid soul ballad ever recorded, with every other line being the character's name ("...Katherine...") I should have thrown in the towel, but I didn't. I wanted to be able to say I saw the whole thing, so I could either find some redeeming value (I didn't), or be able to warn others against wasting their time. Just say no!

Initially I was lured in by the movie's cover/poster and the fact that it was a horror movie. Granted, I hadn't even heard about this 2017 movie from writer and director Rick Vargas prior to getting to sit down and watch it in 2020. But being an avid horror fan, of course I took the time to sit down and watch it. Needless to say that I had little to no expectations for the movie.

Well, this movie was not great entertainment, let me just be the first to state that. Still, I managed to sit through the entire movie, right up to the very end. And I am a little more than puzzled how they managed to get Eric Roberts to appear in the movie. Sure, he is there for less than a minute or so, but he is there. I can't claim to be a fan of him in any way, but still, this was odd even for a man like him.

Storywise then "The Demonic Dead" was fairly generic. Sure, there were aspects to the storyline that were interesting. But the movie as a whole just wasn't impressive. Was I entertained? No, not really.

The acting in the movie was mediocre; actually as to be expected for a movie such as this.

What works for the movie is the fact that it shows that the movie-makers had the right intentions and their hearts in the project. Just a shame that the end result wasn't more impressive.

I am rating "The Demonic Dead" a generous three out of ten stars. This is not a movie that I will recommend that you spend your time, money or effort on.

I know nothing about the relationship of Eric Roberts and his sister but before he made this religious nonsense if he needed money this badly he should have asked for the at most $50 dollars he got for this. And if that didn't work did some brainstorming with Nicolas Cage and Wesley Snipes. Cage could have told how to make bad yet not embarrassing movies and Wesley Snipes could have told him how bad prison was so he could compare jail and completely ruining what little reputation he has left. Because regardless of how little he was paid for this this is obviously a desperate man who owes someone something. He made several good movies in the 90s not up to Julias standards but quality films and he was excellent in the short lived sitcom with Sarah Rue in the early 2000s. If he did this to help out a young filmmaker ok I m sorry good deeds are more important then acting reputations but it has to be good deed or desperation. This was horrible.