Demon Wind (1990)

Directed by Charles Philip Moore [Other horror films: Dance with Death (1992)]

As far as effort goes, I think Demon Wind has got a lot to show, and there’s a decent amount to enjoy in the film. It started out decently strong, but problematically, it runs on longer than it really needs to, and I really think that if this had been trimmed a bit, it’d pop up as a forgotten cult classic more often.

Definitely the quality of the film is good, and the production level is surprisingly high. There were some fun special effects and creative ideas thrown in here (such as the fog that teleports people, or the ruins of the house that sort of lead to a pocket dimension wherein the house is still standing), and the story, while it does get a bit tired, is certainly different, at times reminding me of both The Evil Dead and Demons.

Few of the faces here were recognizable, but there were plenty of decent performances, such as those given by Eric Larson, Jack Forcinito (Silent Night, Zombie Night), Stephen Quadros, Mark David Fritsche, Francine Lapensée (Hollywood’s New Blood), and Bobby Johnston (also Hollywood’s New Blood). Perhaps none of them were amazing, but Larson was a pretty good lead, especially for an actor who hasn’t done that much.

The special effects did seem pretty top-notch. The multiple demons all looked solid, and had pretty good designs, especially that Boss at the end, hoofed feet and all. There were also some interesting kills, the one that stands out the most being a girl who is turned into a doll, and then said doll explodes. That’s something you don’t see in every movie.

You can tell this was filmed in the late 80’s – it just feels like something you’d see from that time period (such as Night of the Demons, which this also brought to my mind). There’s a bit of humor here, some fun scenes (a guy does a roundhouse kick that decapitates a demon), and just a good sense of what they were trying to accomplish.

Here’s my issue: I think the movie runs way too long. The film is around an hour and 40 minutes, and if they were able to trim some portions from the beginning (there was a decent amount of set-up here, and it took about 45 minutes to really get into things), or perhaps their conflicts with the demons, which widely felt repetitive, I think it could have been smoother. After a while, as decent as the film was, it just got to be too much, and I was legit tired come the finale.

Otherwise, it’s a unique movie that I’ve wanted to see for a long time. I found it mostly an okay experience, but because of the runtime, I can’t imagine Demon Wind is a movie I’d want to go back to all that often, no matter how fun portions of the film were. It’s definitely a movie I think some people would enjoy, though.

6/10