Family Demons

Had heard this was good but right away I did not like the acting, cinematography or direction. Camera work was really bad. Don't know why some people made it sound so great. The first Australian horror or crime film I have not liked in a long time.

This entire piece looks, sounds and plays like something done by people with no idea at all what they're doing. Some folks here are mentioning the message. OK. That's why this film gets even my lowest imdb rating of a 3.

It's been over 10 years since this disaster - I truly hope they have moved on and done other things or at the very least, learned something. Anything.

The minimum rating of 3 here is also to acknowledge the effort people put it. Still, just because you spent 10 hours cooking something doesn't mean you have a clue what you're doing.

The result matters as well and in this case, the result is simply terrible on every cinematic measure. So terrible that I don't even know where to begin to dissect it and instead will just suggest people STAY THE F AWAY....

Mixing with the A-list in Adelaide is always a treat, though admittedly, being called A-list in Adelaide is akin to being best ice-skater in Ethiopia. What does it really mean?? Thanks to on-the-rise director/producer Ursula Dabrowsky, Mel (aka RECYCLOPATH) and I were invited the the cast and crew screening of her new film FAMILY DEMONS at Adelaide's MERCURY CINEMA.

I must say that I have become severely jaded where genre films are concerned and didn't hold out high hopes for this low-budget, indie release. It takes something out of the ordinary to hold my interest these days, one too many installments in the SAW series has all but sapped the life out of me. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ursula has crafted a nifty, original and effective film that maintains interest for most of its 80 minute running time.

In short it's about abuse and the ghosts that never leave us, in every sense of the term.

Newcomer Cassandra Kane is excellent in the lead role as Billie, the tortured teen who ends up with blood on her hands and a terrifying spectre following her every move. Kane really will be an actress to reckon with in years to come and given her young age it's all the more impressive that she carries the whole film.

The supporting cast are all good, with special mention going to Kerry Reid as Billie's alcoholic, abusive and downright unpleasant mother.

The film, for the most part, belies it's low-budget and is beautifully shot.

And, credit where it's due, it contains a twist that I certainly didn't see coming. Rare these days when everything is telegraphed within an inch of its life.

So Kudos to all involved. It's exciting to imagine what Ursula can come up with with a decent budget. Let's hope it's not too long till we find out.

Living with her alcoholic mother, a bullied teen in a small town finally sees her chance at freedom when an accident puts her mother in a coma allowing her to potentially change her life, but when she believes her mother's spirit has followed her must figure out what's going on to stop it.

This was a solid if somewhat problematic feature. One of the better aspects present here is the strong central buildup that takes a fine commentary on the way alcohol impacts a family relationship. This spends quite a bit of the opening section here providing a detailed account of the trials and tribulations facing a family when they succumb unwillingly to alcohol abuse as the film makes it pointedly clear that the amount of verbal and physical abuse the mother dishes out is due to her alcohol abuse. Chaining her up in her room to prevent her from going out to visit friends or live a life, enduring plenty of charged epithets about how much of an unwanted child she was going up, and putting this behavior squarely at the part of her rampant alcoholism which offers up the kind of pertinent background information on her being haunted throughout the film. Those hauntings might be somewhat controversial since that's where this one does have some controversial aspects. While the scenes themselves serve nicely to get an idea of her mental state, what she's going through, and the degree of harm that her mother's put her through with the hallucinations and visions continuing to haunt her, this doesn't offer up much in the way of intriguing or original content. Way too much of the running time is spent on seeing her run away from the responsibilities she has now that she's free so hardly anything here really has a chance to build up to get to a point where it's hardly ever scary due to her psychological brooding over what's going on with her mother's spirit haunting her. Combined with the obvious low-budget limitations present throughout here, these are what bring this one down overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

This is the perfect example that you don't need a bloated budget to make a creepy film and more importantly one that will remain with you for hours and days afterwards. I have to say the acting in this film was top notch especially with the main two leads. If I had 25 000 dollars right now and I was going to direct a low budget horror film about two young girls that were mentally and physically tortured throughout Cassandra Kane and the lead actress of the Loved Ones are my pics. Ms Kane you were amazing and I felt your pain throughout the entire film. In fact I felt your performance was tantamount to the poor tortured souls of the two leads in my favorite horror film of all time Martyrs and that is saying a lot considering it took two decades for Martyrs to exceed my previous fav film Hellraiser. I can't wait for this director to make another film and when people say they don't make horror like they used to, I laugh and say your right they make them better now.