#Francine Lapensee

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Demon Wind (1990)

One compliment you can give Demon Wind is that the title is just about perfect. This is a fart from Hell, and it’s nasty enough to peel paint. Unfortunately, the few scenes that might make it enjoyable as something “so bad it’s good” are bridged with a lot of boring material. This Evil Dead clone had to have a similar - or maybe even bigger - budget than the 1981 film but it looks 50 times worse.

After his father’s suicide, Cory (Eric Larson) asks his girlfriend Elaine (Francine Lapensée) and his friends (which include Jack Vogel as Stacey, Stephen Quadros as Chuck, Mark David Fritsche as Jack and Sherry Bendorf as Bonnie) to help investigate the family home. While investigating the ruins, they become trapped by a mysterious fog hiding demonic forces.

A group of friends trapped in a cabin in the woods while under attack by demons that proceed to possess them one at a time. The remaining young adults fight off their former friends as their numbers dwindle. It's pretty clear writer/director Charles Philip Moore was heavily influenced by Sam Raimi’s cult classic. You can also tell by the gore. Every demon oozes custard-colored blood like a maple tree come syrup harvest time. The major difference is that there isn’t a second of Demon Wind that’s self-aware and the attempts at humour are few. This movie wants you to be scared but you won’t be. When you laugh, it will be at its expense.

The funniest parts of the film come from a duo of smart-mouthed magicians who aren’t shy about throwing karate kicks. Every scene with them is gold. Too bad Demon Wind kills them off halfway through the movie. Once they’re gone, it’s impossible to remain invested in this story. Why would going back to this burned-out wreck would give Corey any answers about anything? His father lived there for a grand total of FOUR DAYS when he was a baby! Anyone with a brain would’ve taken one look at the crucified skeleton on the front lawn and turned away - I'm not sure if the fact it's been there for sixty years makes it better, or worse. Then again, asking human-like behaviour out of anyone in this film would be too much. The locals are so shifty you can’t not suspect them of being up to something. Elaine does a strip-tease in the middle of the rest-stop restaurant so the movie can throw some cheap titilation in. All of the friends converge on the house despite vague instructions left by Cory on their answering machines. It's a miracle this plot even manages to happen. Once it does, you'll be eager to see it end. You already know how this whole thing will play out.

If you’re looking to pair The Evil Dead with a movie that shows you how right the Bruce Campbell vehicle got it, I’m sure you can find better (worse?) than Demon Wind. You can probably find something funnier too. This movie has a Blu-ray release. I’m baffled as to why. It’s completely unmemorable and barely even a curiosity. If you stumble upon Demon Wind, you can have a few laughs at its expense but it will quickly fade from your memory. (October 8, 2021)

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Demon Wind

If you play the 2022 video game HIGH ON LIFE, you can enter a movie theatre in the game world and watch Charles Philip Moore’s DEMON WIND (1990, Shudder, Apple+, Tubi, YouTube in French) in its entirety. That’s one side quest you’d be well-advised to avoid. There’s surreal horror, and then there’s we-don’t-know-what-we’re-doing horror. This film, sadly, falls into the latter category. In 1931, a body burns on a cross. An old woman in a farmhouse tells her husband her wards can’t keep out the evil spirits any longer, so he turns into a demon and kills her. This means he develops really bad acne and pointy teeth and lets pudding fall from his mouth. Jump to the present, when Cory (Eric Larson) is driving his girlfriend (Francine Lapensee) to the same farm, which he inherited after his father killed himself, possibly motivated by his desire to avoid doing any more scenes in this film. His friends join them for some reason not even they understand, and suddenly they’re trapped there. The demons manifest first as three children who grab one of the women and vanish with her. Lucky her. She’s well out of it, probably having a beer with the dead father. The special effects mostly seem to be scratched on the film with a pin. The acting is of the “when in doubt, shout” school. And the plot advances because people do stupid things, like trying to walk out to get help when they know they can’t do that. But you do get a magician who does martial arts kicks, so there’s that. The ads proclaimed, “DEMON WIND: it’ll blow you away.” So can I after eating too much fried food, and I least I got to enjoy getting there. Hey, you knew that kind of joke was inevitable.