Daemonium: Underground Soldier

This Argentinian made film is a truly bizarre one and very hard to categorize. It's what I imagine you'd get if you blended Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1996) with the Russian mess that was Night Watch (2004).

It tells the very muddled confusing stories of a man who makes a deal with a demon, a genetically modified woman with a dark secret and grizzled wizard.

A wizard you say? Yes but this is no fantasy movie, it's futuristic with laser swords and your generic looking stormtrooper types side by side with demons, portals and other tropes.

It's a weird blend of genres and it just doesn't work. The tones are inconsistent, one minute its dark, serious and gory. The next you hear splashing noises when a fat guy runs and the wizard is throwing out cheesy puns. It's like they threw a bunch of random ideas and scripts into a hat, drew a few at random and made a movie out of it.

It's not entirely bad, if this had been better formed it might have made for a passable effort but the story is so disjointed, the movie has no real protagonist and I was left scratching my head more than once.

If you want a jumbled film full of Buffy the Vampire slayer like demons, cheesiness and that Night Watch (2004) appearance and visual style then this may be what your looking for.

The Good:

Some nice practical effects

There are some decent ideas in there, if you look really hard

The Bad:

Manages to look both cheap & professional at the same time

Disjointed plot

Far too many unforgivable story flaws

Inconsistent tone

This is the most original film I've seen in awhile. I read other people's reviews & felt I just had to speak up for this movie. It DOES have a plot, develop characters, follow a story line, etc etc. It was very creative and fun to watch. Please give it a try & disregard the reviews that say it doesn't make sense.

A fantasy, science fiction slash horror film from an Argentinian film maker Pablo Parés, where the forces of science fiction and the horrors of fantasy meet. The story, very loosely, going that a demon was unleashed upon the world by unscrupulous men in a bid for power. Now, years later, one of the men corrupted by that demon is looking to open a portal for its re-emergence and it's up to the original wizard, who opened the portal, to stop him. Plus there's a really big sideplot about a scorned lover turned BDSM themed assassin. Make of that what you will.

Daemonium is one of those so bad it's good films. A film you should definitely watch with some beers and a couple of good friends. Don't watch this alone and sober, I cannot stress that enough. It's nowhere good enough to hold up under any kind of critical scrutiny.

Granted, the effects are surprisingly nice. The costumes are elaborate, as are the various masks. The demon especially looks badass.

But, sometimes there is too much of a good thing. The film has some real problems focusing on what kind of a world it wants to build. Every single trope in modern media seems to be valid at the same time. We have wizards, cyberpunk assassins, demons, futuristic soldiers, post-apocalyptic gypsy courts, science gadgets, swords, armour, tarot cards, robots, and everything else under the sun, all happening at the same time. And that gets confusing, fast. In the hands of a more talented storyteller, this could be made to work, but here it just muddles the waters.

Still, there is passion in what the film is trying to pull off, and I can imagine the appeal that can have. Not a good movie by any stretch, but an interesting one, and I can see myself recommending this to certain friends of mine.

From the beginning to the end of this film, which is exactly the same scene by the way, there is very little going for it. The acting is mediocre to terrible. The story itself makes little to no sense. The costumes are strange and never explained. I have no idea what was going on or why, much less why I should care about any of the characters or what was happening. The special effects makeup looks like it was done by a novice.... I could keep going, but this movie doesn't deserve my effort.

After watching this mess, my head hurts, I am mightily confused and a bit angry, and I want my money back even though I did NOT pay to see it. The filmmakers should compensate me for my pain and suffering.

Worst film I've watched in a long time. It's so bad that it isn't even Rifftrax-able.

Just wanted to write a review because I completely disagree with half of the reviews here. Most people complain that this movie is incomprehensible. But the plot is pretty straightforward. I have to assume that the problem is in the subtitles or the dubbing. I'm from Argentina and had no problem understanding why the same actress does several roles and why some characters change through the movie. Beyond that, the plot is very original (unless you've seen too much anime), the acting is decent and the FX are pretty good.