Demon Slayer

Forced to do community service, five juvenile delinquents are chosen by some sketchy clergymen to help clean up a large abandoned former mental hospital. They includes gang-banger Tyson (Howard Williams, Jr.), goofy horn-dog Phillip (Adam Huss), bitchy slut Claudia (Hanna Lee), nice girl Tamara (Monique Deville) and moody goth girl Alicia (Michelle Acuna), who may even have another connection to the story altogether. Oh yeah, the place (which is full of trash and in bad need of a new paint job) also has a past history as a whorehouse AND as a place of demon-worship, so an evil force is eventually unleashed and things get out of control. People scream, people run, people die, people come back as zombie-killers... You know the drill.

Oddly, this film takes a longer-than-usual amount of time to kick into gear and in the meantime we have to endure the token horror-movie filler (flashback sequences, nightmare sequences, bathtub sequences, sex sequences...) The general premise is completely worn-out, but the script actually strives for some character development, which is unusual for a direct-to-video genre film. The acting is also surprisingly tolerable. The photography is a little too dark.

Hell, I sat through it without 1.) falling asleep OR 2.) using my fast-forward button, which is saying something for a film released by Roger Corman's New Horizons Home Video.

ok, we all remember "piranha," and the sequel. and we remember the triumphantly average "battle beyond the stars." and we've all at one point or another, tuned in to some really bad Roger Corman movie late at night... and maybe we don't even know who Roger Corman is, but we've all seen at some point in time, one of his many horrible 'B' movies. and of course, we all understand that these movies are somewhat meant to be stupid. no story, no character development, and atrocious acting... and i reluctantly saw "Demon Slayer," expecting all of the above to once again stand true. but HARK, i was surprised beyond belief to see that this movie was in fact pretty damn good. (albeit a corman film...) i'm not comparing this to anything but other corman films, in which case it deserves a 10!! no joke. it still has it's moments of 'B' movie plot-points. but overall, i think this newcomer, "James Cotten," (who apparently wrote and directed it) is going to be big someday. in my opinion, if this movie gets distributed correctly, and advertised correctly, it could become an underground cult-classic. (a-la, evil dead, evil dead II, and army of darkness...)

good job guys! oh, and the sound design was truly stand-outish. very slick work.

There's one thing I've learned after this: don't trust the categories shown on IMDb. Someone most obviously omitted "comedy". I'll change that.

SPOILERS

I think I'll keep this quite short. The movie is about a haunted house and about some "kids" who are sent there to clean everything up. And eventually die, of course. How would a horror movie be without deaths? Strangely enough you have to quite wait for them. But once one comes, they all come. The movie has a few scary moments, just one bit too little, but it does gain the little it loses because of the bit horror missing through it's, let's say, humorous part. It all starts once the Mexican priest, "demon slayer" appears. He brings it all. The mucho-guys start being scared, the women become responsible, and dead, it depends. The film doesn't really promote any philosophies or teachings, not seriously at least. The actors, well, they're as you would expect them to be. It's too bad it takes quite much for the movie to actually begin and once it does it also ends soon after. Directional wise it's OK. Not too brilliant, though. Not that I would have expected differently.

Silly horror.

this is a pitiful movie. most B-movies, at least on script have some good things about them, but this isn't a B-movie, its worse, its a Z-movie... the story is full of holes, the acting is bad. Also, the budget(or lack there of) shows, there are several scenes in which one would think that they would just write out for budget reasons. The scenes involving guns are laughable, it seems they used a cap gun. Several of my friends have made movies with a handi-cam and no budget, which have featured better Special effects The writing is horrible, and the characters(as they are introduced as) are all worn out stereotypes. Do your self a favor and not rent this pile.

For a movie of this type, filmed with the budget allowed, I found this movie to be very entertaining with a good story line and very good acting. It kept your interest throughout with enough comedy to keep your interest and enough intrigue to keep you wondering what would happen next. Congratulations to the cast and crew.