Demon Wind (1990)

Demon Wind

5/10

Ah ha! I found a movie not yet reviewed! Fear my obscureness!

******* As usual, this will have some spoiler action ********

Going back to '90 for this 'gem'. Don't take that to be a bad thing, because this movie is bad but I still love it due to its utter goofiness. Amazon has some used VHS copies for about $5 bucks, and there is 1 DVD copy for.... $50!!! Dang. Does it come with a snow globe? Yikes, must be a collectible since it has been discontinued. I remember the VHS box- it had a nice holograph on the front. That holograph may have cost more than the actual movie, but that is neither here nor there. (Did look cool, though).

To mix things up from my usual review, here's the plot- demons. Big shocker, huh. Ok, the movie starts out somewhere in the 1800's, maybe early 1900's, in a cabin/shack. The is some big baddy banging on the front door. Apparently the wife/mom is some type of good witch, as she is muttering Latin-type words. This is never really explained, but her husband somehow mutates into a demon and attacks her. As she is being mauled, she drops a snow globe and the whole house explodes(!). Reminder, no snow globes as presents to the family this year. This has taken up a whole 3 minutes of the movie. Sour cream has never looked so unappetizing.

Shall we do the characters? The really only important one is Cory, who shall be named 'Cory' since 'Hero' has the same amount of letters. He has a girlfriend (GF), who is somewhat useful throughout the movie. They meet up with their other friends, who include the Jock, Jock's GF, a magician, the magician's sidekick/lackey. Later on another couple shows up to provide more fodder. These are our heros. We could only be more screwed if the world was in the hands of Albert Pyun and a leprechaun.

Backstory- obviously, the shack is Cory's ancestral home and he must go see it after the mysterious death of his dad, the previous 'owner'. So he does what we all do in such a situation, drag his friends to certain death. Cory and his GF drive to some very isolated area, stopping at a gas station to ask for directions. The usual creepy "don't go there" is perpetrated to no avail. Magician and Jock show up with their passengers, and Magician does a semi-neat hackey-sack routine with a beer can. After gassing up they all leave, and here is one of the truely freaky moments of the movie. As they drive off a wacky child stares after them.

Ahh, the cabin/shack/house/demon home. Things get a little confusing here, and my VHS copy is so worn it's hard to see or hear anyhing, but I'll give it my best shot. It's all about the love, you know. Nuts, my tape will not even play in my player anymore. I'm gonna have to wing it. Sorry.

I'll give you one kill for free (hey, it's only 10 minutes in). Once the group gets to the ancestral home (which is quite burnt out and in shambles), they find a skeleton hanging on a cross. The Jock GF gets too close and turn into a doll(?), and then the doll's head explodes for worms to wriggle out. If anyone has seen this movie and has any idea what the heck is going on for that, please let me know.

Not is all as is seems, though, since if you are brain dead character and enter through the still standing front door, you enter a fully realized cabin/shack/house of mystery. To emphasize this point, the mentally challenged characters leave through the front door and walk around the wall to confirm that this must, indeed, be some type of magic portal. In case your were snoozing, a quick recap: someone turned into a doll that exploded and you have a bona fide magic portal. What shall we do? Let's investigate! My monkey hordes are smarter than this.

We now progress to the meat of the movie, so I'll just hit some high points. They stay, wierd spookiness abounds for the night. Their cars are dead. 2 more meat-pieces show up the next day and their car dies. They try to walk out, but the "Demon Wind" keeps transporting them back to the outhouse/cabin/medival castle of our ancestors. We get into some zombie/demon attack ala Romero. Magician and lackey go kick some butt at night (helicopter kick decapitations never get old), but make the mistake of saying "I did it, I'm safe" roughly 2 feet away from the front door. You can guess how that ends.

You know those big steer head skeletons that people in Texas like to hang on their walls for some reason? They can get nasty. All I'm sayin'. There's a whole bit about magic daggers that gets wasted, a bald hero, and some really bad effects. Bad guy doesn't look too awful. There's a trick ending that comes close to pulling off a scare, and the ending ending which is passable.

This movie could really have used a few more revisions of the script. It had exuberance and some creepy moments, but then fouls it all up with some serious cheese. Same goes for the FX. The good and the bad right next to each other is frustrating. I like this movie, almost no one else does, and I can see why they don't. I have a lower tolerance for ineptitude (Ed Wood, baby!) and there was some nifty things going on. Overall, a more precise vision would have helped immensely. I really wanted to rate this higher, but the more I wrote the more the score fell.

I just checked Netflix and they do not have "Demon Wind", so you'll have to scrounge it up on your own. If you find it for under $10 I'd give it a buy rating. It is fun, it does have some creepy moments, but it also falls apart at the end. If you can find a rental, do so just to say you saw a movie that almost no one else has!

Tallies- Demons, a whole lot. Decapitations, at least 2. Bald guys, one. Knives, 7(?). No monkeys. Exploding inanimate objects- yup.

Dialogue- Magician and lackey looking out window at night, see naked girl (paraphrasing)- Lackey, "There's a naked girl out there". Together, "Demon".