Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Matt Devino, David Michael Yohe
Starring: Adriana Isabel, Tyler Q Rosen, Sara Fletcher, Oscar Wilson
There's some impressive craft on display but not much to love about
directors Matt Devino and David Michael Yohe's Lovecraft love letter The Dæmon. If you've seen Lovecraft-influenced movies like John
Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck's Messiah or Evil, Mickey Keating's Offseason or Stuart Gordon's Lovecraft adaptation Dagon, you'll have seen better versions of The Dæmon, which rehashes ideas explored in the literature of Lovecraft and the
films of those the writer has influenced.
These stories are usually prompted by someone's disappearance or death,
leading the protagonist to a secluded area where they find themselves
confronted by demons. The Dæmon kicks off with the death of Elliott (Nick Searcy), who
feels compelled to walk to his death into a lake. Leaving a note for his
estranged adult son Tom (Tyler Q Rosen), Elliott explains that
some sort of supernatural force was calling to him from the body of
water. Tom heads off to his family's holiday home at said lake in search
of answers.
When he refuses to answer her calls and texts, Tom's adulterous wife
Kathy (Sara Fletcher) enlists the aid of her boorish brother Mark
(Oscar Wilson) and his sensitive wife Jess (Adriana Isabel). The three head off to Tom's family's lakeside home, but something
isn't quite right with Tom when they find him.
The Dæmon has an effective slow burn build-up, taking time to establish its
characters in a manner that's not so common with low budget horror
movies. The four protagonists resemble characters who have stepped out
of a mumblecore drama and made their way into a horror movie. The film
lets us in on their human fears and flaws, which will later be exploited
by a malevolent force. The central quartet of performers make these
people relatably real.
It's disappointing then when the film takes a misjudged, tonally
jolting turn into something closer to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead movies. Some impressive FX work is showcased as bodies are split
in half, insides end up on the outside and human faces are transformed
into monstrous visages. But the human element that initially hooked us
goes out the window as the film becomes a run of the mill
splatfest.
As previously noted, the Lovecraftian elements here are stale,
reminding us of previous movies that covered the same territory in more
memorable fashion. The Galaxy of Terror/Event Horizon shtick (seen once again as recently as this year's Double Blind) of a supernatural force materialising characters' individual fears is
reheated here but in a fashion that only serves to distance us from the
horror as we're never sure if what we're seeing is real or a
hallucination. The ending is a straight redo of the recent Offseason, a far superior version of what The Dæmon is attempting to pull off.
Devino and Yohe presumably collaborated on an equal basis throughout
the production, but there's such a gulf in quality between the first and
second halves of their film that it plays like both halves were made by
different filmmakers: one focussed on developing tangible characters for
us to invest in, the other more interested in throwing handfuls of offal
at the viewer and hoping some of it sticks.
The Dæmon received its world premiere at FrightFest on August 23rd.
