Written and directed by Matt Devino and David Michael Yohe (The Silver), The Dæmon is an atmospheric slow burn horror that has obvious inspirations from the works of H.P Lovecraft. That is always going to be a plus as that unfortunate racist has written some really creepy stories of cosmic terror.
Late one night, Tom (Tyler Q Rosen) gets a phone call informing him that his father (Nick Searcy - Hunter, The Shape of Water) has killed himself at the family lakeside house. Disturbed by this, Tom heads off immediately, ignoring the questions of his wife Kathy (Sara Fletcher - A Beginner's Guide to Snuff). After a week of trying to contact him she is at her wits end and so enlists the help of her brother Mark (Oscar Wilson) and his therapist wife Jess (Adriana Isobel - Redfall video game voice work) in order to travel to the lakeside home and find him, assuming Tom is in deep grief.
Arriving at the remote home, Tom is furious to see them there, stating he had been ignoring Kathy's calls and texts as a way to protect her from following him. He cryptically states that something in the lake wants him, and now them also. As the days go on, Jess and the others are troubled by nightmares and hallucinations, and begin to hear the call of something from deep in the lake.
The Dæmon was a slow burn done right. Much of the film has an ominous feel to it, helped in no small part by the good soundtrack (composed by Michael Crane). There is a mysterious vibe with the horror mainly suggested rather than shown, until the third act at least. The viewer knows for sure the lake has something very wrong with it. The prologue sequence has Tom's dad walking to the edge of the lake before vanishing into thin air, while later there is a flashback of Tom as a kid seeing his mother be dragged into the lake by an unseen force. Later on there are some decent CG effects to reveal what is in the lake as well as some cool looking moments where characters appear with a black void where their faces should be. There were also some great looking practical effects used. I thought the location filmed at was a very effective one, it felt like a place far removed from anywhere else.
There were just the four main characters, all were very well cast but had differing character development to them. Tom spent the whole movie weird and angry so you never really got to know what sort of person he was. Jess was the opposite, from the tragic backstory she mentions in her introduction, to previous issues in her life getting other characters dubious when she begins to speak of the strange things she is seeing, she felt like more of a character.
The mystery of the plot is never really explained, but there is enough there to create a good suggestion of what is occurring. It was executed well and had decent pacing to it, but I wouldn't say it was the most surprising or twist filled tale.
I appreciated the look and tone of The Dæmon. It remained dark and moody throughout but did manage to have the occasional darkly humorous moment. Both the CG and practical effects looked good on camera and it culminates in an ending that I thought was fitting for the story being told. It could be a bit too slow for some, but I thought this was an interesting movie that fitted the ninety minute runtime well. The Dæmon had it's world premiere at the Pigeon Shrine Frightfest on 23rd August.
SCORE:
No comments:
Post a Comment