Ed Arkham is a well-groomed and dressed software engineer, working and living in London. In the flat next door is a psycho bunny-boiler whom he regrets having slept with (multiple times) and his work colleagues are a bunch of oddballs whom collectively get under his skin.
The viewer is invited to live out Ed's taboo fantasies, through his eyes, which break up his mundane routine, as he mutilates irritating male colleagues and has thrilling sex with the female ones. An insect's sting, which occurred at the start of the story, proves to be a steadily growing distraction as his skin rapidly develops a nasty rash as a result.
As time passes, we begin to get a sense of foreboding around Ed's destination. It becomes increasingly obvious the movie might not have a happy ending.
Sam Robertson is solid and looks comfortable in the role of Ed but a lot of the great lines and interesting moments come from Pablo, played by Robert van Twillert.
The film sits in the psychological study genre, alongside stuff like Memento, Identity and Shutter Island but fails to provide a core plot compelling enough to grip the viewer. This might be intentional, as I never really found the movie to be dull, as it plays off set-pieces rather than a clearly defined central plot but I do think it treads a fine line on that issue.
Dementamania is unlikely to make waves at the box office and probably won't get a lot of people talking about it, at least for a while. I do feel it has potential to be a slow burner and likely to become quite a cult favourite, due to its dark wit and graphic interludes.
It is most certainly a memorable watch.
