Reel Review: THE DÆMON (2024)

A Lovecraftian love letter that drums up dread in its viewers, “THE DÆMON” is a horror movie to add to your watchlist. The lake is calling.

Visually stunning, THE DÆMON wastes no time leveraging its captivating cinematography to build a world we’re eager to spend time in.

The film offers a truly unique take, with its rapidly changing first-person perspectives inducing an effective and disorienting kind of motion sickness. The vibrant but harsh and shifting colors of the sky make you feel uneasy. A droning soundtrack slowly creeps up on you, never letting up and keeping the tension fraught throughout.

Yet, there’s something decidedly dreamy about the world that THE DÆMON draws you into.

From the jump, with its compelling cold open, we aren’t privy to much information, which keeps us guessing. Our protagonist, Tom (Tyler Q Posen), receives word of his father’s suicide. He promptly abandons his wife, leaving everything behind him and setting out to the lake where his father met his demise. Following a lack of communication, his wife Kathy (Sara Fletcher) brings together her brother Mark (Oscar Wilson) and his wife Jess (Adriana Isabel) to help bring Tom home.

Unbeknownst to them, there’s a lot more in store for them as they descend a nasty path trying to survive a sinister evil that seeps from the lake.

I want to highlight a specific scene between Jess and Mani (Mario Daggett), who seems to be some sort of ex-criminal or addict. Jess sits across from him, trying to give him a bit of therapy. It’s such a simple but intense scene, rife with conflict. The way these two actors played off each other lit up the screen and riveted me.

THE DÆMON is cosmic horror meets drama at its finest, with a gripping story that never seems to let up.

When all seems normal, it throws you back into its twisted hands. At the same time, it deals with some very serious topics and themes and handles them with a lot of sensitivity. Grief, suicide, and childhood trauma are present throughout the whole film.

Once we finally get to meet the creature that has been possessing those around it and bringing them to the lake to meet their demise.

Without spoiling anything, the CGI effects were spectacular, very unsettling, and chilling for a non-Hollywood, low-budget horror. Plus, the film’s somber ending had my jaw on the floor.

Ahead of its premiere, writers-directors David Micheal Yohe and Matt Devino shared the meaning behind this passion project:

“THE DÆMON is a reflection on our own fears and the profound correlation between past and present and in the face of cosmic forces that might not help us. The film will draw the viewer into a world where the line between reality and the supernatural is blurred. Where the strength of the human spirit is put to its ultimate test.”

I highly recommend this movie to lovers of cosmic horror, interesting kills, a whole bucket of blood, and lovecraftian horror. I don’t fall into that category entirely, but I fell in love with this movie nonetheless.

Although it is not something I would normally watch, THE DÆMON blew me away.