August 8, 2018
Written by: Charles Phillip Moore
Starring: Eric Larson, Francine Lapensée, Rufus Norris
Budget: $500,000
Tagline: It'll Blow You Away!
Trivia: Lou Diamond Phillips was married to one of the assistant directors on this film. Phillips frequently visited the set during the shooting of the movie and even played a demon under a pseudonym.
Demon Wind is one of those movies that I never got around to seeing, but so many people choose it as one of their favorite guilty pleasures. A bad movie that they love. I want to apologize to all those people, but I could not get into this film. I'm sure it's because I'm watching it for the first time as a thirty five year old and have no nostalgic attachment to the film. While, I was not a fan of the film, it did have a lot of cool moments and is not without some merit. If you haven't seen it and need a quick synopsis: It's the plot of Evil Dead mixed with Lamberto Bava's Demons with no budget or acting ability.
The film begins with in 1931 with someone being burnt on a cross as part of a religious ritual. After that, a wife and husband try to barricade their farm door after which the husband turns into a demon. The demon is pretty disgusting dripping liquid and chunks of whatever out of its mouth. My wife and I were about to have dinner when we put this film on and had to turn it off until we finished eating. Flash forward sixty years and now we have the woman's grandson and his dummy friends heading up to the same farm to figure out what happened.
One of his friends, Dell, is such a great nineties caricature in this film. He repeatedly sloppy kisses his girlfriend in front of his friends and then ends by looking at them and proudly exclaiming, "That's why I keep her around." And when he isn't tongue assaulting his girlfriend's mouth he is reciting tough guy stereotypes. Used sparingly, Dell is a welcomed addition to the film.
The movie goes on, predictably, to the friends one-by-one being turned into demons. First begins the blue liquid from the mouth, then the chunks, then their face turns into hamburger meat. The special effects are mostly practical (thank you) but look silly rather than scary. During one scene a fog brings a bunch of demons to attack the house but luckily its protected by their the grandfather's spell (stupid, dumb). During this marathon of a scene demon after demon walks up to the house and nothing happens, aside from some are shot with a shotgun that can be shot twenty or thirty times without reloaded. Apparently, according to the IMDB trivia one of these demons was Lou Diamond Phillips who was married to one of the filmmakers. Bless you Lou, where were you when we needed you most?
In addition to Dell's incredible scenes, there is a great sexy demon scene. A half naked demon is outside the farm beckoning to two of the dummy friends. It is obvious to the viewer and the dumb dumb friends that she is a demon, but unable to resist the woman's call (breasts) they go out there only to be snatched up and turned into demons
There are some other cool moments besides demon boobs and Dell's great one-liners. There's the child's doll that cries blood. There's the crazy gas station guy who warns the kids, "don't go there!" The main dummy friend turns himself into a demon. The movie is not without quality moments.
Later we get the head demon. Like Keith Richards, he cannot be killed with conventional weapons, so they use magic to kill him. Then he dies, or doesn't. Guy wakes up and the demons are still there but there not, but maybe one is left. Full disclosure, I was using wine as a coping mechanism to get through this film and had just finished the bottle so the ending of the film is a little hazy.
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