DIR/WRI: Arjun Rose • PRO: Jason Maza, Joanne Podmore, Arjun Rose, Rhian Williams • DOP: Toby Moore • ED: Tim Murrell• DES: Paul Burns • CAST: Robert Sheehan, Ashley Walters, Tulisa Contostavlos
At the start of Scream, it came as a shock when the biggest star in it, Drew Barrymore, was killed in the opening scene. At the start of Demons Never Die, the same effect is strived for by using none other than X-Factor judge Tulisa. It doesn’t quite work, which is a pretty good mini review for the film as whole.
Despite Tulisa dying from stab wounds to the stomach, the police and her college classmates believe she killed herself, and in the depressing aftermath, some of them decide to make a suicide pact. Lead by Misfits star Robert Sheehan, they begin to organise the whens, wheres and hows of their group suicide when someone begins murdering them all one by one. And the murderer could be any of them, or any of the cops or school faculty who have been keeping a close eye on them…
At the core of the movie there is a kernel of a good idea (the suicide pact, a very really problem in today’s society), but its surrounded by a big gaping hole in logic; if all these kids want to die, why do they (and, in turn, should we) care that someone is going around killing them? And as the number of red herrings almost hits the triple digits, by the time the killer is revealed, you’ll not care enough to realize that it makes absolutely no sense.
First time writer/director Arjun Rose has some skill when it comes to creating tension for the stalky/stabby scenes, but it’s too bad they’re plonked in the middle of this opportunistic tedium.
Rory Cashin
Rated 18 (see IFCO website for details)
Demons Never Die released on 28th October 2011
