The Demon's Rook

Bloody, gory, hilarious, sexy, campy, repetitive. These words are all you need to know about this movie. If Evil Dead (or Ash vs. Evil Dead) had a weird Wiccan cousin, this would be it. In the true art of low budget B-movies this delivers in every way. It's not just some other half-assed low budget movie as I was beginning to think were all that were left for our future. The Devil's Rook was made by a group of thoughtful and passionate young people who obviously had a lot of fun doing what they were doing. And while they did well, the actual storyline of the movie drags on, this would be a good party movie because it's mostly eye candy so you can talk through it without missing anything. Also, it has plenty of good nudity!

Stumbling upon the 2013 movie "The Demon's Rook" by random luck here in 2024, of course I opted to sit down and watch it. First of all, I had never heard about the movie. Secondly, it seemed to be a horror movie, and thus of course I had to check it out.

Writers James Sizemore and Akom Tidwell put together a sort of mediocre script and storyline. Yeah, this wasn't exactly Award-winning writing, but it made for an adequate enough viewing experience for a single viewing, I suppose. The movie was a bit all over the place, as if the writers were arguing between themselves whether to write a zombie movie or demon movie.

I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, and that is something I actually do enjoy when I sit down to watch a movie; with it being all unfamiliar faces and new talents to experience for the first time.

The special effects and make-up in the movie was surprisingly good. In fact, it was so good that it actually helped to keep the movie afloat, despite of its mediocre script and storyline. I was genuinely surprised by the special effects in the movie. And there was enough gore and mayhem to keep an old gorehoud like myself happy.

My rating of director James Sizemore's 2013 movie "The Demon's Rook" lands on a five out of ten stars. I wanted to give the movie a six star rating, but the monotonous narrative and semi-dull storyline kept the movie back. It was definitely the gore and special effects that kept the movie interesting.

A demon from another dimension kidnaps a boy and tries to raise him as his own. But when the child becomes an adult, he begins to resent the demon and travels back home. Other demons follow him back to earth and raise an army of zombies. The monsters invade his hometown and kill everyone they come across.

The Demon's rook is clearly made by a big fan of horror and special effects. There are a lot of impressive creature designs and splatter scenes at display here. The prosthetics and masks used in the film have a neat retro-vibe to them and are a breath of fresh air in a time where cgi-overuse is frequent in modern cinema. The cinematography is very stylish as well and reminiscent of films like Creepshow and Suspiria with all it's colored lights.

But it seems the director was so occupied with trying to make a film that looks good, he forgot about making a coherent story. The plot is somewhat difficult to follow at times and there are too many scenes that only consist of one-dimensional characters being introduced and then just get killed minutes later.

The hero and his girlfriend are fairly fleshed out and developed, but nearly all of the secondary characters are slasher movie stereotypes such as rednecks, bimbos or drunks. There is a female artist who seems to have some kind of psychic link with the demons, but this is not developed much or explained. Which would have been more interesting to see instead of another scene of an expandable teenager getting eaten alive.

The story also could've needed more buildup and a better climax. The ending is very anti-climactic and the villains are defeated ridiculously easy.

The Demon's rook is a gory retro-styled splatter with lots of practical effects that will entertain horror fans, but viewers who crave a film with more interesting characters and a more well-constructed story might skip it.

So the writer/director is also the star of the movie. Plus he's obviously having a lot of friends/relatives in it too. Not professionals that is. Now you can take that as a criticism or run with it and admire the passion and the love for the art the man has. That is up to you. And I don't really want to know if the comedy was intended or not. It feels like it wasn't in a way, but it's so bad sometimes that they must have done it on purpose.

Whatever the case, technically this would rate much lower. But was it a hoot watching at the Frightfest in London? The answer is yes. Not because it is good and I have to stress that out once more, but because it is weird and it is bad. You'll know pretty fast, if you can stomach the no budget appeal of the movie or not. Looks like quite a few people here are digging ... we got a hole, see? Just don't fall for it ... (no pun intended).

Ten-year-old Roscoe draws a demon named Dimwos that comes alive in his backyard and summons him to the netherworld. After years of dark arts training, Roscoe (James Sizemore) emerges from the ground a grown man. Unfortunately, a group of evil demons is now after him. I picked this indie horror film up a few years back after someone on my feed recommended it; the big draw being that it used all practical special effects. The Demon's Rook is probably one of the most impressive and surreal indie horror flicks I've seen in ages. A lot of the praise can be laid at the feet of leading man Sizemore, who might just be rural Georgia's answer to Peter Jackson as he seems to do everything on this film from acting to music to special effects. He designed and made the demons himself and they are great. There is also tons of gore thrown around and he loves to get crazy with the lighting. As with most indie flicks, the acting is spotty at points. There are also some pacing issues (it is way too long at 1 hour and 44 minutes) and too many "zombies attack random folks" bits. But all of that can be forgiven given the ambitious nature of the project and Sizemore's ability to make something really out there. One of my favorite indie horror views in a long time and I can't wait to see what he does next.