The Demon

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.

In the opening minutes of this movie, a girl named Emily Parker (Ashleigh Sendin) is abducted by a hulking, heavy-breathing psycho. Her distraught parents (Peter J. Elliott, Moira Winslow) call in a character we presume to be some sort of private investigator. He is Colonel Bill Carson (Cameron Mitchell, the films' star attraction), a retired military officer with psychic abilities. Meanwhile, the villain continues to claim random victims. This perpetrator may be something less, or more, than just a "man".

Details as to the killers' true nature and reason for killing are never delineated in this script by producer / director Percival Rubens, presumably to keep things mysterious. He / it wears gloves tipped with razors on the fingers, yet tends to murder some people with the old "plastic bag over the head" routine. Overall, the film is watchable enough, but never has much in terms of scares and suspense, and it's so poorly filmed that it's hard sometimes to see what's going on, or understand what characters are saying. The picture, at least, does have some atmosphere, and there is nudity from leading lady Jennifer Holmes (as young schoolteacher Mary) and Zoli Marki as her cousin / housemate Jo. Unfortunately, too much time is wasted on uninteresting supporting characters. There's a lot of footage devoted to the budding relationship between Jo and nice rich guy Dean Turner (Craig Gardner); the film plods as a result. Gore hounds will be quite disappointed, although anyone looking for a routine "Halloween"-inspired knock-off may not be too mindful of "The Demon"s' lack of interesting features. Most unexpected was the final scene between Carson and Mrs. Parker.

Mitchell is once again professional enough to give "The Demon" some needed credibility, although in truth we don't really see a lot of the Carson character. He's NOT as major a player in the course of events as one would think. Holmes and Marki have some appeal, and while the cast is fairly nondescript, they're at least reasonably competent as actors.

"The Demon" is not a total waste of time, but it's still going to leave some viewers wanting more.

Filmed in South Africa.

Five out of 10.

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.

Neither have I until I saw The Demon. The Demon is an interesting picture and a poor picture. It has a script which just does not not make much sense. We have a story about some guy that goes around brutally killing young women and others and as a much smaller story - a psychic that is red-hot on his tail. Redhot? Cameron Mitchell plays the psychic and his presence is sorely needed for the film's credibility, yet he is barely in the picture. And yet, even though his character and dialog were quite ridiculous - especially what happens to him and the one-liner that follows - I thought he was the best thing in the picture. The demon is never explained at all in terms of why he is killing, why he is a "demon" if indeed he/it really is, or what any motivation is. He just likes killing with brutal coldness. Fortunately, the movie, filmed in England and with largely a British cast, is competently conceived in several ways. The acting rises above poor and is decent. The director - Percival Rubens who also wrote this nonsense - has some talent in creating some suspenseful scenes and a sense of tension. The scenes with the girl being chased in the house were fairly effective, despite the needless nudity. After awhile we got the point. But the script is just so awful and threadbare as to limit the film to anything other than garbled, ludicrous nonsense. At the very least, the film is watchable and will/should have you arching your eye brows trying to figure out what in the heck is going on. And listen closely to Mitchell's dialog - he and it are a real hoot!

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.