Sorry About the Demon

Sorry about the Demon (2023) was the first 2023 film I saw released to Shudder and I decided to finally watch it last week. The storyline follows a young man struggling to find his purpose in life which leads to him struggling in his relationships. After recently becoming single he decides to move and right into a house with ghosts and demons. When he feels he's become an expert on ghosts and demons he believes that maybe this have been his calling the entire time...

This movie is written and directed by Emily Hagins (One segment in Scare Package) and stars Jon Michael Simpson (Apartment 413), Jeff McQuitty (A Perfect Host), Sarah Cleveland (Mile High Escorts) and Paige Evans (Trapped with my Husband).

I didn't like much about this movie. The main character is super annoying. The writing, dialogue and comedic content was cheesy. The use of cakes 🎂 was pretty corny and not a topic worth having throughout the film. The reactions to various scenarios and circumstances weren't funny or realistic...the special effects and creation of the demons and ghosts were solid and the only worthwhile aspects of the movie.

Overall, this movie is bad and not really worth your time. I'd score this a 3/10 and recommend skipping it.

A family decided to sacrifice a human for ghost there in their new house... Soo a protogonist came to that house for rent and soon he starts to do fun and torture with those ghosts and he don't want to go another house due to personal issues... Finally one bad ghost destroyed by him and starts living with 2 bad ghosts... One time watchable movie...!

A family decided to sacrifice a human for ghost there in their new house... Soo a protogonist came to that house for rent and soon he starts to do fun and torture with those ghosts and he don't want to go another house due to personal issues... Finally one bad ghost destroyed by him and starts living with 2 bad ghosts... One time watchable movie...!

After breaking up with his girlfriend, a man takes up an offer to move into a house for a new start, but after spending time there comes to believe the house is haunted by a demonic entity intent on getting close to him and enlists the help of some friends who believe him to contain the dark force.

This was a pretty enjoyable if somewhat flawed genre effort. Among the better elements of this one is the rather immersive atmosphere present with this one as it features a rather unique take on the subject matter. Focusing on the idea of the house clearly being haunted but him too clueless to pick on the overt qualities due to his naive charm and good-hearted nature, there's a lot to like here as the film runs through the clear stages of it being haunted. While it's known from the beginning that there's something wrong within the house due to the initial possession, that these scenes aren't more of a clue-in to what's going on earlier serves to nicely build the setup of the film quite nicely. Once that's in place, the film does quite a nice job of bringing together the group to try to figure out what's happening to him as the longer he stays there the more obvious it is that the place is haunted. Initially built incredibly well off his nonchalant attitude making him blind and oblivious to things like the cake decorations that magically appear, voices talking to him through the TV or the radio, and objects going missing throughout the house, these soon grow to the point of possessing loved ones to psychologically torment him that provides the means through which the main purpose of the film is gradually revealed. This causes the highly engrossing and engaging finale bringing these together for a lot to like here at points. There are some flaws to be had with this one. One of the main factors against this one is the highly uneven tone present that wants us to think this is funny but tends to fall flat more often than not. The main thing here is the central relationship which is written to be a way for us to identify with his underdog persona but she is entirely in the wrong for breaking up with him when he's rightfully putting more focus on work. That carries over into his attitude about the house being haunted as everything that's going on clearly shows it's haunted but him writing these away as something else entirely doesn't make any of this funny but instead makes it somewhat hard to care what's going on if it's hard to care about him. That becomes even bigger once the relationship is rekindled and they get back together as not only is the relationship generally cliched to begin with but also causes the rapidly shifting tone to feel even more troublesome. The added intrigue of trying to save someone he cares for is sapped away by the same comically lackadaisical nature of his treatment towards a demonic being and his attempts at settling what's going on only result in a wildly varying and over-the-top series of scenes that are meant to be scary or thrilling but are so hamstrung by its lackluster presentation that it ends up somewhat lacking. Combined with an overlong running time that could've ended a lot earlier, these factors are what brings this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Violence, and children-in-jeopardy.

I am a horror person for sure but I also occasionally watch dark comedies. I wouldn't necessarily call this a dark comedy, but it's not exactly horror-comedy either, because there's very little about it that's actually scary. In some weird way it reminded me of 1980s silly parodies of other movies but I can't really put my finger on which one.

I laughed out loud several times, and I thought the ending was great. The main character is a lovable loser who actually has a lot of interesting hobbies which he's tried to turn into businesses, but his attempts at being an entrepreneur are met with defeat each time so he settles for working from home doing customer service calls for a terrible toothpaste that everyone hates. This aspect of his personality is very important because it sets up the narrative for the entire film.

"Sorry About the Demon" is a humorous, almost light-hearted, take on demon possession. In a nutshell, a family makes a deal with a demon residing in their house to find a suitable human host for it instead of the demon possessing their young daughter. The demon's name is "Deonomous", which, quite hilariously I thought, their teenage son made fun of at first. Thus enters our hero, a likable loser who just broke up with his girlfriend, who rents the whole place from the family for super cheap. There was a surprising lack of questions from our hero as to why the family was renting out the entire place, fully furnished, for so cheap, but waddya gonna do? And from there, of course, hilarity ensues.

This was a fun movie. Overall, the acting was pretty good. The main character, Will, did a very good job. He was very likable and I found myself rooting for him from the start. The real upside of this film is no deaths, no graphic violence, no nudity, and pretty tame on the language. Scary? Well, there was nothing that would keep me up at night, for sure (except for the actual fact of demon possession...), but there were a few parts that were creepy enough. Like, if some of the things that happened to Will happened to me, I would have been out of there pretty dang quick. But, part of what made it so humorous is how Will took it all in stride and ignored or explained it all away (at first). All that being said, I don't think I would want a young child to watch this.

So, it was funny, pretty clean, and overall just a fun watch. Definitely entertaining, and definitely recommended for something that ain't gonna give you any nightmares.

So that's why 7 stars: it was good. Not that it was so awesome, but that it actually didn't stink and kept me interested enough to the end.