Review: Inner Demon

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2018
Images from the Internet

Inner Demon (Unrated Version)

Written and directed by Ursula Dabrowsky
Demon Girl Productions / South Australian Film Corporation / Saylavee Productions / Terror Films / MVD Entertainment
84 minutes, 2014 / 2018
www.mvdb2b.com

This South Australian film has won a bunch of awards, and I can certainly see why. Anyone familiar with horror from Down Under, such as 2005’s Wolf Creek, knows that the genre tends to lean towards the darker side of events, be it human or supernatural.



Sarah Jeavons

Within the first few minutes of this release, the tension if ramped up and stays at high gear throughout. But first we meet two sisters, teenage Sam (Sarah Jeavons) babysitting her younger sis (Scarlett Hocking) when they are kidnapped by a serial killing couple, Karl (Andreas Sobik) and Denise (Kerry Reid).

With Sam in the trunk and thanks to some smart resourcefulness (such as always keeping her weapon close at hand rather than leaving it behind after using it, even when falling short in the follow-through), she escapes into the woods. Note that this is in the description on the box, etc., so I’m not really giving away any spoilers here). It’s when she believes she has found a safe haven (though my fellow genre fans will know better… and again, printed on the box), of course, she’s gone into the lion’s den without Daniel.

I’ve professed before that sometimes when tension is overused, rather than keeping up the adrenaline, it tends to become wearisome after a minute or two. Dabrowsky skillfully manages to make every moment count, and rarely winds down the volume of tension, yet continually keeps it interesting.



Andreass Sobik

The main focus of the film is more the human monsters in the serial killer forms of the reluctant Denise and cold-hearted Karl, who seems to kill out of need more than any real personal satisfaction, as he never seems to be happy about his actions – but also does not want to stop. Both Sobik and Reid are totally believable in their roles, and Sobik portrays an ideal and soulless human monster that cannot control his own inner demons (figuratively speaking).

Of course, the film is focused more on Sam, even when she’s rendered relatively helpless (nope, not giving it away). Jeavons does a bang-up job, and even with the camera often focused on her white tee cleavage, her acting skill shines through.

There definitely are some squishy flesh moments (one in particular hard to watch for me), so the application SFX (didn’t notice any bloody CGI) was effective. It’s not a huge cast with essentially five main characters, including a neighbor, scraggly haired Wayne (Todd Telford) who I’m pretty sure is having an affair with Denise, but it’s more implied (red dress) than spoken. Or perhaps Denise is looking for a way out. Again, it’s left kind of open. Anyway, my point is the onscreen kill factor is relatively low, but incredibly well done.

By the time the supernatural element shows up in the last act, well, I felt that was the weakest element of the film as it felt like it was almost unnecessary. The human serial killers story would have actually have been sufficient with some tooling with the story. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good supernatural or even creature feature (not the latter, here), but it almost felt like when the cake is excellent, and there’s too much icing added on to it. Note that this is a personal thought, and I respect this film a lot. Just seemed almost out of place for me.

The accents are thick as black flies, and at times muttered, so I highly recommend turning on the captioning while you’re watching. Speaking of which, the extras involved how you want the sound, captioning, chapters, and three label trailers (including for this film).



Kerry Reid

While Aussie cinema can be dark (even comedies like Muriel’s Wedding), I have found that (as a gross generalization) women directors have a slightly different eye, and approach a subject in a more subtle way than many male directors who seem to like to use the sledgehammer style. For example, the volume of gore is not outrageously used, so when it is, it’s highly more effective. Don’t get me wrong, as I said, there are some nasty, squishy scenes here, but it’s presented sparingly in a very effective manner.

So, to sum up: dark film, great acting, scary human characters, and a bit of the supernatural towards the end that will either feel right or out of place, depending on your perspective. As the director stated for the Etheria Film Night website: “Horror audiences are so bored with most of the horror films that come out because they are so predictable. I know I am, so I decided to take liberties with the narrative, push the boundaries, experiment, and come up with something different. But this means the audience has to work at understanding what is happening. It’s a risk, but one I decided was worth taking in order to offer horror fans a fresh perspective.”

My only real “has to work at understanding” question is the how of the supernatural. That being said, this is a strong piece of cinema, and I have no problems recommending it to genre fans.