''Demons'' is a 2017
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apo ...
written, directed, produced by
Miles Doleac
Miles Christopher Doleac (born November 26, 1975) is an American actor, director, writer and producer. He has had acting roles in several films and television shows since 2011 including '' Watchmen, Lovecraft Country, Treme, Sleepy Hollow, Ame ...
. The film also stars Doleac along with Lindsay Anne Williams, Steven Brand,
Andrew Divoff
Andrew Daniel Divoff (born July 2, 1955) is a Venezuelan actor and producer.Lanyon, Mary-Justine"A 'Bad Guy' With a Heart of Gold", Lake Arrowhead Magazine (Winter 2015-16), pp. 41-43 retrieved June 30, 2020.
Divoff has played many villains in ...
,
John Schneider,
Gary Grubbs
Gary Grubbs (born November 14, 1949) is an American character actor who has appeared in 178 credited shows and films since the 1970s and is still working steadily. He is best known as Captain Steven Wiecek in '' For Love and Honor'' (1983-1984) ...
, Kristina Emerson, and Jessica Harthcock.
Plot
Eight years ago, Father Colin Hampstead presided over an aborted exorcism that resulted in the gruesome death of seventeen-year-old Jewel Grant, in rural Louisiana. The deceased girl’s older sister, Kayleigh, grew immediately attached to Hampstead and sought him out, at first for grief counseling and then, for more. The once-zealous Father Hampstead soon left the priesthood, disillusioned with religion, but comforted by his love for Kayleigh. Colin and Kayleigh marry, but, on the night of their wedding, Kayleigh has a vision of her dead sister.
Now, Colin Hampstead has become a celebrated fiction writer, specializing in stories about the occult. He and Kayleigh have a daughter, and run a well-known bed and breakfast in Savannah, Georgia. When the couple agrees to host the wedding of one of Colin’s old friends, what begins as a jovial reunion turns into something much more macabre, as the seemingly omnipresent ghost of Kayleigh’s sister Jewel compels Kayleigh to engage in bizarre, destructive behaviors that endanger the lives of both her friends and herself. Told in two timelines, past and present, the film slowly unravels the unsettling circumstances of Jewel’s death, while tracing Kayleigh’s struggle to understand why her sister haunts her.
Cast
* Kristina Emerson as Lara
*
Miles Doleac
Miles Christopher Doleac (born November 26, 1975) is an American actor, director, writer and producer. He has had acting roles in several films and television shows since 2011 including '' Watchmen, Lovecraft Country, Treme, Sleepy Hollow, Ame ...
as Colin
*
John Schneider as Dr. Gerry Connor
* Lindsay Anne Williams as Kayleigh
*
Andrew Divoff
Andrew Daniel Divoff (born July 2, 1955) is a Venezuelan actor and producer.Lanyon, Mary-Justine"A 'Bad Guy' With a Heart of Gold", Lake Arrowhead Magazine (Winter 2015-16), pp. 41-43 retrieved June 30, 2020.
Divoff has played many villains in ...
as Jasper Grant
*
Gary Grubbs
Gary Grubbs (born November 14, 1949) is an American character actor who has appeared in 178 credited shows and films since the 1970s and is still working steadily. He is best known as Captain Steven Wiecek in '' For Love and Honor'' (1983-1984) ...
as Father Joseph Moran
* Jessica Harthcock as Jewel Grant
* Steven Brand as Eddie
* Yohance Myles as Marcus
* Ella Claire Bennett as Jewel Hampstead
* Megan Few as Emmie
* Presley Richardson as Young Jewel
* Caroline Baggerly as Caroline Grant
* Anna Voynik as Young Kayleigh
* Joseph VanZandt as Police Officer
Release
''Demons'' was the first horror movie from Historia Films. It had a limited theatrical release, coupled with day-and-date streaming release on October 6, 2017.
Reception
''Demons'' received mostly mixed reviews from critics, although Noel Murray of the
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
had this to say: "The ambitious auteur is getting better at making his novelistic ideas punchy and cinematic, but "Demons" is still a B-movie that takes itself too seriously ... Still,
Doleac's forging a niche. His name on a picture is now an indication that genre fans will see something different..." Charlotte Hollingsworth at Morbidly Beautiful wrote "Overall, Demons is an excellent film that brings something fresh to the exorcism genre." Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of , with an average rating of , based on reviews.
References
External links
* {{IMDb title, id=6175486
2017 films
2017 horror films
American supernatural horror films
Demons in film
Films about Catholic priests
Religious horror films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films