The mixture of sex and horror has long gone together since the genre’s inception, with hideous monsters usually terrifying or stalking attractive women as the main basis for their scares. With lessening censorship and more driven audience demand, things changed in the late 60s and early 70s when the influx of more ‘adult-oriented’ material moved into the genre to where it allowed for full-on sex to be included with their assortment of blood and gore. That continues with Serik Beyseu‘s new erotic supernatural horror effort “The Demoness,” available from WellGo USA.
Arriving at a remote retreat are couples Stacey (Angelina Pahomova), her boyfriend Michael (Anton Rival), Nick (Pierre Bourel) and his girlfriend Kate (Paulina Vrublevskaya), Javier (Artur Beschastnyy) and his girlfriend Gin (Nino Ninidze), and Andy (Victor Mikhailov) with his girlfriend Olivia (Polina Davydova) who are greeted by Elishwa (Kseniya Pikalova), the masked figure in charge of the whole affair. While they go about their series of tasks that are geared to heal their strained relationships, a series of strange disappearances and odd behavioral changes that take place between everyone at the facility hints at something far more sinister going on. When Stacy finally puts everything together through a series of stories, she finds about previous residents at the retreat, she and the rest of the visitors are forced to deal with a demonic threat lording over everyone to keep them safe.
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Overall, “The Demoness” was a watchable if somewhat frustrating feature. The storyline by writers Oleg Kurochkin and Dmitriy Zhigalov has the potential to be much better yet still offers a lot to like. Providing a necessary framework for the group to arrive at the remote retreat as an excuse for everyone to work on their relationships together, it works well enough for what it’s trying to do. Getting a chance to witness the various couplings and how they’re intended to come together as a result of the program, there’s a decent enough main story at work here before introducing the concept of the demonic figure that the operators of the facility control. This introduction and how it manifests on the others by imitating its victims to then turn into other variations of its kind through dark ritualistic ceremonies that are taking place on the island is a solid enough idea that offers up some intrigue before letting loose with the rampaging Succubus in the final half. These scenes are mildly interesting with the figure skittling around the wooded landscape to pick off victims in some chilling sequences.
That does speak highly to the extravagant production design and look of “The Demoness” in general. There’s quite a lot to like about how this one comes off with its Gothic presentation and general appearance with the facility located in a striking woodland forest. As this comes from the design of the dead trees, overgrown bramble, and immense layer of fog surrounding everything it makes for an intriguing and chilling location. That allows for the fine visuals that come from the sightings of the creature hanging around the outskirts of the woods or coming across the hallways of the retreat sneaking up on victims to take full advantage of the stellar production quality on display. Likewise, the finale in the ornate forest home of the Succubus where the spirits of its past victims are kept until they’re ready to strike back when the special method used to stop the creature is put into action. With the spectacular imagery of the twisted and gnarled forest where it takes place is just as important as the action of the scene, all giving this some solid points.
Outside of this, though, “Demoness” is a disjointed and underwhelming mess. The main drawback is that while the setup works to get the couples to the island retreat, it does nothing with them. There’s only one mention of who the couples are and what they’re at the retreat for, so other than Stacy, you forget their names immensely quickly. It doesn’t help that an awful dub track rather than proper subtitles were released or that the majority of the male cast look so similar it’s hard to tell them apart and who’s been converted by the Succubus. The purpose of the trip is quickly forgotten as none of the couples do anything that warrants them getting back together as the majority of their common scenes revolve around heatless erotic moments depicting the couples hooking up with each other. However, far too many of these scenes are too brief to generate any kind of steamy resolve and lack the quantity part to make everything exciting as well. That means that it ends up oddly feeling like an erotic-tinged genre piece that doesn’t want to commit to these qualities in the long run.
The other issue with “Demoness” is that the main demonic entity is egregiously mixed up with what the figure is supposed to be. Repeated mention is made of what the figure here should be as in the series of interactions are supposed to offer up a dark entity that feeds on people’s deepest desires and carnal impulses. That means the full tends to revolve around just getting everyone into bed with each other so there’s not much special about it being present in this scenario. With the demon’s influence not being important to the story with everyone acting differently from how the influence is supposed to play out, that renders the fear qualities of this one to be quite low overall. Combined with one of the most unnatural and soulless English dubs that make for a heartless quality to the material which becomes far more off-putting as it goes along, these end up being huge detriments for the film.
Filled with some unfortunate detrimental factors that ruin a potentially fun film, “The Demoness” is a bit more disappointing than it should’ve been as there are some intriguing aspects that are still featured. Viewers with an interest in the kind of material or who aren’t bothered by the negatives will have a lot to like.
