Movie Review: 'Demonic' starring Carly Pope

Demonic stars Carly Pope as Carly, a woman hiding from her past. 20 years before the start of our story, Carly’s mother became one of the most infamous killers in American history. Angela (Nathalie Boltt) was arrested after she’d set fire to a nursing home, a fire that killed 21 people. She would kill 26 people in all before being captured by Police. Carly has been haunted by her mother’s crimes for years, even after cutting off contact from her mother and changing her name.

Recently, Carly has begun to have dark and disturbing dreams about her mother. These dreams precede the return of Carly’s old friend, Martin (Chris William Martin), who gives Carly some disturbing news about Angela. Martin was recently chosen as the subject of a medical experiment. He was invited to a facility called Therapol and there he found Carly’s mother in a coma and being experimented on by a doctor, played by Terry Chan, and a scientist, played by Michael J Rogers.

The doctor and the scientist want to get Carly into the clinic to take part in their experiment. She is convinced to go after she is told that though her mother is in a coma, they have a way for Carly to be able to speak to her. Therapol has created a device that allows you to enter the subconscious of someone who is in a coma. The supposed medical benefit is that they can ask the patient questions and make sure they are comfortable in their vegetative state.

Secretly, and far more sinister, Therapol wants to see how Angela responds to seeing her daughter for the first time in nearly 20 years. They’ve developed a theory that they are keeping to themselves. They believe that Angela is possessed by a demon and that Carly is the key to drawing that demon out so that they can exorcise it out of existence. That sounds like a more noble purpose than it really is.

Scenes of Carly entering a virtual reality environment built inside the subconscious of her mother are rendered in a videogame, pixelated style. It's not exactly the pristine, imaginative, landscapes of the similarly themed horror movie, The Cell, starring Jennifer Lopez, but it is arguably more effective here. That film was far more Over the Top and pretentious about this same idea. Demonic succeeds by going for a more low tech version of this idea, deeply imperfect, and leaving the mother-daughter dynamic of Carly and Angela at the center of scene.

Directed by Neill Blomkamp, far from his heady days of debuting with a Best Picture nominated movie, District 9, Demonic is a greatly scaled down work compared to Blomkamp’s blockbuster start. That said, the lower budget aesthetic seems to suit Blomkamp’s smaller scale ambition. Demonic is a programmer, it’s a genre picture, it’s not a passion project. Demonic is a rare mercenary effort from the former auteur and that somehow doesn't diminish his talent and commitment.

Demonic is a rare demon possession horror movie where a female protagonist isn’t merely a pawn for a series of jump scares. There are still plenty of familiar out of nowhere jumps but Blomkamp does well to underline the emotional elements of this story. Carly’s relationship with her mother is the heart of Demonic and the movie is at its strongest when Carly Pope and Angela Boltt are together.

I could nitpick plenty of aspects of Demonic. The third act is way too long and starts way too early, leaving too much time for the ending to lose steam. That said, there are three really effective scenes and Carly Pope delivers a solid lead performance. Compared to many recent theatrically released horror movies, Demonic is a step above the typical fare. Neill Blomkamp delivers just enough scares and suspense to keep you guessing until the end and that’s more than I can say about many mainstream horror movies.

The best scene in Demonic is the scariest scene. As Carly is visited in the middle of the night by her friend Sam, Sam begins acting strange and her behavior soon turns terrifying. Credits fail to list the name of the actress playing Sam but I still must praise this young actress for her wonderfully energetic turn in this scene. Her physicality is perfect and combined with some terrific sound design and clever direction, this scene had me squirming.

Sometimes a couple good scenes and a solid lead performance are enough to make a good movie. Demonic won’t be a movie I go back to for any reason but I enjoyed the experience of seeing it once and I can recommend it to anyone who likes a good scare. Neill Blomkamp may never again reach the blockbuster success and critical acclaim he received for District 9 ever again but he has a future if he wants to continue turning out small scale genre movies like Demonic.