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| Photo courtesy of Shudder |
Anyone going through a bad breakup is having a rough time. The heartache, the painful words exchanged — what could possibly be worse? Writer/director Emily Hagins has the precise answer to this question in her Shudder Original Sorry About the Demon, and without a doubt, it’s a house inhabited by a soul-hungry demon. Rather than lament alongside the unfortunate recipient of all this misfortune, however, the film instills a healthy dose of schadenfreude into the audience, inviting them to laugh at it instead.
Underachieving toothpaste customer service rep Will (Jon Michael Simpson) moves into a new home for a fresh start after his neglected girlfriend Amy (Paige Evans) dumps him. While the house looks lovely at first glance, it has one big problem: not only is it haunted by a couple of restless spirits, but also a demon in there is looking for a vessel to inhabit. Will found a great deal on this house because the previous owners knew about this demon and made a pact with it: if it stayed away from their young daughter whom it initially intended to possess, they’d bring it another suitable meat-suit instead. The only problem? This demon has no interest in inhabiting a loser like Will. Regardless, this doesn’t stop the ghosts or demon from making Will’s life a living hell and complicating his already sticky situation with Amy far more than he ever expected.
Although Sorry About the Demon’s subject matter of demonic possession is traditionally a dark, edgy one, the film is surprisingly soft with its treatment of it — both to its benefit and detriment. While its playful manner of addressing the supernatural entities in Will’s house adds some welcome dark humor to the story, it has a tendency to play it so safe that horror elements of the film are so diluted and downplayed that they pack little to no punch. Had there been more of a balance between the horror and comedy, the film would have played out better, but instead, it often reads as a romantic comedy with slightly higher than usual stakes.
The pacing also contributes to making Sorry About the Demon underwhelming. Much of the film features Will almost exclusively, and while some of his quirks are fun (his compulsive need to bake cakes, for example), he’s not compelling enough to be a one-man show for long periods of time. When Amy re-enters the story, the film becomes so bogged down with romantic sentiment and stretched-out, unnecessary dialogue that it’s easy to forget the film had anything menacing about it at all. While the climax of the film has some interesting moments, it drags on for entirely too long, ultimately making the most exciting moments of the film somewhat lackluster. Had the script and editing been tightened a bit, it had the potential to be far more entertaining with some solid momentum the entire way through. As it stands, it is a mediocre film with some memorable moments, but could have easily lost 20 minutes of running time without losing much plot.
Sorry About the Demon is not laugh-out-loud funny enough to be a successful comedy nor horrific enough to be a completely successful horror film, but it’s competent enough to be amusing for anyone who doesn’t mind a PG-level exploration of lost love and demonic hell portals. Watch it with lowered expectations and you might end up pleasantly surprised.
—Andrea Riley