Neill Blomkamp's horror has great ideas but falls short in execution; "Demonic" offers more than the conventional possession story — but falls short of being a truly frightening film
a dull but visually inventive supernatural horror movie; the deeper that Blomkamp digs into his pixel-thin premise, the more glaring it becomes that Demonic lacks the genre fundamentals required to support any sort of broader mythology
"Demonic" uses sci-fi and tech to give an inside view of the possessed, but the high concept fails to inject new life, or scares, into a standard possession tale; feels more like an inventive sci-fi mask that hides a lifeless, familiar story underneath
"Demonic" is as humorless and literal-minded as Blomkamp's other films, and so the absurdities of his gimmicks stick out; Like "District 9", the film is a genre outing with big ideas that's more committed to the power of arsenals and pyrotechnics
by Sarah Bea Miller [ScreenRant ]
by Chuck Bowen [Slant Magazine ]
