Review: Demon (2012)

 

First I´d like to thank Midnight Releasing for providing me with a screener.
After being cleared in an internal investigation, FBI Special Agent Nicole Diaz is reinstated and sent back home to the town of Oro Negro to help solve the bizarre murders of two agents. She's met with disdain by the local Sheriff, a good ol' boy who doesn't believe they are being taken seriously and is insulted they sent a woman. At first, it's thought the killings are random acts committed by smugglers or drug dealers, that is until the resident Tribal Ranger realizes the bodies have been drained of blood and suspects it is something more, but his beliefs are dismissed. Soon after, a mysterious woman and her aide appear during an autopsy and claim responsibility for creating the perfect killing machine. A creature designed specifically for desert warfare to be used by the military. It has escaped and they need help reacquiring it. Unsure who to believe or trust, Nicole assembles a team and they set out to capture the creature. Demon is written by Bernie Felix Jr and is directed by Rob Walker. The acting is uneven, to say the least. The camerawork and editing is decent. Some of the dialogue is hard to hear due to bad audio. There´s quite a bit of unintentional comedy to be found in this flick, there are a couple of ridiculous scenes. There is one scene, featuring a computer rendered explosion which just feels rushed and as a emergency solution. Even if the running time is just 77 minutes Demon never really excited me as a viewer, there´s no suspense, no thrills and unfortunately no pay off. The kills and the action are bad. I can hardly comment on the final fightscene without resorting to profanities, it´s so disappointing and bad. There is some gore. practical but very cheap gore fx. The creature is mostly kept of screen, although i undertsand the creative choice to keep it off screen, it looks barely decent. There´s no T and A in this, there´s a sex scene but no nudity.
Demon will be available on DVD on the 12/3/2013.
This review is based upon a passwordprotected online screener provided by Midnight Releasing.
Rating: 1 out of 7. This could have been cool but it´s a true misfire. Seriously, if you´re doing a creature feature, give the frickin creature some proper screen time (after having it obscured/off camera at start), spend some money and effort on the design. Demon would have been so much better if they did that and added some competent gore effects, I can name several make up fx artists who can do very much with very little.

/JL