3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Demonic Digital Dreck, February 15, 2005
This review is from: Demons At the Door (DVD)
In general, I think the digital revolution is a good thing. Somewhere in the world, the next Sam Raimi is creating a horror masterpiece using just a digital movie camera, a home computer and a copy of Final Cut Pro. Hopefully very soon, someone is going to reinvigorate indie horror on a small budget and I can't wait to see it.
This is not that movie.
You know you're in trouble from the first frame of this movie. There's some kind of ridiculous voice over about angels that plays over some really terrible CG shots of the Earth from space and some kind of comet. Then, it cuts to a shot of two archaeologists working on some kind of dig. Apparently they have discovered some kind of ancient door, which they are brushing clean of sand. Take a stock shot of the desert and superimpose a picture of two people with paint brushes in the lower right hand corner. That's the way this shot looks.
I read a review that claimed that the lead "actor", Richard Benedetto, is some kind of established comedian. If I were Richard, I wouldn't quit my day job. Physically, he's a low rent combination of Lou Ferrrigno and Frank Stallone. His acting is the only horrifying part of this whole movie. I'm also not buying the idea that this movie was meant to be funny. The movie only sways into an absurd comedy in the last half hour. I think someone probably watched the first hour and realized that it wasn't working as a horror movie, so they rewrote the ending to make it into a screwball comedy thing.
The effects are obviously done on a home computer, but not anything that was made before 1979. These look like they were done on an Atari 800. These effects are worse than anything you'll see on a third graders flash animation site. The lighting is horrible. It's as if they couldn't afford a light bulb over 40 watts or they didn't know how to open up the aperture on the camera. They tried to fix this in post by blasting the image with as much light as possible, which just makes it grainy. There are shots in the movie that are so grainy that you'd swear there was sand in your TV screen.
Clearly, the writer and director were influenced by Sam Raimi, but they also seem to love the lowbrow comedy of Trey Parker. Their attempt to create a movie that combines South Park and Evil Dead is a questionable goal to begin with... the result is worse than you can imagine.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Geezus Keeryst!, September 17, 2005
This review is from: Demons At the Door (DVD)
Oh my God, this movie sucks! It sucks so badly you gotta love it. I laugh harder each time I watch it. Crappy actors, cheeseball dialogue, no budget graphics! What's not to love? If you are looking for a great late night weekend movie to go with your microwavable bag of popcorn and 2 liter of Coke, this is it. Treat yourself and buy this dvd! If you have no sense of humor or love for b-movies, go rent Gigli or Titanic for the kagillionth time.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Don't take a minute of this seriously..., January 23, 2005
This review is from: Demons At the Door (DVD)
What starts off as a serious action-horror flick, quickly degenerates into a intentially funny comedy. Stupid? Yes, but still funny.
The Demons in the title refer to the creatures accidentally released by some archeologists while poking around an ancient Iranian/Iraqi/?? temple. The scientists' Army bodyguards get stuck with the task of mixing it up with the trash-talking demons, which leads to some very funny situations and flashes of T&A.
The whole "demon teeth pulling" scene had me howling with laughter. I don't know, to me there's something funny about scenes where slimy demons try to out trash-talk the humans.
Its worth a look.
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