Don't Look At The Demon

Don't Look at the Demon (2022)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Brando Lee

Starring: Fiona Dourif, Harris Dickinson, Jordan Belfi, William Miller, Malin Crepin

From: Barnstorm Entertainment/Bliss Pictures

This is a theatrical (!) movie I went into completely blind except for seeing it had something to do with the country of Malaysia and it wasn't something subtitled or dubbed. Ever since I noticed this past Tuesday that something known as Don't Look at the Demon was playing at various locations starting this past Friday-mainly AMC-and ever since I've kept myself in the dark on what the hell it even was. That said, it was easy to do so as I saw exactly zero people say a peep about the movie. In fact, it was even a surprise to see that Fiona Dourif was the star, and was the only name I knew... although now I know that Harris Dickinson has been in some famous films the past several years.

In short, it was actually made in Malaysia but the majority of the cast was white. This isn't awful-a likely scenario that ran through my head beforehand-yet it still feels rather generic, many of the beats likely familiar to even casual horror fans. Get this: a paranormal TV show travels around the world to “investigate” cases and Fiona's character has psychic powers. In the country they visit a haunted house which actually was more than that; there is the stereotypical demon popping up along w/ long black-haired pale girls, although more interesting to me was the local lore used that help make this feel not as rote, by the numbers schlock. The actual cause of all this: rather gross-admittedly, except for a few moments this is not especially graphic. And I am not quite sure why you couldn't look at the demon...

The effects aren't always great and the same goes for the acting & some of the sound design. Thank heavens this wasn't a painful slog and was watchable despite not being as inspired as it could have been. Regrettably it's another 2022 film that would have been better off if they quit while they're ahead, stopping sooner than it did. The weirdness of this getting a halfway-decent theatrical release and its country of origin is its most interesting attributes-thankfully this was watched at an AMC so I could use the A-List app-but I will be at the cinema a few more times the rest of October to view work that is (hopefully) all better than this.