Three estranged brothers reunite at their family home when it seems one
of them has become possessed by the spirit of their late father.
Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Steven Boyle
Starring: John Noble, Charles Cottier, Christian Willis, Dirk Hunter, Tobie
Webster
It's become a cliché in recent years for a horror movie to burden its
female protagonist with "trauma." It's now impossible to hear the word
"trauma" without thinking of that montage some wag cut together of the
many times Jamie Lee Curtis mentioned the t-word on her
Halloween
press tour. For his directorial debut, The Demon Disorder, SFX artist turned director Steven Boyle (co-writing with
Toby Osborne) has at least bucked the trend by saddling a male
protagonist with the ubiquitous trauma.
Well, three male protagonists to be exact. Three brothers - Christian (Graham Reilly), Jake (Dirk Hunter) and Philip (Charles Cottier) - who
shared the nightmarish experience of seeing their father (John Noble) deteriorate and become unrecognisable in his final days. The old man
didn't seem to fall victim to any regular disease though; rather he seemed
to be possessed by some evil force that provoked him to violence.
After their father's death, Jake and Philip stayed on the family farm
while Christian left, unable to handle the memories he now associates with
his childhood home. Things clearly haven't gone so well for Christian
however, and he's now living in the garage he runs with his young
apprentice Cole (Tobie Webster). One afternoon, a wild-eyed,
drunken Jake barges into Christian's garage and demands that he return
home to the family farm. It seems whatever took hold of their father has
now gotten inside Philip. Reluctantly, Christian returns to the farm in an
attempt to save his kid brother while confronting his past.
"You see enough strange, weird shit, it just starts to feel normal after
awhile," a character intones at one point. Unfortunately it's a line that
might be used to sum up the experience of watching
The Demon Disorder. The director's background in VFX is clear, with some impressive
old-school rubbery and gloopy effects that will warm the cockles of any
horror fans raised on '80s horror. You can tell Boyle is influenced by
that decade, with elements of The Thing,
Night of the Creeps
and
Hellraiser
reworked here to gooey effect. But the film plays more like an FX showreel
than a fully formed narrative, thanks to a script that never quite nails
down what story it's trying to tell. It's part body-horror, with the
"possession" manifesting itself on its victim's bodies in the form of
grotesque welts and tumours. It's part monster movie, with parasitical
slug-like creatures emerging from their human hosts. It's part paranoid
possession movie. And it's partly an allegory for the hardship of dealing
with a dying parent, an idea covered much more convincingly in another
recent Aussie horror, Natalie Erika James's
Relic. But none of these disparate elements gel into a satisfying whole.
The movie climaxes with something of a siege situation, but it suffers
from a failure to clearly establish its specific threat. As a result we
never quite feel like any of the protagonists are really in mortal danger.
Cole is added to the mix, presumably to make the audience worry about a
young girl getting caught up in this madness, but it doesn't make sense
that she sticks around when she has ample opportunity to flee like any
sensible person. It would have made more sense to make Cole Christian's
daughter rather than merely his employee, as who on earth would be willing
to risk their life for their boss?
Along with its practical effects, The Demon Disorder's other great asset is its cast. Despite being saddled with half-formed
and thinly sketched characters, everyone does a good job here. The best
scene in the movie ironically has nothing to do with rubber monsters but
is instead a flashback to the boys being told by their father that his
deterioration has reached the point where he soon won't be able to
recognise them, and they may no longer recognise him. Noble delivers this
sombre soliloquy with a heart-breaking mix of resignation, sadness and
paternal strength, and it will stir something in any viewer who has lost a
parent or is preparing for such an inevitable loss.
The Demon Disorder is on Shudder
from September 6th.
