Resident Demon
 Rufus  rates it:    Community rates it: (no ratings yet)
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Resident Demon is a new release from Asylum that is really anything but new. We’ve seen the same synopsis from Carpenter’s THE THING and more directly from Gregory Hoblit’s FALLEN. Who do you trust when at anytime your closest friend or lover could be evilly possessed?

The movie starts in an insane asylum where Maggie finds out that her home has been sold. Normally, the profit from the sale would bring a smile to a person’s face, but here this makes her quite upset. You see Maggie had a smoking hot sister. Perfect in every way. Well, I guess she did have one flaw. She had a tendency of killing her men, and drinking and bathing in their blood. Now I’ve been hard up before when I was single, but even then I would have to pass on this freak. This little nugget of info explains why Maggie is in the Asylum. Turns out that the plan was for Maggie’s sister to drown in a bath of blood, and then transport her soul into Maggie. Well, Maggie lost her cool, let her sister die, and ran to tell the police. The police of course don’t believe her, because honestly who hasn’t heard that excuse before, and lock her up.

Now with new people living in her house, her spirit could run free. Right now it is trapped in the house, but who knows? Fearing this, she breaks out of the Asylum and heads back home where she meets up with the new owners who it just so happens are having a housewarming party. The spirit is loose, and with it being able to jump bodies by touch, it can be anyone.

(Talk about being able to keep the sex life exciting. Screw role-playing. Just have her jump bodies, and you can have a new woman every night. That doesn’t count as cheating does it?)

Maggie‘s sister must be stopped, but again who can you trust?

The story is nothing new at all, but there are some good things about this film. The acting is not bad at all. In fact, this leans towards the good acting spectrum. I was impressed with Billy Parish (looking like a Brandon Lee stand in). His acting was the most realistic, and honestly being the director, who better to know the director’s wants than himself. Samantha Klein, and Georgia Cobb also stood out in a good way. While these were the strongest, all involved seemed to play their roles impressively.

While the direction was not bad, the movie is horribly low budget. This movie is only for a movie viewer that can look past the glaring lack of money used to make this film. Now I’ve seen some low/no budget films before, but the tight budget really shows here. With the lack of locations and effects, the pacing was hurt. Now with the budget being as low as it was, something new or entertaining needs to be brought to the table to keep a viewer on board. Do not try to find that here. The basic idea has been used in better movies, there is no gore, nudity, and no good scares. There are some atmospheric moments, and who knows, with a larger budget it may have paid off more.

The casual viewer will turn this movie off 2 seconds after the Powerpoint credits role, and if you stay you may still be disappointed. This is not a horrible movie by any means, but like one of those Catholic wafers that are handed out in mass, this really has no flavor or substance. If you are a fan of low budget films then I won’t say avoid this movie, but only to not go looking for it. 2 Cans

Added:  Wednesday, February 08, 2006
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