At first glance, whipping up an Evil Dead rip-off seems to be an exercise in simplicity. I mean, it’s not like you need things like a large cast, multiple locations, a decent budget or even a professional crew to ride on the coat tails of Sam Raimi’s lo-tech classic, simply because he didnt have any of that either. However, those in the know are well versed in what makes the original so truly special and it’s something that’s not so easily replicated by just any old filmmaker. It’s something that many other films have discovered to their chagrin, and the road to Deadite glory is littered with wannabes who can’t even manage a fraction of the innovation and do-it-yourself verve those out-of-their-depth kids from Detroit managed to conjure up in that run-down Tennesse cabin.
However, that doesn’t mean that the Evil Dead also-rans aren’t still fun to watch, and while entries like 1990’s Demon Wind are more of a light breeze by comparison, it still has all the pus-dibbling, possession-happy traits needed to keep less demanding trash addicts happy.
After the suicide of his estranged father, Cory wants to do some digging into his past and delves into the murky, disturbing history of his mysterious family; but for some reason, it seems like he needs around ten of his closest friends to come with him for moral support. While the most impressive thing here is that he managed to somehow wrangle ten people out of his social circle who were all able to schedule their lives around him without a fuss (it was the 90s, I guess we all had less to do), getting them to his grandparent’s remote farm doesn’t come without a few challenges.
For a start, while his girlfriend, Elaine, is fully supportive, you can’t get ten friends together without some of them acting like utter dickheads. However, while there’s some noticable friction between frat-boy Jack and flamboyant, martial arts magician, Chuck, the sizable group soon discovers that there’s far more worrying things afoot than bruised egos and macho posturing. As Corey begins to unpack the awful events that happened to his grandparents, it soon becomes apparent that they were into some demonic shit and the resulting infestation of evil managed to kill them both. Worse yet, the malevolent force which was unleashed sixty years earlier still seems to be in robust health when it transforms one of their number into a bloody faced baby doll. With their cars all out of action and a mysterious fog transporting them right back to the farm whenever they try to leave, soon this expansive group starts succumbing one by one to the demonic influence, becoming pustule-covered monsters as they go. As the human/demon divide grows ever wider and the dwindling survivors make the sort of awful survival decisions always found in low budget horror flicks, can Corey embrace his heritage in order to vanquish the enflamed and itchy looking face of evil?
So obviously Charles Philip Moore’s Demon Wind isn’t an Evil Dead beater – in fact, I’d go as far to say it can’t even topple some of the entries of the Night Of The Demons series – but anyone who has an affinity for idiots fighting their possessed friends in the middle of nowhere will probably find much to love about this malformed, but oddly endearing copycat. There’s barely any hint of the visual and technical chutzpah Raimi and Co. employed back in the early eighties and there certainly isn’t the phantasmagoric, cartoon insanity of Evil Dead II, but when it comes to numerous, chuckle inducing filmmaking choices that turn a creaky cash-in into something quite fun, Demon Wind may blow, but it has a good time while doing it. However, while in movies like this, it’s usually the dollar-store gore or rubbery monsters which steal the show, the effects seen here are actually of fairly high quality. No, if you really want to truly dig for so-bad-it’s-good gold, you don’t have to search any further than the cast themselves.
Poor plotting and bizarre quirks have been both the bane and salvation of supporting casts of dodgy movies for years and you have to wonder if the screenwriter of this film had ever actually engaged anyone of the character’s ages in conversation during their entire life. Literally no one in this film acts like a regular, normal human being, no one has an average conversation that feels natural and some of the quirks that some of these guys have are so impressively stupid, you’ll openly debate how any of these people have one friend, let alone ten. For example, none of Corey’s sizable support group look particularly worried that numerous human skeletons are immediately discovered on the grounds of his grandparent’s abandoned farm and they all recover suspiciously fast when one of their number is transformed into blame throwing baby dolly by a creepy little girl. However, there’s far weirder shit than this, such as knowing full well that your friend is going through a dark place while trying to piece together the gruesome history of his family, why would you show up dressed like a magician complete with hidden doves in your pocket and then pick a fight with the alpha-male douchebag who is now dating your former girlfriend by spin-kicking a beer can into his face?
Thankfully the erratic behavior of this band of morons continues well into the demon infestation (said magician brings the house down when he spin-kicks a demon’s head clean off her shoulders), with most of them having the self preservation skills of a browning head of lettuce. However, helping matters greatly is the fact that even though some of the demon make ups end up being pretty static (I guess excessive demon boils have the same effect as botox when it comes to pulling a recognisable facial expression), they’re actually gross and lumpy enough to qualify as honorary members of the Gothmog From Lord Of The Rings School Of Dermatology. Also, every now and then the film will pull out a awesomely baffling slice of weirdness, like a wall-mounted cow skull that boasts the tongue action of Gene Simmons, or a bizarre twist that sees Corey transform into a rubbery faced “higher being” and use his new powers to kick the master demon square in the nuts. It’s exactly this ludicrous streak that helps Demon Wind be so strangely watchable, especially if goofy nonsense is your game, and even though approximately only half of the laughs it scores are actually intended, fun is fun.
While missing the DIY craft of The Evil Dead, or even the surrealistic sleaze of Night Of The Demons, Demon Wind ultimately earns it’s keep thanks to some majestically confounding character work and some genuinely above average makeups that are made all the more effective when the people wearing them start drooling custard everywhere.
It’s no May The Devil Take You – Christ, it’s barely a couple of rungs above Night Of The Demons III – but thanks to an inept but lovable charm, Demon Wind proves to be a fun member of the Evil Dead rip-off crowd.
And remember, you don’t need a chainsaw hand or boomstick to vanquish evil; whenever threatened by a Demon possessed wraith, always ensure you simply kick their head off like Jean Claude Van Damme. End of.
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