Saturday, February 7

The Demon (1979)


Directed by Percival Rubens
94 Minutes / VCI Home Video / Unmatted Full Frame

This film feels like three nearly independent stories:

a) After a vicious home invasion and kidnapping of a young girl, an older couple enlist the help of a "white collar" mystic (Cameron Mitchell) to aid in the search and recovery of their missing daughter.

b) An absolutely beautiful young woman (Zoli Marki) dates a rich JFK Jr.-esqe playboy.

c) Her friend, a nursery school teacher, is gingerly stalked by the man who kidnapped the young girl Mitchell is seeking....until things get serious.

I should add that we're also treated to quite a number of unexplained shots of the ocean breaking against rocks along the shore. Storyline A isn't connected to the other two, and essentially seems like an excuse to include Mitchell (the "name") in the film. Though B and C are just barely related.

I'm not going to bust on the film too much, since quite honestly what's here isn't bad. The root problem is from what I stated above. Everything pretty much makes sense, but is far too disconnected within itself to make any sense overall. The ending mimics Halloween's dark house stalk, with the exception of the Strode-like character topless in panties doing a sudden MacGyver in a bathroom (after running around the house screaming her perky nipples off for twenty minutes) to finally vanquish the man/demon/demon man wearing a man-mask with stubby bladed gloves and a flare for plastic bag suffocation.

Film: 4/10 (non-existent "makes sense" version: potential 6/10)
VHS Picture: 3/10 (rather smeary)
VHS Sound: 5/10

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