The Demon (1981)

Pretty inept slasher flick. Most of the scares are too poorly lit to see and it spends an INSANE amount of time developing a pointless romance between two supporting characters that never goes anywhere. I can count the good parts of this film on one hand, and will do so now.

Thumb. It’s the kind of inept storytelling that almost passes for surreal and nightmarish if you watch it late enough. There’s a really bizarre subplot about a psychic private detective that goes nowhere at all, almost hilariously so, and all the acting in those scenes is “off”, in that nearly-creepy-but-mostly-silly kind of way.

Index. The final climax (which the survivor girl is topless for almost all of) is shockingly effective, in part (but not entirely) because it rips off Halloween’s.

Middle. There’s plenty of nudity.

Ring. It’s maybe the first South African slasher movie ever made, so there’s history there.

Pinky. The director’s name is Percival Rubens. Percival Rubens! How great a name is THAT? C-