The Demon Disorder

I recently watched the Australian film 🇦🇺 The Demon Disorder (2024) on Shudder. The story follows a family that reunites after their father passes away. As old tensions resurface, they uncover unsettling secrets-specifically, their father's bizarre activities that may have opened a literal gateway to hell in the garage. As demons escape and begin attacking, the family must band together to stop them and possibly save the world.

Directed by Steven Boyle in his directorial debut, the film stars Charles Cottier (Home and Away), Dirk Hunter (Rain Fall), Amy Ingram (In Our Blood), and John Noble (The Lord of the Rings).

This is one of those horror movies where the beginning and end far outshine the middle. The film's settings, lighting, and cinematography are top-notch, and the acting and dialogue feel grounded and believable. The opening sequence involving a cow was fantastic, and the demon "birthing" scene is the film's standout moment. The last twenty minutes brought to mind a mix of Pumpkinhead and Aliens, with well-executed costumes, makeup, and some enjoyable gore for horror fans.

In conclusion, The Demon Disorder has is far from perfect but has enough solid moments to satisfy horror enthusiasts. I'd give it a 5.5-6/10 and recommend it with tempered expectations.

The practical effects are outstanding in this grimy Australian horror with echoes of 'Relic' and 'The Taking of Deborah Logan' in the premise of dementia and Alzheimers Disease being a springboard of demonic possession.

The acting is top notch by the cast and they all seem like brothers going through this hell.

The ending is rather abrupt and doesn't really pay off but its refreshing to see the blood and gore well used and, from what I could tell, not much CGI effects used.

Kudos to the budget which was sparse but got across the dirtiest living conditions on this farm.

I predict these filmmakers have a bright future in this genre.

I wish I knew why I still pay for Shudder. Very little new content is added and when it is, it is either "Shudder exclusive" nonsense like this and In A Violent Nature or a "Shudder Original " like...well, name any Shudder Original, they pretty much all stink. This one is yet another average possession film, with the distinction of Australian accents. Shudder was much better before it was under the dubious wing of AMC. At least then there was the possibility of finding an older classic to revisit. Now? Not so much, plus all the new stuff absolutely suck. Skip this, and skip Shudder if that's at all possible.

I usually don't like horror movies anymore as they are mostly boring to me. And the lot of them are so low budget that the acting and special effect are horrible.

But I believe in time, that this low budget Australian gem will become a cult classic.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie from beginning to end!! The acting was pretty decent and the low budget special effects were amazingly gruesome.

On several occasions I caught myself yelling "Ewwww" out loud followed by a laugh of disbelief at what I had just watched!!! I gave it a 7 out of 10 for the type of genre it represented, but this movie definitely gets a 10 out of 10 on the gross scale with a commendation for its large "Ewwww" factor.

I would recommend this for anyone who likes this genre. As it never really had a dull moment, it keeps you on the edge of your seat and it's truly entertaining.

Trying to move on in life, estranged brothers living on a ranch in the middle of the countryside are brought back together when a series of incidents with a family member are eerily reminiscent of what happened to their father when he got possessed by a demon, forcing them to believe it's returned.

This was a decent enough if somewhat flawed genre effort. Among its better qualities is the strong startup that provides a solid base for the demonic activity to follow once everything is revealed. The early setpieces involving the brothers reconnecting and managing to come together again to investigate the strange circumstances surrounding their family with the symptoms resembling what happened with their father that allows for their reunion to take place gives this a decent enough starting point. Tying in the idea of the unnatural behavior and violent outbursts that signal something is wrong, setting the brothers up on their quest to figure out what's going on that ultimately leads to the overt possession and ultimate revenge plot at the center of everything, giving this a solid overall setup. On top of that, when dealing with the grisly aftereffects of the possession, the film scores incredibly well as there's some gruesome work here. The idea of the calling card for everything taking on the form of a spreading and bloody wound on the body leaves quite an impression with the effects going for goopy body-horror style undertones. With the big confrontations in the final featuring even more great effects-work as the practical nature if everything here including demonic beings emerging from victim's body's, the graphic contortions and dismemberments that occur with the possessed in control of the body, and the general grotesque appearance that signals the possession has taken place helping to make the action inside the restricted location even more potent with everything here coming across well enough to have a lot to like. There are some issues with this one that hold it down. One of the biggest drawbacks is the overly familiar and cliched storyline involving long-buried family drama and grief manifesting itself once again. This is a familiar route that plenty of other features have gone with as they try to make the idea of generational curses and long-hidden trauma mean something but it's just not different enough with the material to make much of an impression. Everything is by-the-numbers and routine to the point of making it feel far more dragged out in the beginning than it actually is since everything is building to the point of genuinely chilling horror elements in the final half. However, going once again with the route it halts the moment of this one at the very beginning and makes for a bit of a difficult watch getting into things with this type of setup. These are the main detrimental factors involved with this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.