Wednesday 27 March 2013

Demon Wind (1990)

No, this is not a film about flatulent phantoms. Amazingly enough, this is a bit stinkier. Demon Wind is a rip-off of The Evil Dead movies via Night Of The Demons. Without the talent or enjoyment factor of either.

After a suitably demonic opening scene, the movie starts the main section in the here and now by introducing viewers to Cory (Eric Larson) and his girlfriend Elaine (Francine Lapensee) as they head towards the farm once owned by his grandparents. The farm and grandparents featured in that demonic opening scene, of course. Cory and Elaine are joined by a number of friends, all of whom are pretty bloody irritating, and then proceed to the farm and almost immediately start experiencing some . . . . . . oddness. They try to leave, but some pesky mist blows all around them until they end up back where they started. Surprisingly unflappable in the face of ongoing weirdness, the vapid young things hole up in the farm and start to try to figure out just how they can best get rid of the evil forces that seem to be out to get them.

Written and directed by Charles Philip Moore, Demon Wind isn't even entertaining in a "so bad it's good" way. It has the potential, but the properly bad stuff just keeps piling up and piling up until the accidentally amusing moments aren't enough to lift the spirits of anyone watching the thing. There's a final act, in particular, that may cause a minor giggle, but then plays out for a further five or ten minutes while viewers sit in dumbstruck disbelief.

The cast are all terrible, with Bobby Johnson being the worst of the lot. It's not all his fault as he's asked to portray the asshole of the group, but he is so annoying that you will start to wish him gone mere seconds after he appears in the film. Stephen Quadros and Jack Vogel are almost as bad, the former being an ass-kicking magician type while the latter is his hetero life partner (or something). Poor Sherry Leigh and Lynn Clark don't fare quite as badly, but don't do much of note either.

The practical effects aren't bad in places and there are some nice touches here and there, if I'm being very generous, but there really isn't enough here to appeal to anyone but the most masochistic of bad movie fans or people who just don't have access to enough scenes featuring a chauvinistic pig referring to his girlfriend every so often by saying "that's why I keep her around." Everyone else should avoid it like any of those flatulent phantoms that I mentioned in the opening line of this review.

3/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Demon-Wind-DVD-Eric-Larson/dp/B00009RS0K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364162105&sr=8-1



2 comments:

  1. This was a work of cheesy brilliance

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    1. That's one way to look at it haha. And I think there are many who agree with you.

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