OUR FRIEND WAS JUST TURNED INTO A DOLL AND WE DON'T CARE: 1990'S DEMON WIND

While watching this film I couldn’t keep up with just how many films and directors this movie rips off. Sam Raimi and Lamberto Bava are the most obvious “influences”, but you’ll also notice ideas taken from William Peter Blatty, George Romero, Wes Craven and John Carpenter. Granted, many horror filmmakers take ideas and plot devices from their heroes, but the makers of Demon Wind didn’t seem to be able to conjure up any original ideas. It feels rushed, like they just took a bunch of ideas from far superior horror directors, put them in a blender and hoped for the best. What I am happy to report however is that the film is great and will be a real blast for any horror fan. Most lovers of horror cinema would welcome seeing a mix of Evil Dead, Demons, Night Of The Living Dead, The Shining, The Manitou and Exorcist 2: The Heretic (oh shut up…it’s not that bad). The movie has many faults, but stealing from classic horror is not necessarily one of them. It's the convoluted mess that would be the main detractor of this flick. The filmmakers can never just settle into one story or one action. The fog, the spell book, the magical dagger all do different things according to what's convenient. Also our main characters seemed bothered by the smallest things, but when something insane happens or a friend dies, it's pretty much "oh well, he/she won't be missed, let's move onto the next scene". I know it sounds like I'm ripping this movie to shreds, but I honestly like it and am happy to own it as I can see rewatching it again and showing it to various friends of mine.
   The reason I enjoy this film is the same reason I prefer Friday The 13th The Final Chapter to the original or The Mummy’s Ghost to the Boris Karloff Mummy film. Demon Wind like those sequels, plays out a lot faster because they don’t need to mess around with a long origin or backstory. This film just throws endless horror elements at you with loads of the titular demons which is often times what a good monster movie misses and that’s screen time for the creature(s). I understand why some older films hid their sharks or giant scorpions, but this film could care less about creating tension, they want to give you action. They also don’t need to worry about hiding their demons because they look terrific! The other special effects don’t look so spectacular, but luckily there’s not enough of them to take away from the enjoyment or the atmosphere of the movie. The cast is somewhat recognizable and for the most part turn in decent performances although I still have no idea who created the karate magician character. There’s also a rumor that Lou Diamond Phillips actually plays a demon and IMDb even lists him in the film, but I haven’t seen anything to convince me of a Lou Diamond connection or any reason he would be in the film with 2 seconds of screen time. Regardless of whether Phillips is in the movie or not I recommend checking out this crazy picture at least once. Overall, I’d say if you enjoy low budget horror, standard 1980s horror fare, survival horror with impossible odds and/or you like loads of strange bloody demons, then this film is for you. However after watching, I’m still not sure how our lead turning into a Deep Space Nine alien helps him do battle with the demon master. If you ever figure this out let me know…