I've got to do something about my obsession with ultra-low budget cinema. For every Death Bed, there's at least a dozen Demons at the Door, and after this brain-frying example of cinemasochism, I really have to wonder if it's worth it.
DatD starts out with an expository scroll letting us know how Lucifer got in trouble with God and got himself thrown out of heaven, and now rules hell as Satan and wars against God and Man (just in case any of that is news to you). Oh, and there's a fancy macguffin which will give Satan the power to move about freely on Earth. But don't bother paying too close attention, 'cause were gonna cover this material at least three more times in dialogue.
In fact, repetition seems to be the watchword for DatD scripters. We get the same dialogue, situations, attitudes, and effects, over and over. Spraying your characters from head to toe with green demon goo can be campy fun the first time, but it gets old fast.
The cast is no particular help, either. Even if they could collectively act their way out of a paper bag, the characters they've been given are confused and unlikeable. Let's see, we've got the Marine sergeant who's locked in an eternal pissing contest with the rest of the world, his sidekick who serves little real purpose other than to receive racist insults from the demons, a bland and uninteresting scientist, the scientist's daughter, who starts out weak, useless and uninformed, but then halfway through the movie suddenly transforms into Super Ninja Archaeologist. And there's the Archangel Uriel, who you think would be more help, but who abandons everyone else to their fates after the first reel. Way to go, Forces of Good!
In the end, the movie gives up any pretense of making sense, veering off into a bizarre harrowing-of-hell sequence that I hope was intended to be funny, but it's not, really. Just kinda stupid and pathetic, like the rest of this film. One to avoid.
