When it comes to the career of Canadian / South African writer-director Neill Blomkamp, I have to admit that it has all the appearances of a case of diminishing returns. And that sucks, because the guy has readily proven that he’s a unique and capable ‘voice’ on the cinematic landscape, with heaps of untapped potential, especially in the realm of ‘hard’ science fiction.
I absolutely love his ambitious, thoughtful, and wonderfully grotesque debut, 2009’s amazing, better-than-it-had-any-right-to-be District 9.
After that came 2013’s ambitious-but-flawed Elysium, which shot high but just couldn’t stick the landing, as a well-scripted science fiction story. Some story beats and plot elements literally angered me (shoulder-launched, orbit-capable super-missiles?…seriously, Neill?!). However, the visuals, action and lived-in cyber-punk aesthetics were on point, as my kind of gritty sci-fi goes, so that did help make up for the glaring short-comings of the script.
It was 2015’s serious, and I DO mean serious, misfire Chappie that signaled that the tailspin was under way. Much like Elysium, there are elements of Chappie, from a dystopian science fiction stand-point, that I quite enjoyed. And then…there’s Die Antwoord, those ugly so called ‘rapper’ fuck-ups. And by fuck ups…I mean those Afrikaaner dick-wads ‘Yolanda’ and ‘Ninja’, who both helped murder that flick’s chances of EVER being taken seriously dead in its tracks and in the process, knocked Blomkamp’s once-rising career into the dirt in one fell box office failure.
Not long after that blow to his self-esteem, Blomkamp dipped his toe back into content creation by establishing the short-lived Oats Studios, whose ultra-cool mandate was to showcase edgy ‘proof-of-concept’ short films and skits, all under his control.
I will freely admit that I think the entire Oats Studios concept was brilliant and I genuinely LOVE some of what he was able to pull together, with what could NOT have been huge budgets, though the end products legitimately defy expectation, particularly Rakka, Firebase and Zygote. I HIGHLY recommend each of those titles to those who can appreciate daring hard-edged short-form cinema…they are genuinely great, in my humble opinion.
Which is not to say that his Big Screen career out-right died…it didn’t. In 2023, he took on, in what really seems like a ‘journeyman’ director-type role behind the camera,IMO, the helm of the live-action Gran Turismo adaptation, which I will admit I have very little interest in (it’s the subject matter), so passing no judgement. Happily for Blomkamp, Gran Turismo turned in a decent $122 million return on a $60 million budget. Nothing ground-breaking…but hopefully enough that his next project, whatever it may be (haven’t bothered to look, at the time of this writing) may be the hoist up he needs to return to form.
Having given a couple honest attempts at no-budget filmmaking (though I still maintain that the two short films we whipped up are actually pretty cool, for what we had to work with), I always marvel at what talented directors can pull off with limited budgets and sometimes, the end results defy expectations, with off-the-cuff examples like Cube (1997), Phone Booth (2001),and Narc (2002) immediately springing to mind.
So, I was genuinely interested to see what Blomkamp had cooked up, in secret, in the midst of a global pandemic. Plus, every once in a while, I will stumble upon a flick that turns out better than expected, better than it really should be, something flying way under the collective radar…and I wondered if this could be one of those.
Feeling bold, I threw caution to the four winds…and blind-ordered the Blu ray!
*crowd gasps in horror*
And then…it arrived.
Demonic tells the story of ‘Carly’ (Carly Pope), a 30-something woman who is contacted by an experimental medical research company who have recently taken over caring for ‘Carly’s once-imprisoned, now comatose mother ‘Angela’ (Nathalie Boltt). They ask if ‘Carly’ would be willing to partake in an experimental treatment involving her estranged parent, and she grudgingly agrees. Turns out, the slightly shady company has the means to tap into a person’s subconscious and cast them into a shared simulation, rendered in digital detail. Once inside and in contact with her mothers deeply buried conscious self, she begins to realize that there’s something else lurking in the simulation, and soon we realize that ‘Angela’ is, in fact, possessed by a demon, which caused her to burn down an old folk’s home and poison a church back in the day…and the company knows more than they’re saying.
The red glow of the rising sun was just showing itself through the trees and the coffee was hot and fresh, with just enough hot chocolate. The pad and pen were poised for action, ready at my side.
My two dog girls slumbered on the other side, murmuring and kicking away in their post-waking up nap.
In went the disk. PLAY
Scribbles ensued, messier than usual…
-Cinematography decent right off the bat. This…is expected. Much like Ridley Scott, I find that even if the script sucks…he’s at least going to make it look good (looking at you TheCounselor…you cringe-worthy piece of shit!), and with only $1.5 million to play with, Blomkamp still manages to craft what I felt were effectively cinematic visuals and compositions.
-Acting not terrible. None of the actors I recognized, and I believe most were from the Vancouver area, where Blomkamp resided for years (hell yeah, BC represent!), before he relocated into the Interior, into the desert-like Okanagan area. To their credit, it never felt like they weren’t trying. There was something refreshingly naturalistic to some of the scenes and how they played out.
-Blomkamp’s visuals defy the meagre budget. Again, dude has a slick ‘eye’ and he was putting it to use.
-Seeing shades of TheCell. Another better-than-it-should’ve-been title was 2000’s under-appreciated psycho-killer mind-fuck flick The Cell, which I was quite impressed by when I saw it for the first time. Some of the ‘vibe’ in Demonic has hints of The Cell…or so I thought.
–Cool simulation effect, filling in as ‘Carly’ moves. On one hand, I could see the effect being accused of looking somewhat cheap…but I actually thought that worked in its favor, with the simulation constantly rending all around her as she moved through each environment.
-Glitches are a nice touch. Sometimes, glitches are, in fact…a nice touch.
-Loving Blomkamp’s use of focus and depth of field. As previously noted, I’m a big fan of the Blomkamp Look, and here he did not disappoint.
-Good use of abandoned locations. Interior BC? This was scribbled BEFORE I found out he’d moved into the Okanagan…so yes, Interior BC. Having once driven half-way across Canada, I saw many old abandoned structures along the way, many like what get used here, so it would seems that location scouting for Blomkamp was a breeze.
-Uh oh. Digital Nightmare on Elm Street. Wounds. Yep…the slicing and dicing hits Real Life, beyond the simulation. There are wounds that happen.
-OF COURSE, it’s haunted land. Why would it NOT be?! Going all the way back to friggin Poltergeist (and beyond, I’m sure), it’s ALWAYS some kind of ‘haunted land’. Usually belonging to some wronged Native group or something.
-Interesting Vatican connection. This detail kinda came outta left field, with it revealed that the medical company is actually a front from operatives from the Vatican who are utilizing the new technology as a means to prove demonic possession, which I found to be a somewhat novel approach.
-Slick editing goes a long way. In keeping with Blomkamp’s slick visuals, the editing on display is decent too, complimenting the images.
–Creature design right at home at Oats Studios. There are monsters in each of the Oats Studios short films that I listed previously, with Rakka featuring horrifying alien invaders of a distinctly reptilian nature, Firebase featuring a Vietnamese river god formed of mutilated remains, while Zygote showcased a freaky nightmare of a beast created of melded human body parts. The shadowy avian-styled demon that is revealed here fits right into the Oats aesthetic Blomkamp previously introduced.
-Pebbles at the window. Night time. More Elm Street references? At one point, ‘Carly’ is awakened in the middle of the night by pebbles being thrown at her window. The sequence, right down to some of the compositions and lighting, felt directly influenced by the nocturnal stalking of ‘Tina’ in the first Elm Street flick, which also begins with pebbles tossed at a closed window, leading to one of the most memorable kills in that entire franchise.
-Prediction – Doomed BFF. And she said it! Trippy. There’s always a plucky best friend who, despite their best intentions, get caught up in the beleaguered protagonist’s plight and usually end up paying the Ultimate Price. In this case, it’s ‘Carly’s well-meaning long-time friend ‘Sam’ (Kandyse McClure). And yes, as I was literally scribbling ‘BFF’…she said it. In perfect sync with what was hitting my pad…tripped me out, as you can see.
-OK, demonic contortionism is effectively creepy. As always. We’ve all seen this crazy shit before, with The Exorcist (1973) and In the Mouth of Madness (1994) immediately springing to mind as highly effective examples, and here, Blomkamp does his own, and I liked what he did with it.
-Oh snap! Did NOT have the Vatican Special Forces dudes on the bingo card! Yeah, kitted out clergy in the house!! Considering the obscene and ludicrous influence the Vatican carries worldwide on our planet today, for some dumb fucking reason, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to find out they had tactically trained members in their ranks. Shit…they already have their own spy agency, so…!
-Low, ominous score lends further polish. I appreciated and understood the minimalist-but-still effective score by Ola Strandh, which carried like an ominous heartbeat through many scenes in a way that I low-key appreciated.
-Grab the AR, numb-nuts! A character brandishing a bolt-action rifle literally walks over a discarded M4, no pause to check it, nothing. Frigging bone-head.
-Some dialogue clunky. Stilted deliveries were sneaking though.
-Predicted – BBQ’d BFF. Grisly. Um…SPOILERS?
-‘Ripley’-mode activated. If you know…you know.
-ALWAYS a self sacrifice. Always. I promise…no more SPOILERS.
-An ending too many? This flick is pretty bleak in tone and there was a point where had it SMASH-CUT to BLACK’d and rolled credits…it would’ve added to my viewing experience. But nope…there’s more.
-Nothing for the BFF?! Just the psycho mom?! Dirty! This didn’t seem right, somehow. ‘Carly’ goes to the grave of the pycho-crazed bitch-demon puppet Mom…but there’s no mention or acknowledging the brutal murder of the friend who went out of her way to try to help. What is up with that?!
-All things considered…not awful. Work went into this. As previously noted, I always appreciate seeing what creativity emerges under far tighter financial constraints and no matter how much people slagged this one on release, I will always give Blomkamp and Co. props for the fact that they managed to pull together a complete, legitimately cinematic 1 hour and 44 minute sci-fi / thriller narrative that MAYBE didn’t quite hit the heights it was shooting for, narratively speaking, but I was fully entertained by what he WAS able to cobble together with super-limited resources. It’s too bad more people couldn’t at least recognize the passion and ingenuity in making something like this come together, especially under the circumstances this passion-project faced. And…as already stated…it’s legitimately NOT awful. I’d even go so far as to say ‘decent’…if you recognize the effort that was put in.
All in all, I found Demonic to be a somewhat fascinating watch, especially when considering the obstacles laid out before Blomkamp when he decided to tackle this micro-budgeted film project. Out of Covid 19, no studio backing, that miniscule bank roll of $1.5 million, and a Hollywood reputation in undeserved decline, Blomkamp made a movie.
At the end of the day, Demonic IS a complete flick (high praise, I know), that actually comes with some actual merit, against all odds it would seem. From what I understand, those critics who did catch the initial tiny release were not kind, further unfairly slamming another nail into Blomkamp’s professional coffin.
It currently holds an admittedly dismal 14% on Rotten Tomatoes…but that somehow feels…mean.
I went into this one, based on what little negativity I DID know about it, with bottom-of-the-barrel expectations, and that may have actually elevated my viewing experience, as I found myself paying careful attention to the slick cinematic mechanics at work as the narrative unspooled. Blomkamp is undeniably talented and I believe that this little ‘made it cuz we could’ title is another example showcasing that.
It’s just a shame that it fizzled out almost immediately on release, further delaying other interesting genre content that Blomkamp may have up his sleeve (Alien 5*…oh, what could’ve been?!!).
*That amazing sounding project died in the early pre-production phase, even after Sigourney Weaver’s blessing, after she worked with Blomkamp on Rakka, one of Oats Studios best releases. I love the concept art and designs that Blomkamp released after the project was shelved and based on those, talk about an opportunity missed!. Damn you, Gods of Hollywood!!
As for a recommendation…I’m not entirely sure, if I’m honest. On one hand, if you have any appreciation for the ‘eye’ of Neill Blomkamp, there is something for you here. I thought Demonic genuinely looked slick and cool, and on that level, sure…fire it up. However, I also recognize that it’s not the most engaging thing he’s ever directed and if you’re not some kind of Blomkamp completist, you can probably safely pass this little curio by…and continue on with your day.
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