Having first achieved success with productions filmed in their native tongue, the next logical step for many foreign directors is to try and break the international market with an English speaking movie; for crappy cult German horror director Andreas Schnaas, whose amateurish splatter pics are unlikely to ever receive praise from the masses, this might have meant a very long wait. Rather than waste time honing his skills and mastering his art, Schnaas has ploughed on as he is, somehow raising a slightly bigger budget than usual for Demonium, his seventh directorial effort and the first to be shot entirely in English.
Well, something approximating English, anyway...
Inexplicably, Demonium features a predominantly Italian cast whose command of the English language can only be described as basic. With the actors mangling nearly all of their lines, and Schnaas' usual inability to tell a decent story (what is it with those annoying, flickery, sepia-toned flashbacks?), the film quickly becomes an incomprehensible mess which is only just made bearable thanks to some pretty gory death scenes and a little nudity (although even these elements seem to have been toned down slightly by the director in a misguided attempt at broadening the film's appeal).
Taking its basic premise from the Agatha Christie classic 'Ten Little Indians', the film sees a group of people gathered together at a creepy castle for the reading of a rich scientist's will; here they are told they must remain for three days before they can qualify for their inheritance. No prizes for guessing that not all of them survive to collect. One by one, the beneficiaries suffer gruesome fates (an exploding chest, a chainsaw attack, a pitchfork in the throat, etc.,) at the hands of the will's executor, Rasmus, and his lover Maria, who hope to claim the scientist's last discoverya wonder drug that can cure all illsall for themselves.
Despite plenty of the red stuff, even the most dedicated of gore-hounds might find Demonium's poorly structured narrative and excruciatingly bad acting too much to handle.
***Minor point of interest: Italian horror make-up maestro Sergio Stivaletti supplies the film with a very brief CGI sequence. It is rubbish!***
