The Demon

The Demon is a South African Halloween clone about a motiveless serial killer who suffocates his victims with clear plastic bags. To be honest, it's a pretty shoddy effort in many ways but it's definitely not without merits either. In some respects one of this movie's chief problems is also inadvertently one of its strengths. The issue in question is how confusingly structured it all is. Characters are linked together only via the killer, and he is, to put it mildly, very vaguely defined himself. So the film has a very disjointed feel to it. While I can't see this as having been intentional, it does have a strange dream-like effect where we have this weird pale-faced amorphous figure appearing at various times with no fathomable reason. The Demon himself is a decent villain, as he has a good air of mystery about him, partly due to the fact that he is given absolutely no history or motivation. He is masked like Michael Myers in a white faceless mask although this mask does seem to appear and disappear between shots which must surely qualify as a pretty monumental goof. His killing method is bloodless but unusual enough for some credit. Although quite honestly even if there were buckets of the red stuff you would be doing well to even notice seeing as the lighting in this production is terrible. Too many scenes are played in almost total darkness, so you only have an impression of what's going on. Fortunately, we are able to make out the finale which is a lengthy scene involving the Demon chasing a topless girl around a house – it's clichéd but this sort of stuff never really gets old. The only name actor is Cameron Mitchell who plays a psychic colonel who is helping track down the killer. But he only ultimately has a bit part in the film and exits the picture in a very memorably sudden and unexpected way.

Despite it's shortcomings I did quite enjoy this one. It may have been poorly put together but it did have some tense scenes, and some interesting moments. It's worth a look if you enjoy trashy horror flicks.

I recently saw this movie in a video store, for sale, on DVD (for only $5.99). Thank God, I did`nt buy it. I ended up renting it, for a buck, a week later and wished I had`nt done that either.

The first part of the movie deals with a man, the "Demon", abducting a 14 year old girl and murdering her. When the parents can`t find her (dead or alive) they enlist the services of an ex-marine colonel with ESP no less (Cameron Mitchell).

Mitchell`s overacting aside the movie has some flow at this point but not for long. It quickly becomes a disjointed mess as it jumps completely away from it`s beginning plot.

I kept getting the sense that they started a movie and after getting so far into it they decided the plot was`nt working so they scrapped their original idea and went for something else but left in the footage they had already shot.

After breaking away from the Esp aspect (plot) the movie jumps from one plot to another until they decide to mercifully end the movie as well as the watchers misery.

The Demon really doesn't have much going for it. The lighting is awful, dialogue is ridiculous in some spots, and some things in it just make no sense (you've got to love the random shots of waves crashing onto rocks).

At least at the beginning there's something slightly different going on. The killer kidnaps a family's daughter and so they enlist the help of a psychic gifted with ESP (Cameron Mitchell). Now, I'd like to think that Mitchell is a good actor but it's really hard to judge when he's given ridiculous things to do and say ("I get feelings sometimes. Vibes, as the kids might say.")

Sure, it's not very good at all, but the least they could have done was not abandon this part of the story. Cameron and the kidnapping plot end up almost being dropped completely, leading us to the story that takes over the rest of the film.

Ever hear the one about the guy in the white mask who stalks some girls?

Yeah, that happens here too. To be fair, this portion isn't as bad despite being a blatant ripoff. The girls are decent at acting and serve the dual purpose of being easy on the eyes. There's a few suspenseful scenes and the climax isn't all that bad despite being completely wacky.

That doesn't make up for everything else, though. In the end, The Demon mostly just provides moments of boredom and stupidity.

Without getting into personalities, it's another film about a psychotic killer. These people are pretty much machines in these movies. The thing you need to do is pick vulnerable women, get to know them and their lives, and then thrown this guy in. He kills some, some he doesn't. There is also some superfluous nudity and titillation for the adolescents. But the film is just pretty dull. The copy I had was so full of dropouts and forced pauses that it just wears on. The real detractor is the darkness. Was the original print so dark. There are times when 20 seconds pass and we can't really see anything happening. There are things happening, but you get the point. This is so much like so many threat films that it offers little new to the viewer.

DEMON, THE (1979)

1/2 (out of four)

A small town is terrorized by a monster who appears to be killing people so that he can suck their blood out. Poor Cameron Mitchell plays some sort of psychic but there isn't a single thing in this movie that makes sense. I've read a couple reviews on the film and even they don't make any sense out of this "horror" movie, which forgot the horror, the scares and the gore. Off topic but poor Mitchell would spend the rest of the decade appearing in this low budget films. Others of interest is FRANKENSTEIN ISLAND, MEMORIAL DAY MASSACRE and JACK-O.