When the grandfather of Robin Murphy (Rachel Nichols) passes away, she travels to his home in Germany, deep within the Black Forest, where she grew up. After finding an unpleasant inheritance in the shed, Robin and husband Leo (Yohance Myles) encounter local hunter Arthur (Miles Doleac, who also directed and co-wrote) whose not entirely welcoming speech points out the odd coupling of their little bird and lion forenames and then warns them not to go out walking after dark.
Demigod is a curious one, welding various genre components to its folk horror template. The cold open is all hoods, candles and ominous premonitions before settling down to its first, unhurried stanza of building unease in unfamiliar territory. A dash of home invasion thriller adds to the intrigue but any hint of a second act siege is soon ditched, with our protagonists being thrown into a supernaturally-flecked version of The Most Dangerous Game, along with a handful of other poor unfortunates who’ve picked the worst time to enjoy the stunning scenery.
As derivative as Demigod is, one thing you can’t accuse it of is a complete lack of ambition and the chase sequences, although not especially spectacular, certainly give the proceedings much needed pep. Any early thoughts about this being eighty minutes of a couple hearing weird noises in their house and five minutes of payoff are dispelled fairly quickly. There’s a decent amount of gore too as disposable characters are introduced and dispatched in bloody fashion within minutes and there’s even time for icky flashbacks involving a young Robin and a stag’s eye.
Sure, the scenes which call upon characters to recite German dialogue may sometimes be delivered with a distinctly American twang and the Black Forest may not look authentic to anyone with knowledge of the area (the film was shot in Mississippi) but at least Doleac is trying to place the viewer in an unfamiliar location and not have everyone who’s supposed to be German speak in heavily accented English.
While watching this, you may get the feeling that you’ve seen most of it before and, to be fair, you probably have, but the way in which Demigod prowls its familiar hunting ground is still entertaining enough and there’s one unexpectedly premature demise as part of its “line ‘em up, hack ‘em down” middle third.
Then there’s Arthur’s seemingly endless supply of hunting proverbs which ring with the grinding smart-arsery of someone the average genre audience almost certainly doesn’t want to see standing come the end credits, so it’s fun just waiting to see if/when his unstinting appetite for dispensing “law of the forest” wisdom will be his undoing.
If you’re reading this and thinking “So where’s the folk horror?” that’s provided by a witchy trio of various paranormal patterns, their hulking sidekick and the oft-mentioned legend of a creature destined to be reborn plus, of course, Robin and her deceased grandparent’s link to the whole shebang. Did I mention there’s a child in peril too? Lacking in plot details this is not, in fact there’s arguably too much going on in terms of twists and turns and the lack of sharp focus on a smaller number of story elements gives the feeling that Demigod is hedging its bets.
Still, there’s an enthusiasm to deliver a solid genre piece which, for the less jaded horror fan, should paper over enough of the cracks sufficiently to prevent too much checking of the watch. The performances aren’t exactly measured but they hardly need to be. The more overwrought antics of the supporting characters are actually quite fun and it’s down to Nichols to exercise anything approaching a degree of relative restraint.
At 95 minutes, Demigod knows when to cash in its chips and get the hell out rather than drag its heels for another quarter of an hour, the cinematography has a clean, clear look, the night scenes are pleasingly well lit and the big bad is a neat cross of several identifiable creatures. It could so easily have been absolutely dreadful given the thirst for folk horror these days but, although it in no way rewrites so much as a paragraph of the subgenre’s textbook, it’s an agreeably (un)pleasant backwoods chiller.
Demigod is a curious one, welding various genre components to its folk horror template. The cold open is all hoods, candles and ominous premonitions before settling down to its first, unhurried stanza of building unease in unfamiliar territory. A dash of home invasion thriller adds to the intrigue but any hint of a second act siege is soon ditched, with our protagonists being thrown into a supernaturally-flecked version of The Most Dangerous Game, along with a handful of other poor unfortunates who’ve picked the worst time to enjoy the stunning scenery.
As derivative as Demigod is, one thing you can’t accuse it of is a complete lack of ambition and the chase sequences, although not especially spectacular, certainly give the proceedings much needed pep. Any early thoughts about this being eighty minutes of a couple hearing weird noises in their house and five minutes of payoff are dispelled fairly quickly. There’s a decent amount of gore too as disposable characters are introduced and dispatched in bloody fashion within minutes and there’s even time for icky flashbacks involving a young Robin and a stag’s eye.
Sure, the scenes which call upon characters to recite German dialogue may sometimes be delivered with a distinctly American twang and the Black Forest may not look authentic to anyone with knowledge of the area (the film was shot in Mississippi) but at least Doleac is trying to place the viewer in an unfamiliar location and not have everyone who’s supposed to be German speak in heavily accented English.
While watching this, you may get the feeling that you’ve seen most of it before and, to be fair, you probably have, but the way in which Demigod prowls its familiar hunting ground is still entertaining enough and there’s one unexpectedly premature demise as part of its “line ‘em up, hack ‘em down” middle third.
Then there’s Arthur’s seemingly endless supply of hunting proverbs which ring with the grinding smart-arsery of someone the average genre audience almost certainly doesn’t want to see standing come the end credits, so it’s fun just waiting to see if/when his unstinting appetite for dispensing “law of the forest” wisdom will be his undoing.
If you’re reading this and thinking “So where’s the folk horror?” that’s provided by a witchy trio of various paranormal patterns, their hulking sidekick and the oft-mentioned legend of a creature destined to be reborn plus, of course, Robin and her deceased grandparent’s link to the whole shebang. Did I mention there’s a child in peril too? Lacking in plot details this is not, in fact there’s arguably too much going on in terms of twists and turns and the lack of sharp focus on a smaller number of story elements gives the feeling that Demigod is hedging its bets.
Still, there’s an enthusiasm to deliver a solid genre piece which, for the less jaded horror fan, should paper over enough of the cracks sufficiently to prevent too much checking of the watch. The performances aren’t exactly measured but they hardly need to be. The more overwrought antics of the supporting characters are actually quite fun and it’s down to Nichols to exercise anything approaching a degree of relative restraint.
At 95 minutes, Demigod knows when to cash in its chips and get the hell out rather than drag its heels for another quarter of an hour, the cinematography has a clean, clear look, the night scenes are pleasingly well lit and the big bad is a neat cross of several identifiable creatures. It could so easily have been absolutely dreadful given the thirst for folk horror these days but, although it in no way rewrites so much as a paragraph of the subgenre’s textbook, it’s an agreeably (un)pleasant backwoods chiller.
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