Fury Of The Demon — Fury Of The Demon(DVD)

The idea of cursed films as jumping-off points for horror cinema has been used to great effect in the last ten-to-twenty years. We, of course, had The Ring Films- both the Japanese originals and US remakes. John Carpenter’s Cigarette Burns which followed a movie theatre owner looking for a print of a film that caused homicidal madness. And The Hills Run Red, which saw a group of teens trying to track down a seemingly cursed slasher film. Here from Wildeye Release is a recent DVD release of Fury Of The Demon- a 2017 Mockumentary about an early French film-which each time it's played causes chaos, murder and insanity.

Fury Of The Demon (Aka La Rage du Demon) was a French/Croatian/ US production- it was directed and written by Fabien Delage. The just under one hour film is French language( with English subtitle), and it’s largely a talking heads affair- interviewing various film historians, French film directors, and those who have meant have seen La Rage du Demon. It’s certainly well put together and fairly believable mockumentary, though it does somewhat drag in places, and really lacks any real feelings of eerie-ness or horror.

The film charts the history of La Rage du Demon- a short & silent French  film from 1897, that over the years has been played a few times- and each time has it's caused murder, mayhem, and death. The film starts in 2012 when famed film collector Edgar Wallace shows a copy of La Rage du Demon in Paris to a selection of the media, filmmakers, and film historians - causing great chaos & death, and when the police are called the film has  seemingly disappeared. The remainder of the doc- sees a host of talking heads discussing the film's origin- debating if the film was made by either famed French illusionist and film director Georges Méliès, or spiritualist-turned-early snuff filmmaker Victor Sicarius. 

There’s no doubt that Delage spent a lot of time trying to make it look/ feel like a real documentary- as all the talking heads seem believable, and the weaving of real-life figures like Georges Méliès add authenticity to the whole thing. The problem is that it all feels too wordy & dense in the interviews for its own good- not featuring enough footage of those who witnessed the film or were involved with the police investigating- so as a result, the whole thing comes off more stuffy & bland, than creepy or chilling. Sure a few of the descriptions of the film's showings are effective, as are the discussions about Victor Sicarius proto snuff films- but these are only fleeting moments, and largely the hour's long playtime is just bland talking heads.

I guess how much you enjoy Fury Of The Demon is depending on what you expecting - if you like the idea of an authentic & well-produced mockumentary with very subtle undercurrents of dread/ horror, I feel you may enjoy this. But if me you're wanting something a little more  unsettling & chillingly impactful I think you’ll feel more than a little let down/ bored by this…a real pity as I love the cursed film concept, sadly this just didn't work for me.