Demonic — Demonic(streamed film)

Demonic is the first feature-length film in six years from South African writer/ director Neill Blomkamp- who made a big impact with his distinctive debut film District 9, which saw giant prawn like aliens landing in a township near Johannesburg. After this, he followed this with two impressive at times quirky & creative Sci-fi films 2013's Elysium and 2015's Chappie, and at one point he was going to be doing an Alien sequel. So when I saw he had a new film, I was most keen to see it, and what we have is a tech edged take on the demonic possession genre. Here via Amazon Prime video is a release of this 2021 film.

Demonic is a US/Canadian production- and finds Blomkamp writing and directing the film. And what we have here is a blend of shadowy tech thriller and demonic horror film. The film focuses on late thirty-something Carly(Carly Pope)- whose suffering from nightmares regarding her estranged mother Angela(Nathalie Boltt)- who some years previously burnt down an old age peoples home and poisoned a few people.
Carly gets out of the blue text from her Ex Martin(Chris William Martin), the pair's relationship had fallen apart due to the issues with her mother, and Martin having some crazy ideas about what had happened to her. They two meet at a café, and he tells Carly that he’s seen her mother- and she in a coma at a nearby private tech hospital. She decides to find out how her mother is and sets out to the hospital.

When she arrives, she finds the hospital is apparently trying to help very ill people with experimental/ unusual treatments- they tell Carly that her mother had come from prison where she went into a coma after many years of self-harming and ranting. The two Doctors at the hospital Michael (Michael J Rogers) and Daniel( Terry Chen)- ask Carly if she’ll go under into VR to try and get her mother to talk. As things move on the demonic element starts to rise- as the one hour and forty-four-minute film unfolds, in an eventful enough pace that brings together elements of creepiness, paranoid thriller, and later on possession horror.

And I’ll have to say compared to Blomkamp's other three films, Demonic is rather underwhelming- as what we have is basically a fairly run of the mill possession genre, with some early on thriller touches. Sure the VR setting looks neat enough in its glitching/ building reality, and along the way Blomkamp adds in some great moments of chilling and unnerving atmosphere. Sadly most of the acting is passable to bland, but worse of all the script and the look of the film has none of the quirky and creative edges that the directors previous three features had. As a demonic possession film, it’s ok- and the effective use of atmosphere keeps you held in/ interested enough- but as a Blomkamp film is very disappointing.

So, in conclusion, it’s really what you after/ looking for to how much you’ll enjoy Demonic- if your coming to the film expecting similar to what Blomkamp has done in the past, you’ll be sorely disappointed. But if your looking for a run of the mill possession film, with some good atmosphere, and tech/ thriller edges you’ll probably enjoy this well enough.