Demon Keeper

The story takes place largely at the mansion of Remy Grilland (Edward Albert Jr.), a phony spiritualist who has made a fortune holding seances for rich old folk. One weekend, when he arranges for a "psychic retreat" for some friends and clients, Howard (David Sherwood), the nephew of Remy devotee Isabelle (Claire Marshall) brings along medium Alexander Harris (Dirk Benedict) to rule on Remy's bona fides. At the gathering, under pressure from Alexander's presence, Remy utilizes an ancient book in his ritual and winds up raising the demon Asmodeus, who proceeds to turn the guests murderously against each other. The first to go are the nubile Dorothy (Elsa Martin) and Hilary (Katrina Maltby), followed by Howard and his wife, Ruth (Jennifer Steyn).

Alexander holds a ritual and Asmodeus (Mike Lane) appears, revealing how Howard and Ruth died and threatening the same for the rest of the guests. Alcoholic Dia (Adrienne Pearce) tries to kill her husband, Chris (Andre Jacobs), before being dispatched by a possessed dog. The demon appears before Isabelle and tempts her with the promise of seeing her late husband again, impelling her to attack Remy, which leads to her own death. Then Remy is possessed, and he kills his companion Margo (Diane Nuttall) and Chris before attacking Alexander, whereupon he is killed by a lightning bolt. When the police arrive to find that Alexander is the only one left alive, they arrest him as the killer, failing to notice the demonic gleam in his eyes.

Poorly written, incoherently directed and populated by characters who, despite their supposed occult knowledge, behave as though they've never seen a film like this themselves, DEMON KEEPER is lousy even by the rapidly declining standards of Roger Corman's New Horizons company. Although the screenplay attempts to add some dramatic dimension to the simplistic story by giving each character some inner flaw for the demon to exploit, this only leads to unconvincing histrionics; one subplot, involving Howard owing money to a mobster, not only goes nowhere but incorporates one of the least exciting chase scenes in film history. As a result, there's no sympathy for the characters, and consequently no reason to care whether they live or die.

Set in New Haven, Connecticut, DEMON KEEPER was actually shot in Zimbabwe, though the scenes featuring Asmodeus look as though they were shot on an LA soundstage and inserted after the fact. The demon never really interacts with the cast, settling instead for ranting in a cheap, smoky hellscape and commanding his possessed victims with voice-overs like "There's Remy! Kill him!" The rest of the dialogue isn't much better, with many insipid lines on the order of "There's an omnipresence in this house--I've felt it since the seance." This, combined with the soporific, by-the-numbers storytelling, makes this scant 71-minute feature feel a lot longer. (Graphic violence, nudity, sexual situations, profanity.) leave a comment