Sorry About the Demon

A family decided to sacrifice a human for ghost there in their new house... Soo a protogonist came to that house for rent and soon he starts to do fun and torture with those ghosts and he don't want to go another house due to personal issues... Finally one bad ghost destroyed by him and starts living with 2 bad ghosts... One time watchable movie...!

A family decided to sacrifice a human for ghost there in their new house... Soo a protogonist came to that house for rent and soon he starts to do fun and torture with those ghosts and he don't want to go another house due to personal issues... Finally one bad ghost destroyed by him and starts living with 2 bad ghosts... One time watchable movie...!

"Sorry About The Demon" tells the story of a recently dumped screw up who moves into a haunted house with a very goofy demon intent on finding a human host.

I think someone's enjoyment of this movie will be completely dependent on how you feel about this movie's tone. It goes for laughs nearly every time you expect it to go for scares. It isn't scary, and it really isn't that funny but the jokes and wit are consistent throughout and I laughed out loud of a few times. I grew to like what they were going for, even though it needed better writing and characters to grab the brass ring. The effects were poor and it's poor production budget shows through at times but never took me completely out of the story due to the nature of the story. However if you go into this story wanting horror - you picked the wrong movie.

Overall I'm glad films like this can get made because they are different and fun, even though this film is just an average attempt at a horror comedy. I think it's worth a watch with the correct expectations and have some fun with it.

This is a movie that I decided to check out due to needing a 2023 release for my podcast, Journey with a Cinephile: A Horror Movie Podcast. It didn't make the greatest double feature, but being early in the year, it can be limited. I came into this one knowing that it was partially comedy. I also knew that involving possession and a haunted house.

Synopsis: a young man struggling with a broken heart learns that his new place is full of restless spirits.

We start this off in an older looking house. There is a family that lives there and I believe they think it is their dream home. The problem is that living there is a nightmare. The father is in real estate and his name is Ken Sellers (Dave Peniuk). His wife is Tammy (Sarah Cleveland). They also have two children, Jake (Jude Zappala) and Grace (Presley Allard). When the latter becomes possessed by a demon named Deomonous (voiced by Tony Vespe), the family makes a deal with it. They need to bring it a sacrifice.

The movie then shifts us over to Will (Jon Michael Simpson). He lives with his girlfriend, Amy (Paige Evans). Things seem to have soured between them. Will works from home as a customer service representative. Amy tests him with a question, wanting him to come with her. He doesn't answer and she leaves. They then break up.

Will ends up at the house of the Sellers. Staying there is quite cheap. They're leaving out the reason they want him to stay. He agrees to their terms. It doesn't take long before supernatural things start happening. The ghosts mess with him and then he finds a large cake created by Deomonous. Will gets a gut punch when the demon doesn't want to possess him, causing him to spiral even more.

Our lead isn't as alone as he thinks though. Amy still cares about him, but she needs more from him. Will has a friend of Patrick (Jeff McQuitty) who tries to help. Part of that is by setting him up with a co-worker, also named Aimee (Olivia Ducayen). They all end up back at his place when Deomonous sees opportunities with the guests. There is also a renewed purpose in Will's life that could change everything.

Now that is where I'm going to leave my recap for this movie as well as for the characters. Where I want to start is that I ended up liking this more than I was expecting. Part of it for me was the ability to connect with our lead, Will. I've been in a situation like him in the past. I've lived with a girlfriend who didn't think I would amount to much due to my circumstances at that time. Plus, I was content with where I was working. Looking at my life now and where I've ended up is quite interesting. Correlating back to the movie, I can see why Amy leaves him. In doing so, it forced him to reevaluate things.

With that established, I did see people not liking this since it didn't lean as much into the comedy. The comedy we get worked for me personally. This is a solid parody on possession and haunted house films that worked. It wasn't as scary as some. I think what they do with those elements are effective. This walks a fine line of being a scary movie with a bit of comedy or a comedy with scary aspects. I'm not sure it goes far enough into either to fully work.

That's not to say that I didn't enjoy this though. I had fun here. The characters of Will and Patrick are annoying, but they also felt real to me. I like that Aimee becomes our 'expert' on what to do. That was funny. The other Amy does have a change of heart that doesn't fully work, especially as someone who has been in this limbo type of relationship. I'm not sure enough time has passed for it work for me. It is also funny with the Sellers family and how they play into everything.

Since I've went over the characters, let me discuss the acting. I thought that Simpson works as our lead. There is a bit of me that feels bad for him, coming from my personal experiences. I can also see why he was dumped. Not sure we see enough change for me to fully buy in though. McQuitty is funny. Also, quite annoying. I liked Ducayen's performance. I've already said what didn't work with Evans, but she is fine as Amy. Peniuk, Cleveland, Allard and Zappala all work in their roles. Vespe has a great voice for the demon. Other than that, the rest of the cast rounded this out for what was needed.

The last things to go into would be with the filmmaking. I think the cinematography is good. The best part of it is setting the atmosphere. The outdated house adds to it. They also make it feel menacing which works for a haunted house. This has a combination of practical and CGI effects. The latter are hit and miss for me. Doesn't ruin it though. The look of the ghosts and those who are possessed were good. The climax gets odd, but I had fun there. Other than that, I'd say that the soundtrack fit for what was needed. I'll bring back up that the voice of Deomonous is creepy. That was solid.

In conclusion, this one I enjoyed, but I didn't love. It does good things. I like that they took the horror elements serious. They could have leaned in more to them though. There is comedy, but not all of that worked. I do think that the performances fit the characters as needed. This is well-made. Establishing the setting goes a long way here. I was pleasantly surprised here. This is one that I'd recommend if you like possession or haunted house films as I think this is better than most of the 'ghostlies' out there.

My Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

I am a horror person for sure but I also occasionally watch dark comedies. I wouldn't necessarily call this a dark comedy, but it's not exactly horror-comedy either, because there's very little about it that's actually scary. In some weird way it reminded me of 1980s silly parodies of other movies but I can't really put my finger on which one.

I laughed out loud several times, and I thought the ending was great. The main character is a lovable loser who actually has a lot of interesting hobbies which he's tried to turn into businesses, but his attempts at being an entrepreneur are met with defeat each time so he settles for working from home doing customer service calls for a terrible toothpaste that everyone hates. This aspect of his personality is very important because it sets up the narrative for the entire film.

After breaking up with his girlfriend, a man takes up an offer to move into a house for a new start, but after spending time there comes to believe the house is haunted by a demonic entity intent on getting close to him and enlists the help of some friends who believe him to contain the dark force.

This was a pretty enjoyable if somewhat flawed genre effort. Among the better elements of this one is the rather immersive atmosphere present with this one as it features a rather unique take on the subject matter. Focusing on the idea of the house clearly being haunted but him too clueless to pick on the overt qualities due to his naive charm and good-hearted nature, there's a lot to like here as the film runs through the clear stages of it being haunted. While it's known from the beginning that there's something wrong within the house due to the initial possession, that these scenes aren't more of a clue-in to what's going on earlier serves to nicely build the setup of the film quite nicely. Once that's in place, the film does quite a nice job of bringing together the group to try to figure out what's happening to him as the longer he stays there the more obvious it is that the place is haunted. Initially built incredibly well off his nonchalant attitude making him blind and oblivious to things like the cake decorations that magically appear, voices talking to him through the TV or the radio, and objects going missing throughout the house, these soon grow to the point of possessing loved ones to psychologically torment him that provides the means through which the main purpose of the film is gradually revealed. This causes the highly engrossing and engaging finale bringing these together for a lot to like here at points. There are some flaws to be had with this one. One of the main factors against this one is the highly uneven tone present that wants us to think this is funny but tends to fall flat more often than not. The main thing here is the central relationship which is written to be a way for us to identify with his underdog persona but she is entirely in the wrong for breaking up with him when he's rightfully putting more focus on work. That carries over into his attitude about the house being haunted as everything that's going on clearly shows it's haunted but him writing these away as something else entirely doesn't make any of this funny but instead makes it somewhat hard to care what's going on if it's hard to care about him. That becomes even bigger once the relationship is rekindled and they get back together as not only is the relationship generally cliched to begin with but also causes the rapidly shifting tone to feel even more troublesome. The added intrigue of trying to save someone he cares for is sapped away by the same comically lackadaisical nature of his treatment towards a demonic being and his attempts at settling what's going on only result in a wildly varying and over-the-top series of scenes that are meant to be scary or thrilling but are so hamstrung by its lackluster presentation that it ends up somewhat lacking. Combined with an overlong running time that could've ended a lot earlier, these factors are what brings this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Violence, and children-in-jeopardy.