ASouthernHorrorFan
The film's premise is a straightforward concept that incorporates classic, overdone horror tropes with slices of Gen X flavor, in the form of found footage - as in documentary footage recovered from the scene. The dual concepts, although not original, are offered up in a clever parallel time line. It creates a sort of murder mystery aspect, broken up by standard paranormal horror moments next to found footage sequences. To a small degree the mixture sometimes feels disjointed, but the back and forth does break up any monotony that would otherwise be present.The cast give quality performances, the line up consists of recognizable faces, and known names. There is a glare of underdevelopment to the characters, that if a bit of tweaking had been done, could have really became full-bodied portrayals. Still there is enough to make them relatable. Special effects are the typical gimmicks one expects in these kind of films. Shock gags and sound bites meant to give a fright are over used and often fall flat. Still "Demonic" has its moments of genuine chills, and the gore elements are quality. Think "Insidious" -esque trickery, just a few more misses. The horror moments run the gambit of "see it coming" to "cool and creepy". Overall the film is a mediocre but watchable horror flick with some quality actors, refreshing concepts, entertaining climax, and enough death to hit that ghoulish spot. It does have some redundancy issues, and a cloud of "know what's going to happen before it happens", but the movie gives enough to make it enjoyable.
Reed_View
Out of sheer boredom I started watching this movie with little expectations and had no idea what to expect. Personally I find the critiques on this movie to be a little harsh. After viewing it I was pleasantly surprised and wanted to watch more movies and even investigated the main character's actor to find out more. The premise of the movie, once you get into it, is simple enough to understand. A murder in a house has taken place several years ago and some ghost hunters want to investigate. The main character, John, has visions of his mother in the house and his girlfriend invites him to join her crew to go to the haunted house to find answers.The movie changes between a police investigate, one that takes place several hours after John and his friends go into the house as well as the events that happened while him and the others were in there. One of those "a few hours before" type of movies.I was actually very convinced by Dustin Milligan's (John's) acting in this movie. As someone very familiar with haunted houses, ghost investigates and similar paranormal experiences I thought his acting was believable and scary enough and certainly carried my interest in the film. As far as the movie goes he was the star I can assure you.The rest of the movie I have to say was simply 'okay'. Toss in some weird history, strange symbols, a random bird dying to make it all spooky. Then of course the obligatory "everyone goes crazy and someone kills everyone else". The ending of the movie was definitely lackluster, it gives the viewers a plot twist we've seen a million times now and likely already anticipated and, if like me you liked the main character, probably didn't want. As a result the movie was simply 'okay' when compared to others but given the premise of the movie I didn't anticipate to enjoy it as much as I did. It failed at every opportunity to actually scare me BUT I found myself wanting to see more movies with similar main characters and simply for Milligan's performance, compared to all the other actors, I'd say the movie is worth watching. It's certainly not the most fancy, nail biting, gut-wrenching movie I've ever seen but it was worth the watch.
FlashCallahan
Ignore the convoluted plot and the history of the narrative, and you have just another haunted house movie where silly young kids who think they are the next big thing get killed off one by one by someone who may be possessed.But add the acting chops of Grillo and Bello, and it takes the film from the mundane into something that is a little bit better than it has the right to be.So to cut a mundane story short, someone believes that a certain house is calling them, so a rag tag team is assembled and plan to do a seance to awake the spirits in the house.There is an element of found footage meeting Rashomon, but that's where the similarities to that film end. We go back and forth to the footage that was filmed, and the interrogation between one of the characters and Bello's Psychologist.And that's it really, we have the obligatory jump scares, people walking around dark corridors looking scared, and an ending that tries to emulate The Usual Suspects.Grillo and Bello are fine making the most of a poor script, but you couldn't care less about the selfish kids who try to summon the spirits.It could have been something quite entertaining, as the story does have potential, but it's executed poorly.
violetskye19
Only very minor spoilers below ... I wasn't expecting much from this latest horror to hit our small screens, like many horror fans I've had my hopes truly dashed on the rocks far far too many times by movies that promised so much, then totally fell flat trying to deliver. Maybe that's exactly why I did enjoy Demonic, instead of going in with great expectations, I just sat back and watched the film, I didn't really even have much of an idea of the storyline beyond what's posted on iTunes. The scene is pretty simple, and to be honest I'm surprised it's taken film writers this long to realize ghost hunting is at an all time high, especially in America, and by basing a film around the scenario of ghost hunters they automatically have a believable scene set, and a reason for the 'reality' take of cameras being used by the characters to film the movie itself. But this movie takes it a step further and goes into having a murderous ghost allowing them to then bring in the other reality concept of police involvement and of them trying to crack the case while watching the found footage , sounds good huh ? And it is. Some of the in built scares set to frighten the viewer, are easily explained away, leaving you wondering what's real and what's not, while others hint at a deadlier, scarier reasoning behind the bumps in the night, also having some characters missing, others dead and some in cuffs, leaves you, along with the police, watching that same found footage trying to find out who, or what, is behind it all. Oh and the ending, well I did guess that, about 30 mins before the end, but still loved it, it makes sense, and leaves the opening for a sequel right open, as it does for a prequel, what really happened at the first seance ? Who were the men in the old photo with the gate drawn on the back of it ? See, sounds interesting now doesn't it ? Just go watch it and stop reading the review, it's worth the cost of a bag of popcorn and a ticket at least !
AD
