Demonic
Directed by Neill Blomkamp
★★
DEMONIC
Description: DEMONIC Still 4
Characters/Actors: Carly Pope as ‘Carly’ in Neill Blomkamp’s DEMONIC.
Type: Photos
Photo Credit: Courtesy of IFC Midnight. An IFC
Demonic is a supernatural thriller from director, producer and writer Neil Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium, Chappie). This film has a relatively small cast and stars Carly Pope, Nathalie Boltt, and Chris Martin (no, not that one) as our leading characters.
The initial premise of this film is not a bad one and starts off interesting enough with some nice moments and some genuinely decent cinematography. There are several shots that are very well composed and framed competently and thoughtfully. Several shots communicate quite a bit to the audience, and I was legitimately excited when this started.
The plot is farfetched, but not something totally out of left field for Blomkamp. A woman (Pope) has a bad history with her biological mother, Angela (Boltt), and they have not communicated with each other in many years. She finds out her mother is in a medical facility, of some obscure nature, and the shady organization that runs the facility needs her in order to communicate with Angela. To communicate with her mother, she needs to go inside the “Simulation,” which is a virtual reality world made up from her mother’s consciousness, and where said consciousness resides. Up to this point, the movie is really not bad, unfortunately, that doesn’t last.
Beyond the first few minutes of exposition, there are some interesting choices with cinematography. When our heroine is pushed into the Simulation, the perspective immediately shifts into something reminiscent of retro, isometric 2D top-down video games. An interesting technique is used over the characters to give them a virtual, rendered look while inside the Simulation. I don’t particularly like this choice, but I do appreciate that this choice was made. It is a creative decision and they stuck with it (the creativity I think should be applauded, at least).
The biggest failure of Demonic, for me, comes from the lack of suspense and scares. We get thrust into a monster flick with supernatural elements, mixed with some technological pyrotechnics. It sounds interesting, in theory, but the execution is almost hilariously poor. The performances from the actors take a nose-dive, except for Pope (who dons some incredible windbreakers), and the rest of the performances tank when the film enters the second and third acts. Things start to come off funny instead of scary, and our monster reveal is boring and uninspired.
Overall, I don’t recommend this movie. It is a bit shallow and doesn’t manage to say much in its 1h45m runtime. If you’re looking for something steeped in allegory and commentary like other films from Blomkamp (such as District 9), you will be disappointed. If you feel so inclined, you can catch this in a limited theatrical release and streaming release from IFC on August 20, 2021.