Demon (2015) New Director New Films 2016

Groom meet spirit

When Peter aka "Python", goes to Poland to marry the sister of his best friend he moves into the old and some what abandoned farm once inhabited by his bride's grandparents. All seems well until an accident with an earth mover exposes a skeleton.  The discovery sets in motion a series of strange occurrences as the Peter becomes possessed by the spirit of a dead girl who refuses to believe she has died.

Based on a play called The Clinging the film is essentially one long set piece set at a wedding which becomes more and more weird as the supernatural intrudes more and more. I jokingly refer to the film as My Big Fat Possessed Polish Wedding, and in a weird way it really is. Its a big wedding in Poland that goes horribly wrong. Its a film that would have me thinking twice about having a wedding in the Polish country side.

This is a film that is filled with tension and a couple of chills. Things are the just right mount of off to keep you on the edge of your seat. It balances the strangeness with the oddness of a wedding. They are not normal parties and people behave oddly to the point it takes a while and some extreme behavior before anyone know anything is wrong.

Its also a film filled with humor as the oddness of the situation is played straight enough that we see the humor inherent in trying to cover up a far from normal event.. Rarely have I laughed at a horror film as much as this one. Hell I laughed more than I have at most horror comedies. The best part of the humor is it is organic and it doesn't seem out of place. It comes when you can't hwlp but laugh and it never comes at the expense of the tension.

The real story here is Itay Tiran as Peter. An amazing physical and vocal performance you'll get a good way into the film before it hits you that you are seeing one of those truly great performances that is in a film much too small to get an actor an Oscar. Yea it's nice to give Leonardo Di Caprio an Oscar for his a test big blockbuster, but at the same time people like Itay Tiran is doing things that put most recent Oscar winners to shame.

I absolutely love 99% of the film and if the film didn't insist on ending on a much too enigmatic note I would probably have put the film on my best of the year list, but things are a tad too unexplained with the political allegory becoming a tad too obvious.

Reservations or no this is one of the best films at this year's New Directors

The film plays Saturday and Sunday and is highly recommended. For tickets and more information go here.