Demonic (2015)


REVIEWER RATING: 
5/10


Demonic is a movie that was littered with production issues from the start, going through various rewrites (James Wan initially scripted, while remaining on as producer) and directors (Javier Gutierrez and Xavier Gens) until finally settling on newcomer Will Canon (who previously helmed the crime/thriller Brotherhood). While the concept of the movie was on the right track, the execution and sloppy script were what I had problems with the most, which is sad since it started out a decent watch.

The movie begins interesting enough with Mark Lewis (Frank Grillo) as a grizzled veteran detective that's called out to check into a disturbance at an old (and supposedly haunted) house. As he makes his way through the home he discovers several dead bodies in what appears to be a massacre. With a lone survivor being their prime suspect they bring in a local psychologist (Maria Bello) to question the distraught individual in hopes of finding out what happened. Meanwhile, the police uncover some footage from the crime scene that may reveal the answers to all their questions, but it'll take some time to restore the damaged footage...

Using a combination of found footage, flashbacks and traditional filming, the movie spends a majority of its time going back and forth between narratives and you can guess which format they favor the most when it comes to scaring the audience (found footage *yawn*).  As the movie progresses we learn that the deceased were part of a small crew of wannabe ghost hunters that decided to hold a séance and things clearly went wrong (how original!). We're thrown a half-assed twist towards the end in an attempt to be creative, which was an interesting effort but ultimately proved just how silly the movie's story was.

On the positive side of things, it started out pretty good and I liked the investigative aspect taking place after the events, which is something you normally don't see in these types of films. Sadly, it just wasn't enough to ignore the rest of the problems that were apparent throughout the flick (namely the terrible script and shitty scares).

Demonic unsuccessfully attempts to combine different narratives in order to hide the fact that it's just the another standard tale of possession. If you're into flicks of this theme or found footage in general then you may like this somewhat, but I'd avoid it otherwise.
OVERALL: 
Demonic unsuccessfully attempts to combine different narratives in order to hide the fact that it's just the another standard tale of possession. If you're into flicks of this theme or found footage in general then you may like this somewhat, but I'd avoid it otherwise.


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