The Demon Disorder

I am a huge fan of physical copies of films and i always will be. It all started back in the very early 90´s when i started to buy VHS films. I would look for different titles and check in diffrent video stores if they had something different than the usual rental store. Movieline was of course my favourite movie store in the city of Gothenburgh ( they had several thousands of VHS films for sale ) and this was the store where i usually would pick up especially horror films. I remember that it was in Movieline i found my copy of the horror film Zombie Nosh, a low budget zombie movie that used a lot of practical make up effects and was actually a fun watch. It was also at Movieline i got my very first VHS copy of the 1986 horror comedy Night Of The Creeps where slugs from outer space take over human bodies and turn people into zombies. I would highly recommend both films no matter if you get them on DVD or blu ray. but if you get Zombie Nosh released from Vinegar Syndrome you do get some nice special features included. As you probably could imagine after the VHS era ended i collected DVD´s instead and continued to support physical copies. Even until this day i do support films and especially from distribution companis like Studio S Entertainment, Njutafilms, Arrow Video, Vinegar Syndrome, 88 Films, Second Sight Films, Umbrella Entertainment and many more. I mentioned Umbrella Entertainment which is a distribution company from Australia who release older ( and new films ) filled with special features that you won´t find on any ordinary DVD releases from the past. I have bought several of their releases such as Fire In The Sky, Things To Do In Denver When You´re Dead and The Mothman Prophecies with Richard Gere. Each month they release new titles so i try to stay updated on what´s coming out. This autumn i picked up a blu ray copy of the Australian horror film The Demon Disorder released by Umbrella Entertainment. This film seemed to have an interesting plot plus i am a fan of Australian films in general so i was quite interested in what this film would bring to the table. Is this the horror film to watch this upcoming Christmas weekend or is this not as good as i was hoping it would be?

Graham Reilly ( Christian Willis ) is running his own workshop in the middle of nowhere in the Australian landscape, ever since he left his family´s farm after his father George Reilly ( John Noble ) passed away from an illness and seemed to be possessed by an evil entity. His brother Jake Reilly ( Dirk Hunter ) unexpectedly shows up at Graham´s business asking him to come back home. It seems that the past is catching up on this family and they need to deal with it now.

If you may remember the body horror films of legendary director David Cronenberg such as the 1977 horror classic Rabid, i can without a doubt say that The Demon Disorder is clearly inspired by the films of this masterful director. The Demon Disorder doesn´t focus on what´s trending or not in this world, this feels like a respectful throwback to the body horror films we love from the past. There are several details i feel they have managed to do well in this film so let us begin talking about the practical make up effects. You can tell that they really did a lot of work on this film creating flesh creatures as well as some kind of demonic figure all done practical with so many wonderful details. And i really love that they actually made an effort to make this a practical special effects film, like they are actually shooting something that seems alive and only using a little bit of CGI effects. The transformation of the demonic creature coming out of a human body and turning into a beast is not only one of the better practical make up effects i have seen this year but it also shows the level of creativity we don´t get to see very often these days. Another positive thing about The Demon Disorder is how this film tries to tell the story how brothers try to reunite to deal with their past. I feel that actors Christian Willis and Dirk Hunter both put on great acting performances as the battling brothers where you can tell they are both struggling with how their ill father George ( who is played by legendary actor John Noble ) behaving very strange and dangerously attacking his sons. The horror scenes in general are quite effective and i do feel that there is a certain atmosphere in this film that matches the dark story of this struggling family. If i wanted to find flaws with this film i probably could if i wanted to, but why even try when i think this is a well made directorial full feature film from director Steven Boyle ( who have done practical make up effcts for many years in several well known films ). I would love to see Steven Boyle to continue making body horror films and see if he can build further into this universe because he is clearly the future in this specific genre with the level of creativity he have in his mind. The Demon Disorder is without a doubt one of the more interesting horror releases this year for trying to bring back a genre that seems to be fading away. Definetely worth buying on physical media from Umbrella Entertainment and especially if you are a big fan of director David Cronenberg´s earlier work.

Rating: DDD