Demonic
After 2015’s Chappie, Neill Blomkamp’s career has taken quite the nosedive. The potential Alien picture he was set to direct was scrapped, alongside a RoboCop reboot. However, the director revealed in late 2020 that he secretly shot a supernatural thriller during the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia titled Demonic. This project seemed to veer off Blomkamp’s usual schtick of sci-fi actioners imbued with a social commentary, as the film tells the story of a woman named Carly (Carly Pope), who shares a tumultuous relationship with her mother (Nathalie Boltt). After the latter is hospitalised, in a comatose state, Carly is brought to the hospital in the hopes of communicating with her through a simulation. She does not know that her mother has been possessed by a demon, who has been the cause of their rifting relationship, and has awakened it by contacting her inside the simulation.
While Demonic has interesting ideas, its execution is more than haphazard. It results in a deadly, dull horror film that feels more like a parody of great supernatural thrillers of the past than anything else. The simulation sequences are particularly laughable, featuring shoddily rendered 3D animation mixing the graphics of a Quantic Dream video game with The Sims. As weird as it sounds, it is what it is. It never feels like it wants the audience to take itself seriously, as most of the film’s dramatic sequences are inside the simulation and contain the most clichéd lines imaginable. The first thing Carly does inside the simulation explains how much she hates her mother in front of her face, and then proceeds to have a quasi-nightmarish vision of a crow-shaped demon hunting her mom. Most of Demonic’s so-called “scary” sequences are either inside a simulation or are experienced through Carly’s nightmares, which renders the film’s stakes reasonably weightless. It does not help that the film’s scares are terribly predictable, filled with cheap, uneventful jumpscares or bodily contortions that could be scary if the film had any emotional weight, but it never once grabs the audience’s attention.
That is likely because the acting is relatively flat and unengaging. None of the actors seem to care whatsoever; particularly Carly Pope, who cannot seem to make the audience care about her nor whatever is going on in the film. In fact, the movie quickly starts to get confusing once Carly is in the simulation, since most of its rules are not explained. How does the simulation affect Carly? Why did she get hurt by a demon, when the simulation is not supposed to do that? Right? If it is not real, then why does the simulation know about Carly’s friends?
Furthermore, how does it affect Carly’s discernment of reality and nightmares? The deeper she goes into the simulation, the further she cannot differentiate between reality and fiction. It would have been great to see how that works, or how her mental state is affected by her time in a simulated world, but none of that is explored. Instead, Blomkamp prefers to bathe in clichés: whether in its scares, dialogues, or performances. All of it is incredibly predictable, with no surprises or thrills whatsoever. Within the film's midpoint, Demonic starts to lose itself through uneventful scares and a plot “reveal” that is as anticlimactic as the rest of the film will be.
Admittedly, the film’s cinematography from Byron Kopman is quite immaculate and has a particular style to it that makes its dullest scenes look vibrant. That’s the saving grace of a feature that will otherwise be forgotten a few days after it is out. While it is great to see Blomkamp try to branch out on different genres instead of sticking to dystopian sci-fi, Demonic will likely be considered as his worst film yet. A feature that does not have the same urgent stakes as his past three films and feels like a B-grade horror film instead of anything remotely serious. The ideas are interesting, sure, but the execution is not there.