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 DEMON
WARRIOR
PLOT
Back in the day, a settler named Willard set up household on sacred
Indian land and subsequently drove the natives away. A shaman put a
curse on the property, invoking the spirit of a "demon warrior" who
returns every ten years to reclaim the land from the white man.
Many moons later, the great-grandson of Willard, his girlfriend,
and three of their friends go there for a hunting trip. Predictably,
they shrug off warnings of the demon warrior's return... and may or
may not live to regret it.
REVIEW
This wanna-be slasher is the most tepid bunch 'o' junk that I've ever
seen. It's got the some of the typical conventions of a paint-by-numbers
backwoods horror movie...but it's absolutely dry of qualities that
make these films enjoyable. I pretty much gave up on suspense being a
contributing factor from the very beginning... on the opposite end
of the slasher spectrum, I also gave up on cheesiness. "Demon Warrior"
is pretty much a tired, sarcastic mess that no one involved seemed to
have any fun creating.
Things start out in a pretty standard way... a couple of good ol' boys
take a wrong turn and run into the title menace. We're then quickly
introduced to the incredibly boring characters that we have to endure
for the next hour and a half. The legend of the "demon warrior" is
repeated several times (just in case we didn't get it the first time,
or understand the detailed description on the back of the box) by
various old-timers that the kids run into. Of course, these idiots
don't listen and treat the warnings in jest (they even make up a stupid
car-song about it as they head out into the woods).
What starts out as routine slasher fodder gets bogged down (very quickly)...
there's an incredibly tiresome subplot having two of the characters
fight for the affections of the lone female character... half of the
movie is spent on the subject and it just feels like a lame attempt
at drama to pad out the running time. Thrown into the mix are the
typical lard-ass sheriff (who gets dispatched faster than you can say
Boss Hog) and an investment-banker-Indian-hero (!) who tells the kids
that he's their only hope of getting out alive. What's worse is that
the performances from the actors are so unemotional that you don't get
involved with the story at all.
Like a lot of late eighties slasher movies, "Demon Warrior" tries in a
vain to tweak itself in places as so not to be another "Friday the 13th",
but doesn't have the talent behind it to be innovative, or even be a bad
rip-off. And the fact that this uses supernatural elements in the story
doesn't score it any points either...
Excuse me while I go watch a "good" movie.... like "Don't Go in the Woods"
or "The Forest"... hee hee.
GORE
Pretty dreary... there's an okay scalping scene, a lot of off screen
murders, and a lot of arrows to the body.
SOUNDTRACK
This might be the one good thing from this movie... during some of the
chase scenes there is some okay tribal music.
BOTTOM LINE
A must to avoid. About the only positive things I can say about this movie
are about the music and some half-way decent camerawork... but when there
isn't much else, these things don't mean dick. "Demon Warrior" belongs in
the bargain bin of hell.
Review
By: The ScareMaker
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