Demon Hunter (2004)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C- Feature: C-
Running out of options on how to push television, producer
Stephen J. Cannell decided to try for an entry in the Horror sweepstakes with
Scott Ziehl’s Demon Hunter, a 2004 attempt to pick up where a declining Buffy/Angel
franchise and long gone X-Files franchise had left off in the monster
hunter category. Even with more
explicit nudity and suggestive sex, it cannot overcome being haunted by every
cliché in the book.
Sean Patrick Flannery is unfortunately wasted as the title
character, who is working in conjunction with the church to battle demonic
possession and the occasional succubus.
His character Jake Greyman can see the truth over all others, but
unfortunately cannot tell a bad script from a good one. Flannery does give it his all and is far
more appealing than Stuart Townsend was in the even more obnoxious revival of Night
Stalker on TV a year later.
However, it does the sex much better than the scares, and it is not so
good at the sex, so…
In general, what has happened is that for years, many TV
and feature film properties tried to imitate and have commercial success with
the original 1974-75 Kolchak: The Night Stalker and its preceding
telefilms (all reviewed elsewhere on this site) and until X-Files, all
had been bombs. Now, post Buffy/Angel
that was actually a whole different thing to begin with, the search for that
“Holy Grail of Horror” is on again and the results are often worse than
ever. In this case, there was a little
potential, but the schlock and exploitation overtook common sense and unless
this DVD is some sudden hit, will end Greyman’s adventures.
As a mater of fact, demonic possession has been so badly
done, that even the recent set of Exorcist prequels were both a mess for
a different list of reasons. If you
want to see how to do this kind of film well today, you have to see The
Exorcism Of Emily Rose (2005) and skip this pretty much. Better luck next time, Patrick.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.77 X 1 image is on the soft
side, lacking detail and likely shot on digital HD or very problematically on
film. At least the color is not totally
gutted out, like it was on the amazingly bad Constantine with Keanu
Reeves (2005) that is actually worse than this. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix has some surrounds and is the highlight
of the DVD by default, but even this mix is limited and unimaginative down to
its forgettable score. Extras include a
trailer for this and a few other Anchor Bay Horror releases, a featurette,
final sequence rehearsal and audio commentary by writer Mitchell Gould and
stare Nancy Yoon that is barely better than the film.
- Nicholas Sheffo
