26/01/2011

The Demon - 1979 South Africa/Netherlands d: Percival Rubens



In many ways this is a fascinating film: a post-Halloween stalker flick made in South Africa during Apartheid* featuring a ripe Cameron Mitchell performance and some interesting ideas.  In many other ways this is an absolute load of badly made cobblers.  It is between these two viewpoints that The Demon flings you throughout its over-generous running time.

The plot is pretty much irrelevant, but what is interesting is that there seem to be at least two plots – barely connected – almost as if The Demon was shoehorned together from bits and pieces. Perhaps it was made/chucked together to use up abandoned film material?  Who knows...It bobs and weaves from psychic drama to slasher pic to romance all to jarring effect.  It is hard to get involved.  The poor editing complicates all this.

And yet...there is some effectively stark photography at times (when the film isn't too dark to make out – the DVD I saw was mastered from a worn VHS), and the acting is functional enough.  The killer him/itself is an inspired creation and quite chilling at times – with clawed gloves that pre-date Freddie Kruger by half a decade, grunting animalistic vocalisations, a penchant to use cellophane as a murder weapon, abnormal strength and apparent teleportation ability!  A particular aspect I liked is that although you do see some of the killer's home life – press-ups and girly-mags in a dingy room – there is no explanation as to what the being is, why it does what it does, where it comes from, even if it is definitely human or not.  This adds a nice frisson of confusion that, for once, I think was intended.

There is no escaping that The Demon is a complete mess of a film, but it does pass the time better than many and is worth seeing if only to witness the craziness unfold.  It's a shame that the UK DVD is such a poor transfer, as this twisted curio is worth a watch.



* It was this aspect that intrigued me the most. This is a very white South Africa we see here.  It is all posh suburban villas and American-style metropolitan bits of Johannesburg. There is one black face in the film - a servile Stepin Fetchit type doorman who obsequiously opens the door of a fancy restaurant, then the passenger door of a sports car for two of the characters.

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