Demon Hunter

There is nothing new here. Demon Hunter is a goofy, low-budget flick that wouldn't look out-of-place as a "movie of the week" on the Sci-Fi Channel. hey! It is on this Friday. Unfortunately, it would have to be cut to just an hour after the sex scenes are removed - and that's with commercials! Sean Patrick Flanery (Into the Fire, Kiss the Bride, Simply Irresistible) does a credible job as the demon hunter in a kind of Blade/Constantine remake. He the church's Michael Clayton, who comes in to fix messes when exorcisms go wrong.

He is helped by Colleen Porch (All In, Transformers, I Know Who Killed Me), a nun (who kinda looks like Angelina Jolie) who is definitely not cut out for this work.

He is fighting one of the evilest looking characters in the movies, Billy Drago (The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Mysterious Skin, The Untouchables), who is trying to create some evil spawn. He is assisted by a knockout, Tania Deighton (Something's Gotta Give), who needs to be in a lot more movies.

Lots of skin and some good fighting, but no FX. You've seen it all before.

Not a lot happens here. The plot is thin and very linear. The demon-hunting main character goes into a place, finds a clue that leads him to the next place, goes there, finds the next clue. This is rather disappointing for fans of epically complex celestial intrigue involving angels and the fallen. Then again, John Milton never tried to produce a direct to DVD movie on a budget of less than a million.

The effects are cheap and occasionally unconvincing, but the opening montage where the main character does a bit of cartooning shows a strong visual sense. You get the feeling that the creators could have done a lot more, if given a proper budget. The script has a lot of ponderous exchanges on the subject of moral ambiguity and obligation, giving the viewer an impression that the writer would like to get into William Peter Blatty's intellectual space, but lacks for headroom. All that could be afforded was an urban action movie with some catholic mythology and that is delivered, with reasonable efficiency.

Comparison to Constantine is inevitable, but rather unfair given the difference in financing. It's a bit like complaining that a busker with a kazoos does not measure up to a full studio orchestra. Demon Hunter is a competently made B-movie with few ambitions above its station.

Demon Hunter is a lower budget film that its brother Constantine. And so there is less gloss in its special effects. The scenes are captured more rawly than picturesquely. However, the rawness adds a feel of realism that draws the objective viewer into the story. Reminiscent to the feel of Terminator (staring Arnold Schwarzenegger).

Demon Hunter's story line works. The characters are well casted and rendered convincingly. The gore and shock punctuates defining and pivotal story elements. Admirably, horror is not excessively used to compensate for the movies' lower budget. Demon Hunter has a good pace and never drags. If you like this type of flick, watching Demon Hunter is good time well spent.

Jake Greyman is a demon hunter, a sort of supernatural cleaner, the guy who takes over when the exorcism fails. The film starts out with Jake cleaning up after yet another exorcism gone wrong, the third within a matter of weeks. All of the victims have been young and attractive girls and both Jake and the church are suspicious. There seems to be a new demon at work, one with a definite schedule. Jake teams up with the unorthodox sister Sara and the two learn that the Demon of Lust, Asmodeus, is doing his horny best to impregnate as many hot young girls as he can in order to produce a race of half breed beings who will destroy us all.

This is a blatant and watered down rip off of Constantine, but hey, at least Keanu Reeves isn't in it. Sean Patrick Flannery, quite a good actor, does his best here with a corny script and a limp storyline. Angelina Jolie lookalike Colleen Porch isn't too shabby either as the sister with a secret. Tania Deighton as the Succubus is really hot and slinky and she expertly manages not to look embarrassed by her phony looking horns. Billy Drago as Asmodeus really steals the film though. Drago, a great but seriously underrated actor who almost always plays scummy bad guys, is excellent as the fanged and sleazy demon, surrounded by half naked girls and smiling like an alligator. His scenes are the best and most fun, particularly one in which he enthusiastically nails a lovely Asian lady in a crypt. Wow! Seriously sexy hot stuff! The fight scene between Drago and Flannery is well choreographed and is a lot of fun to watch.

The special effects are rather lame and the soundtrack is bloody awful, sounding like a bad 80s hair band reunion, but there are enough good and energetic performances in this film to make it halfway decent and raise it slightly above the level of most other direct-to-video crap. Worth seeing at least once, especially if you're a fan of either Flannery or Drago.

The movie starts pretty good. I dug the hot possessed girl. If it was me, I would "play" with her as she suggests to our hero. Anyways, the first scene ends and we face the reality of the movie. The premise is pretty good but in my opinion, it is too late before it gets interesting. I actually got bored.

There's a lot of sensuality, hot women (mainly because of the succubus), but little action and horror related scenes. The performances are pretty good for the movie's situations.

I catched this movie on cable and I suggest you to do the same thing. I mean, don't spend your money on it. There are Horror elements but not enough to please a Horror fan. Still, it's an interesting story and deserves a chance.