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 t probably comes as no surprise that the best thing about
"Demon Slayer" is the movie poster, which promises plenty of lovely
young women for us to gawk at. The movie itself has a couple of scenes featuring
gratuitous nudity, most likely added to "spice" things up. God knows
the rest of the movie isn't worth writing a review on.
If there's one thing positive I can say about "Demon
Slayer" is that it's rarely boring. That isn't to say it's a good movie,
it's just that the actors are good enough that they manage to amuse us before
the film's last 20 minutes, when the long-awaited demon action finally rears its
demonic head. "Demon Slayer" is short on just about everything that
makes a good genre film, including decent gore. There's the T&A, but the
blood and guts moments are just terrible. And since I have very low standards
for this type of film, a movie has to be really pitiful for me to find it
lacking.
Michelle Acuna leads the no-star cast as loner Goth chick
Alicia, who has psychic powers that she can't control. And just in case we
didn't know by the dark makeup and black clothes that Alicia is Goth, director
James Cotten inserts groovy captions to inform us of the character's names as
well as their "personality". For instance, Tyson (Howard Williams Jr.)
is "The Brotha", Phillip (Adam Huss) is "The Punk", Claudia
(Hanna Lee) is "The Bitch", and Tamara (Monique Deville) is "The
Bitch's Friend". Now that "characterization" is out of the way...
The story takes place within an old abandoned hospital that
used to be a brothel way back in the West (I think). Years ago, a demonic curse
turned the hospital's patients into monsters, which led to the hospital being
closed down. This is where our 5 troubled youths are sentenced; their mission is
to clean the place up and get it ready to be turned into a community center. The
part of the hospital, I'm reasonably certain, is played by at least 3 separate
locations, which may explain why the hospital's interior aesthetics seem to
change from scene to scene.
As mentioned, "Demon Slayer" doesn't get bloody
until the hour mark. Before that, we get a brief "demon slaying"
sequence courtesy of a prelude. After that -- nada. Instead we have to sit
through a whole hour of comedic hi-jinks as the teens try to get along, clean up
the hospital, and get all horned up for sex. Actually, only Tyson and Claudia
get it on. (Interestingly, the Claudia character is actually not nearly as
"bitchy" as the screenplay, and the other characters, try to make her
out to be.)
Meanwhile, loner Goth chick Alicia keeps getting psychic
visions of murder and naked women, which may explain why she goes all naked in
the strangely pristine bathroom for a lengthy period. Robert Easton's slightly
"off" priest also tries to get some Goth lovin' from comely Alicia.
Later in the film, a second priest name Enrique (Joaquin Garrido) shows up to do
some demon slaying, armed only with an eye patch and a shadowy presence.
Needless to say, his death scene is rather pathetic. Then again, so is everyone
else's.
"Demon Slayer" is a low budget film that
surprisingly manages some good actors. Howard Williams is the best of the bunch,
while Hanna Lee has moments where she shines, but towards the end she
inexplicably goes flatline. Even so, I think Lee might have been a better choice
for the lead than Michelle Acuna, who either looks very bored or doesn't know
how to shake the "I'm a loner Goth and I'm pissed off at the world"
expression that she uses for every scene.
Even as a guilty pleasure, there's not enough of
"Demon Slayer" to be guilty over. It's a pretty awful film, and it
doesn't help that the movie saves all of its demons attack scenes until the hour
mark. And trust me, it's not worth waiting for.
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