Demons Never Die (2011) User Reviews (24)

Demons Never Die, but suicidal teenagers do.

[animalmad18 · 3/10 · 29 October 2011]

I went to see this film mainly on the premise that Robert Sheehan was in it, this being his first film release since he left Misfits, as I wanted to see what he's moved onto since he departed from a TV show as good as that. After watching Demons Never Die, I'm not convinced he changed his career path for the better.

The film's strengths lie in the cinematography, which at times is effectively dynamic and incorporates some good use of night-vision camera into its teen horror flick appeal. However the performances of the actors, some of which don't even get enough screen time to be judged by, are generally either flat, or downright annoying in the case of Jennie Jacques (who plays beyond-helping suicidal "goth girl" Jasmine) and, yes, Jason Maza, who put across one of the best performances generally, but had a script way too punctured by repetitive f-bombs and jabs at the other characters that after a while left his speech completely deflated. Ashley Walters on the other hand led the story with some very nice narrative work as one of the policemen following the teen murder/suicide outbreak. Robert Sheehan's somber, gentle portrayal of a somewhat lost soul rediscovering himself through sudden and inevitable romance is also passable. Enough.

The stronger actors, however, couldn't pull the film through its sloppy storyline. It is there, under the surface, but structured artlessly and not explored enough to make this an engaging film to sit through. While some characters are over-embellished (visually at least) others are neglected, only to appear fruitlessly and then disperse into the background again. None of the characters, however, have histories delved into with half the detail and care that was needed to make them work. You cannot have a film that deals solely with teens bent on committing suicide without a sole reason for them to go so far as to form a pact to see who can top themselves first. There are HINTS, again, but if they are dealt with at all they're not done so sensitively or interestingly. This adds to the whole downsider that the movie lacks both depth and meaning. Teen horror flicks need it too, especially when they deal with teens.

***

Not even the masked killer ends up having any real reason to kill so many teenagers. The twist to the story is clearly meant to land with a bang, but fails to do so because of the directorial slips. The very, very end to the film though, and how it suddenly makes clear the title, is the one thing about this film that has a true, if small, impression (small only because it takes a full hour and a bit to arrive at the station).

Overall a fruitless disappointment, which may have worked better from a black comedy angle, rather than trying to be something it just didn't work out to be.

nice title but that's all that is nice

[trashgang · 4/10 · 27 February 2012]

The title did look promising. Even the summary looked great but let me tell you that it stopped just right there. When one girl takes her life the rest of her friends agreed to commit suicide. But suddenly some are killed before they could kill themselves. Who is the killer?

Looks indeed Brian De Palma but it isn't. There is just too much of blah blah going on and some love affairs are in the way of the story. I yawned a lot but once the first killing happened I thought, well, from here the movie will start but it never really did. It could have been a great slasher and the knife is shown a lot but that's all it does. It actually kills but not to say that it all looked really scary. Some killings did have a few nice effects but that's it. They even put some nightvision camera's toward the end to add the 'paranormal activity' atmosphere but even that didn't work. It's sad to see that acting abilities are lost due the script. You just can't blame Robert Sheehan (Season Of The Witch 2011) or Jennie Jacques (Cherry Tree Lane 2011) by not doing their job. This is a flick than teenagers will love to watch to find issues like falling in love or friendship, or in other words, if you like Twilight or flicks were nothing is happening or is scary, this is your thing.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Such a waste of talents

[perkypops · 3/10 · 29 September 2012]

If there is one thing outstandingly wrong with this film it is its inability to determine whether it is horror, horror comedy, or black comedy. The premise of a suicide pact amongst a bunch of students has a little promise at the beginning, but that is blown out of the water by a really poor, as in pathetically poor, script not helped by banal acting. No one was convincing, even when a visually clever representation of online chat dialogue allows some sharpness and novelty but then fails to work with it.

The plot is horribly flawed, and is simply unconvincing. The police are made to look like idiots by their ineptitude for little details. And wouldn't it have been more convincing had the "suicides" been made to look like "suicides"? At least the movie would have had some element of polish with a bit of brushing up around the fringes.

But the biggest let down was the acting with flat lines, going through the copybook motions, and a patent lack of empathy between characters about the need for dialogues to interface and seem real.

It is not really worth any more than three, and is best avoided unless you really cannot find anything better to do - like snatching a couple of hours sleep.

An atrocious zero scares slasher

[skorkk · 1/10 · 30 October 2012]

This is without doubt not only one of the worst horror movies I've ever seen, but one of the worst movies I've ever seen, period.

What seems like quite an interesting concept is ruined by a truly dreadful script and woeful plot. I'd be surprised to hear that a child was scared watching this. Or even if a child managed to sit through the whole thing without getting bored and switching it off!

Perhaps you don't mind if the scares are minimal once there's plenty of gory kills? Well if that's the case I still wouldn't recommend watching this. Most of the kills are off screen. The ones that we do see are over in a flash, and show very little. If you're an X factor fan and plan on watching this just to see Tulisa get knifed then don't bother as you see nothing but two minutes of her talking on the phone before someone walks in and finds her dead body. Her terrible acting is the most shocking part about the films opening.

Maybe you're not a gore hound and just watch horror movies for a few decent jumpy scares? Again, if that's the case, I most definitely would not recommend this. There is absolutely zero tension throughout. Unless you've never seen another horror movie in your entire life then there is nothing here that you won't have seen done before ten times better and ten times scarier. In what must have been a last minute attempt to create some tension the director switches to some POV night camera footage, but the results just end up being laughable.

Now if you're a fan of scary movies then you'll probably be willing to forgive some minor plot holes or stupid moves by the characters in order for the story to progress, but this film just takes the p*ss! At one point one character leaves a room full of people to get a drink, sees the killer murdering someone and instead of running back into the room full of people, she runs past them and goes outside into the dark f*cking woods!!! On top of that we're actually supposed to believe that someone who gets stabbed in the stomach three times could pass for suicide, with no questions asked whatsoever!

Two small positives are that the opening credits sequence is quite cool and the internet chat room scene is well done. The soundtrack is not bad but after about 20 minutes it starts to get a bit ridiculous. It's not that the songs aren't good, it's that one appears literally every five minutes! And they don't just dip in and out either! Every second scene seemed to be the characters doing something mundane in slow motion to a mainstream pop/dance track!

Avoid at all costs! Even if you manage to download this online for free, don't bother. It's seriously not worth the time!

Hope this demon stays dead

[peter-stewart866 · 29 October 2011]

Let me just start with, this film does not make sense at all. Firstly, if you have a bunch of kids who want to kill themselves, the tension is removed when someone starts to murder them. Secondly, there's no reason for the killer to be killing in the first place even though you're happy to watch these caricatures and racial stereotypes be picked off one by one. Aside from that the main problem with "Demons Never Dies" is that it feels cold and empty with a massive lack of fun that other slasher films are abundant in, especially scream which most of the death scenes, in this film, are taken from. I have given this film one star only because of the directors ability to point the camera in the right direction which was its only saving grace even though it might have been better if he had pointed toward another story line.

hardly surprising it's terrible.

[moshun · 1/10 · 26 November 2011]

it's essentially an unwise billet-doux to no-budget slasher flicks, bolted on to some "urban" vagary. first time director writer Arjun Rose was a city trader... and it shows. He demonstrates little in the way of ability with this debut. Directing a not unserviceable cast with all the panache of a go-compare ad,there's every possible cliché you could imagine, used badly,and the character arcs barely register above flat-line throughout the entire film.

there's enough bad cinema around with the likes of " fond of shiny things with no narrative" Michael bay and co, we don't need another.

but that's being harsh to bay, demons never die makes transformers 3 look like Kubrick.

Boring and annoying!,

[80sHorror · 1/10 · 23 February 2012]

I saw the trailer on youtube and thought WOW this looks right up my alley! Sorry to say that the trailer contained ALL the best bits. Although the story is good it is let down badly by the poor acting,I thought it would get to the scary part pretty quickly but you will have to sit through 58 minutes ' cringe worthy script before anything nasty happens.

I watch every horror movie that I can get my hands on. I have seen good and bad, but I have never seen a movie as annoying as this one.

It is not the least bit disturbing because the characters are such idiots you don't really care what happens to them. Its also not jumpy, scary or gory. A complete waste of time.

I really hope that countries outside of the UK are not put off by this boring film because English are very capable of making truly awesome horror films like Eden Lake to name one!

Please poke my eyes out

[bemused11 · 1/10 · 25 February 2012]

I was really looking forward to this mainly because of the presence of Robert Sheehan. Then as I sat through this mess It dawned on me that this was no Horror, In fact it was........a Rubbish drama with no plot, no substance and certainly no surprises. I don't know who would enjoy this film, certainly no one who was conned in to watching it based on the write up. I was tempted to add some spoilers to make my points, however that would raise more questions than answers as I didn't really understand the ending myself. So if you are curious wait until copies of the DVD are available from the bargain bins or charity shops, believe me you won't have long to wait.

Not Good

[anthonymontanna · 5/10 · 22 June 2012]

All in all its not a good film, I saw the cast of this movie and had high hopes with the likes of Robert Sheehan, Ashley Walters and a few of the other British up-and-comers but i was very disappointed. I am also a fan of both slasher films and gritty English dramas. This movie however, fits in with all the clichés surrounding this genre and offers nothing in the way of originality. The plot is stupid to say the least and the soundtrack could just be 'NOW 78' or whatever. The only half decent thing was a few cases of good acting from Robert Sheehan (which we come to expect) and the girl who plays his girlfriend.

I give this film a generous 5/10

British guess who dunnit slasher

[Toltex · 7/10 · 21 February 2012]

BEFORE YOU TO DECIDE TO JUST GIVE THIS FILM A MISS,its not no where near as bad as some of the other reviews make it out to be. in fact i enjoyed it quite a lot, it wasn't by any means a master piece of British cinema but it rolled along at a decent pace and kept the suspense going. i also found it to be more realistic than most American slasher flicks, where the killer seems to be able to get from one place to another faster than Usain Bolt, has super human strength and takes for ever to die. (if he ever does). OK a slasher is a slasher , but the fact that it was a British film with some of Britains best up and coming actors,it made a refreshing change, also keeps you guessing till near the end. definitely worth watching

Awful, just awful.

[souliesean · 1/10 · 29 February 2016]

This is, without doubt, the worst film I have ever seen. The theme is exploitative. The direction is naive and witless. The script is clumsy and clichéd. The characterisations are superficial stereotypes. The soundtrack is dated.

But for one or two exceptions, the performances would be more suited to a school nativity play. Fifteen minutes in, I had already lost any interest in the characters. Twenty minutes in and I couldn't watch any longer.

This should be shown in film schools as an example of why you should never make films if you haven't even the germ of an original idea.

One of the better teen slashers out there!!!!

[elton_1987 · 9/10 · 26 February 2012]

First of all don't go by the bad reviews, this is one of the better slasher movies out there. The plot is simple, a girl commits suicide, a group of teens make a pact to follow the same, suddenly some realize that they don't wanna die any more, but there's someone who wants them dead. I just saw this movie last night and enjoyed it to the core. There was never a moment which I felt bored nor there was a moment where the story went off the plot. The story keeps you engaging throughout. This movie keeps you guessing till the very end. Overall, nice plot, good acting and well held suspense. A well made teen slasher which holds true to the genre, certainly worth watching.

not as bad as most say

[calomamonster · 7/10 · 6 November 2012]

I have given this a 7, and it was only just that over a 6. Well directed film, with a script that lacks in places but is good in others. The online chat was nicely shot, quirky and innovative, and should have been used more. Usually in Slashers or films with a hidden killer identity, I can pick out the killer. Demons never die, was NOT one of these films. the last few scenes were a bit annoying as first person night vision camera effect (eg. Blair Witch) annoys me, but it was a good all round film. I watched this as a random pick up, mainly for the appearance of Robert Sheehan, and because I had some time to kill, and it was definitely worth the watch. Give it a chance, it may surprise you.

This one... wow... what a pile.....

[wandernn1-81-683274 · 2/10 · 23 September 2020]

So what I'm getting here is there's some high school or college kids who are talking about killing themselves, like all together. Some death pact or some nonsense, but they mostly seem like they are not really serious about it. But then the dumb blond one is killed by a masked dude in a really fake looking stabbing scene badly filmed.

-1 Star for the first death scene.....

then 2 of the group meet for a drink and end up having sex, and then afterwards the girl has to make a point of keeping hte blanket over her while putting her shirt back on....

-1 Star for the hiding under the blanket while putting on a shirt ....you don't do that with someone you just 'did it' with, you do that because cameras are there.... hehe

Someone tries to kill Jasmine, I guess she's the main character out of these dolts. And she escapes. And the 'boyfriend' , Arch, he's a weirdo that breaks into people's houses when the parents won't let him in the door. So now the rest of this club starts guessing who the killer is while still acting like dolts. Guess it's a good time for dropping some DRUGS.

And good lord, another music video type interlude showing the various dolts getting dressed. This is the second such time during the movie some bad techno song has played almost full length.

-1 Star for making me sit through bad music twice....

Okay now alll the dolts are at some party.. Even the police are outside staking it out. There's got to be some great action and story now right??? Ahh here we go. Two dolts go outside to make out and both end up knifed. LOL some girl hits on fat boy and he doesnt even want to go upstairs with her. Oh he did go. Thank goodness for aggressive girls right???? The Police take dippy dolt into custody in their car for waving his gun around.

Fat boy James gets offed. Then Hoop earring ASh. And we get of course people being offed one by one after like all the EXTRAS left the party for some reason, and we just get the killer and the dolts and the police. So at the end the killer is about to kill the dumb boyfiend and is saved just in time by Jasmine and that's the end of this horrendous pile of monkey dung . But I did make it to the end. 2/10

A disappointment

[musicg37 · 30 October 2011]

This film has made me re-think my opinion of Vanilla Sky as a rubbish film. The reported budget of £1,000,000 is as far-fetched as the plot of the film. Even Tulisa appears to have devoted no more than her lunch break from X Factor judging by the amount of time she is in it. With a line up of up and coming actors and a producer in Idris Elba, one would be forgiven for thinking that we should be watching a bit more than an extended music promo, with no real plot and void of realism and direction. I am a fan of British low budget films, but with Demons Never Die they were trying far too hard to paper over the cracks using a superb sound track. Even if you don't expect very much from watching this film, you will still be disappointed. Buying the sound track on CD is a far better option.

Pills or Poison......

[FlashCallahan · 6/10 · 27 September 2012]

When a young girl takes her own life, Archie and the other Suicide Kids decide to follow her lead and form a pact.

But as the group begin to die one by one, Archie realises that they have all become the target of a masked killer and that his commitment to death has become a terrifying fight for survival A battle to protect the girl he loves, and himself begins...

First off, if you really lower your expectations before seeing this, it's not as bad as what many have said. Yes it's silly, and the ending and reveal of the killer make no sense at all, but there is something about the two leads that makes it very watchable.

There is no real reason to have Tulisa in it's opening scene other to put bums on seats, as X-factor was well under way when this was released. Her role is just a rip off from Casey Becker in Scream, which was a huge mistake.

Once we meet the central characters, the film picks up. They all have their own problems, but once a couple get killed off, they soon decide that they would rather live.

There is a little sub plot regarding one of the group being famous and killing the rest of the group, but the character is really annoying and it just detracts from the rest of the film. And at times, you feel that the writers don't really bother about the rest of the cast and just focus on the two leads.

Other minor criticisms are little ones like the extras at the party are terrible, Reggie Yates does not convince, and the soundtrack is just basically popular music of the year that has no connotation with the film or plot.

Other than that, it's completely watchable stuff, referencing urban legend and Scream. and accept for the silly last reveal, its not bad at a all.

SUICIDE CLUB IS MURDER

[nogodnomasters · 8/10 · 13 August 2018]

Amber Johnson (Tulisa Contostavlos) kills herself because she is pregnant. This inspires some of her classmates to form a suicide pact. Kenny (Jason Maza) is the lead in the group. He just doesn't want to die by taking pills, but wants a glorious death people will remember. He brings on a photographer to record the events. Meanwhile Arch (Robert Sheehan) falls in love with Jasmine (Jennie Jacques) and they become lovers. Both of these individuals have major issues. They are a few more in the gang, but they are minor players.

After a week goes by, the suicide club decides to disband as they have gotten over their teen problems and opt to live instead to the dismay of Kenny. The movie turns into a slasher who-dun-it, with everyone in the story carrying a knife.

I love Jennie Jacques. She was become the new "it" girl for me. I love any movie she is in. I enjoyed the film, but my main problem is that if you are going to have a who-dun-it, you really need to drop a clue from time to time about who the real killer is, as well as the head fake. This movie failed in one area. It also only developed two characters, Arch and Jasmine, which they did well, but I would have liked to of gotten to known some of the other characters with subsequent clues and head fakes. I guess you can only do so much in 90 minutes, which means they needed to cut characters (pun intended).

F-bombs, c-word, sex, near nudity- Jennie you tease.

awesome Brit flick with loads of blood!!!

[tyler100-1 · 6/10 · 22 February 2012]

i really enjoyed this movie and highly recommend it,its slightly like scream but a gritty,British version with very emotional scenes with the suicidal teens,i don't wanna spoil too much but i can say there is a lot of twist and turns,you should definitely watch if you enjoyed kidulthood or scream!!!the acting is very well done and there are a few funny scenes which make you chuckle and also loads of gory scenes that are sure to please you gorehounds out there,overall its a dramatic horror movie which I'm sure you will enjoy as long as your into that sought of thing,I'm sure the movie can relate to many teens over england but i am also certain adults will like this one!!

i liked it

[svenrikken-436-387684 · 7/10 · 29 July 2012]

hello, this movie is totally worth watching it if you like horrors and slashers. i think i liked it because i like movies with murders such like Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, Ghostface. so if you like them 2 you should watch this the end is totally different then you think it should be. the only things i didn't like so much was that there where not many kills and that the story is kind of weird. but i enjoyed watching this.i think there is also coming an second part because it has an open end. and if you think suicide is an strange subject for a movie don't watch this almost the whole movie they are talking about how they will kill themselves..... i hope you find this a good review greets Sven...and slasher fans you should watch this

Really enjoyed this

[hannahkingstondub · 10/10 · 3 November 2011]

Finally an urban London slasher, but if you're expecting anything like Scream it's very different... More like an art house slasher. So my cousin actually worked as a runner on this film and I've been well informed that it was made in 18 days for less than 100k so not sure where the million pound budget came from.. So with that in mind I was thoroughly impressed to see what was achieved. Now I'm not a fan of the urban genre but this is different, there's 8 lead characters all from different worlds who I found to be anything but stereotypical, e.g. the cops are young and black... The romance between Robert Sheehan and the lead girl is really sweet and while it's true that it is quite music videoish I didn't mind that, I like variety and this is definitely something different. I found myself trying to guess who the killer was throughout, laughed at the psycho character 'Kenny' and his cartman like foul mouthery and jumped a number of times.. The end is a bit cheap but I found out that they skipped 7 pages of the script because they ran out of time... That aside though it's a really good British film which seems to move the urban genre out of it's comfort zone

Offensive

[bobbybits · 27 February 2012]

This film attitude towards the type of people portrayed is wrong. These people who suffer from a mental health issue of being suicidal or bipolar. This film is disrespectful, offensive to them it doesn't want to understand them or offer any real solution to them. It offers the most obvious solution of friends but most often someone with these conditions is very much alone or is alone inside. So no real help from that, but sure lets let them make a death pact. While then blaming them for their conditions of, social, health, and mental and turning them into victims. Giving a message of they are going to die lets shank them first. Hence we have this tacky horror film.

Often people who have these issues are alone and they rarely let anyone in to help until it is too late or they have already tried. They leave behind so much loss and grief and many many questions.

To make film of this nature is quite offensive and deserve no rating regardless of some of the acting talent portrayed.

Scream meets Kidulthood

[acidburn-10 · 6/10 · 7 July 2012]

The Plot = A young girl is murdered, but thought by the police as suicide, a group of college students decide to make a suicide pact, but a masked killer decides to kill them all off one by one instead.

I only recently come across this movie, as before I have never heard of it despite it being quite recent only coming out last year and starring some well known UK actors, well I read some reviews online about it and it seems they are mixed at best, but I decided I wanted to see it anyway. And when I saw it, to be honest I actually liked it, despite obvious flaws and the generic feel to it.

"Demons Never Die" offers nothing new to the horror genre or anything spectacular but in my opinion works as an overall slasher. Although it is stupid that the police thinks that these deaths are suicide with blood splattered across walls and bodies hollowed out, I mean how can a person gut themselves literally, and the fact that these teens are planning a suicide pact anyway seems to throw the logic of a masked killer, killing them off a bit pointless. Although the knife attacks are quite fun as the cast are cut down, and the teens are quite interesting to follow and they did grow on me as the movie went on. The end party scene was also fun and elaborate, and I did enjoy the night vision camcorder scenes, I thought that it built on the suspense. And there are also some stupid fun campy slasher movie moments like when the party hostess finds a dead body in kitchen and runs past her friends and outside in the bushes ready and waiting to be killed, a camp moment kinda brings back memories from "The House On Sorority Row". The twist ending when the killer was revealed was also a bit of a shock and certainly took me by surprise, a factor that I always love in these types of movies.

The performances as I have mentioned before are really good, although I found Ashley Walters performance as the cop rather unconvincing and he just seemed bored all the way through. But Robert Sheehan and Jennie Jacques as Archie and Jasmine were spot on, I found that they're romance sub plot sweet and believable, and plus I found these two were the most likable and most interesting performances in this movie. Emma Rigby who I used to love in Hollyoaks wasn't given enough screen time in this and plus her character was poorly developed but she did okay with what she was given. Jason Maza also did well as the unlikeable character, but he did seem like a left over from "Kidulthood". Reggie Yates gave a unmemorable performance as the coppers partner, to be honest anyone could have played that part. Jack Doolan as the fat kid was quite likable and felt happy when he popped his cherry. And Tulisa as the opening victim Amber, was a bit uneven for me, and was only on screen for about 2 seconds, they should have had a Scream type bloody murder which would have set the tone then for the movie.

All in all Demons Never Die is Scream meets Kidulthood, a fun but generic British slasher movie that should please any fans, but there are a lot better out there.

Scream meets EastEnders?

[ejayb-92924 · 8/10 · 17 May 2021]

I thought many of the negative reviews were overly harsh; this is a slasher film and it doesn't pretend to be anything else so if you quite enjoy a slasher (no torture but lots of bodies) then you'll probably quite enjoy this. I thought the ending made perfect sense and not quite sure why some people struggled with it. Bit of vaguely suspenseful fun.

Ignore the bad ratings by all means .. this film is a triumph

[ryancreasyboy13 · 9/10 · 7 January 2014]

This film has everything a hardcore horror movie fan could want. Firstly, the narrative of the movie is superb , containing just the right amount of conceivable twists and turns that'll leave you guessing right till the very end. Not only that, the back story of each character is well explained, never straying too far from the main plot of the film. Secondly, the acting displayed from the cast is top-draw and we genuinely begin to feel sympathy for each and every character as they're subjected to the pitfalls of life , all the while dodging the ominous masked foe with a taste for teens. Combine the fore- mentioned components with a killer (excuse the pun) soundtrack and some excellent directing by Arjun Rose, and you have what may be one of the scariest horror movies to come out of Britain in recent years. Forget 'Comedown' or 'Cherry Tree Lane' , 'Demons Never Die' is the film that definitely deserves a permanent place in your DVD collection.