User Reviews

The story surrounding the film 'Demon' made in 2015 by Polish director Marcin Wrona is almost as tragic as the story in the film, and builds around it a special aura. The director committed suicide shortly after the premiere, during a festival that promoted this third and final feature film of his, a film that has in its center a wedding that ends tragically. Marcin Wrona himself was freshly married and left behind a young wife (who had also been one of the film's producers). Those who believe in such phenomena may speculate that perhaps some of the evil spirit exemplified by the phenomenon of 'dybbuk' described in the film has spilled over into reality. The rest of us can mourn the disappearance of a film director who was on the path to become one of the most representative for Poland, and beyond the borders of his country. 'Demon' is a very interesting film, which does not leave its viewers indifferent, located somewhere between the Gothic horror genre with elements of Polish and Jewish folklore, and the art film with social and historical commentary. The film is a Polish-Israeli co-production, which is, I think, also first time kind of collaboration.

Pyton (Itay Tiran) comes from London to a remote village in Poland only accessible by ferry (the bridge collapsed some time ago) to marry Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska), the daughter of the owner of the stone quarry that seems to be the main industry of the village. The two had only met her via skype, but we can't blame him because Zaneta is a blonde beauty, or her because she probably dreams that sooner or later she will get London. The problem is that for now Pyton dreams of reverse migration, learns Polish, changes his name (and personality?) to Piotr before the wedding, and begins to renovate a dilapidated house to settle in. The bulldozer used for the works uncovers a buried corpse, and from here, an evil force seems to be released and takes possession of Pyton who became Piotr on the day and during his wedding. Did a demon take over him? Are we perhaps dealing with a phenomenon of 'dybbuk' descended from the Jewish folklore and mysticism, in which souls that do not find peace take possession of foreign bodies and refuse to release them until they see their goals achieved? Are the strange events taking place in this Polish Catholic village related to the history of the Jewish community, a whole world that disappeared in the Holocaust with only one survivor alive in the person of an old teacher?

The film oscillates between grotesque, social satire and horror, adding at the end a commentary with historical significance. The light, comic, folkloric tone of the wedding scenes can lead viewers to false path, as the final message is much gloomier, telling about the impossible reconciliation between an amnesic present and a past that does not let itself be buried and returns to haunt the descendants or accomplices of wrongdoers. The cinematic execution is not perfect and the spectators are required to focus so as not to omit details or clues that flip on the screen for only a few seconds. I liked the cinematography and the acting of the Polish team , who managed draw clearly both the lead roles and the smaller ones that make up the social background of the story. Itay Tiran, who plays the lead role, was at the time of making the film in 2015 a mega-star of Israeli theater, the most talented and successful actor and director of his generation. (Since then he has decided to move to Berlin, where he started a new career from scratch). His roles in film are, in my opinion, a bit marked by theatricality and this happens also in 'Demon'. What works perfectly on stage (Tiran played on stage Klaus Mann's Mephisto among others) doesn't work as well on screen, and he lost me exactly in the 'demonic' scenes. For all its imperfections, Marcin Wrona's farewell film is a meritorious cinematic work, an experience not to be missed.

I was thoroughly enjoying this and it just ended. What's up with that? I wanted more answers. That was disappointing. I will say that one of the best and somewhat comical aspect was just how much drinking went on. These folks were lit! I mean all of them were wasted to the point that it could've passed for a zombie flick. I like it but I had to lower the rating because of all the questions that were left unanswered.

"Demon" (2015 release from Poland; 94 min.) brings the story of Peter, an English guy who is about to marry his Polish fiancée. As the movie opens, we see Peter arriving at a construction site, and in conversation with his future father-in-law, who expresses doubt about the upcoming marriage, given the apparent short courtship between his daughter Zaneta and Peter. But the wedding plans are on. Later that day, Peter arrives at the countryside home of Zaneta's family, which is in dire need for some fixing up. When Peter does some cleaning up in the yard, he comes across the remains of a skeleton, and before we know it, strange things start happening. At this point we're not even 15 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is perhaps billed as a horror movie, but it really isn't. It really is more of a psychological thriller, rooted deeply in Polish family traditions. Much of the movie plays out over the course of the long wedding night (ceremony, followed by the wedding reception, dinner, and post-dinner celebration). I noticed in the movie's credits that it is in fact based on a theater play, and the movie certainly reflects that (and that is not meant as a criticism). Rather than a horror story, you instead get the constant feeling that something creepy is going on. There are a number of worthwhile performances, including Israeli actor Itay Tiran as Peter/Piotr and Andrzej Grabowski as the patriarch of Zaneta's family. Given the nature of the film, I don't want to disclose much more, but I can only tell you that I became transfixed as this played out, and couldn't hardly believe it how quickly this all went by.

The movie premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, yes, over a year ago. (Sadly, the movie's director Marcin Wrona took his own life not long thereafter.) It opened without any pre-release fanfare or advertising at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati this weekend, and I couldn't wait to see it. The Friday evening screening where I saw this at was attended poorly, just a handful of people. Given the lack of marketing, it didn't really surprise me. If you are in the mood for a creepy (in the best possible way) and haunting psychological drama, I'd readily recommend you check this out, be it in the theater, on Amazon Instant Video, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

Ok, so this guy gets a plot of land and property as an early wedding present and, while using a backhoe to dig out a new pool, unearths a skeleton. Not wanting to upset his bride to be, he doesn't mention it. However, on the night of the wedding ceremony and reception (held on the same premises), it appears that the subject can't really be ignored. This is a very interesting, and fast-paced, take on a classic demonic possession tale - in this case, the Jewish dybbuk legend - and it gets creepier and creepier as it continues along. Sure, it's in Polish, but as with many horror movies there's no overabundance of thick dialog. I'd say it's slick and mildly plausible. Well, in the arena of demonic possession, anyway.

Demon is a low budget Polish flick, that primarily takes place in the span of one night. There's nothing really.... wrong with the movie, but I can't justify giving it more then 3 stars when i spent more then half the movie wanting to turn it off.

So what I mean by that. Movie is structurally sound. The plot moves at a snails pace, but it makes sense and moves in a way that makes sense. Direction is fine, cinematography is good, same with the acting. There's nothing really WRONG with the movie looking at it in that objective point of view, and I can get the high reviews it's gotten. It's also a foreign film and moves differently then most american made film does, and i know that gets some extra points in people's eyes.

But. it is. SO boring. I'm not even the type that gets bored by slow moving movies. I usually love slow movies. Demon though, it's slow to a fault. Over the course of this wedding night, and that's the only spoiler i'm going to give, a lot happens but in the end you realize nothing really has happened. Not only that, I felt absolutely no connection to any of the characters, and what was going on with them. It's my belief that slow movies work well because they tend to be more character driven, but Demon ends up eliciting no emotions at all. I want to care about what's happening over the course of this night, but man I just don't care about what happens to any of these characters.

I don't want to give any spoilers, but the central plot in this movie comes and goes with no real resolution, and no real reason why it happened.

Which again, would be fine, if the movie was successful in making you connect with its characters. but because it doesn't, the whole movie starts to unravel and lose its whole purpose. is it a character study? is it a metaphor for race relations between the polish and jewish? I can't even tell the genre of the movie. It's advertised as horror but has neither jump scares nor any slow tension or buildup. At best I would call it a drama but usually dramas... you know... illicit drama.

So in the end, the bones for this movie are all there, but there's a serious lack of purpose, emotion, motive, and direction.

I like to think that I keep an open mind when it comes to foreign films, especially with cultural differences, but this differences were not the reason why I didn't care for Demon. The ending was completely open and not in a good way. I enjoyed seeing a Polish style wedding and traditions as my Heritage is mostly Polish and that was fine, it was the last act that just kind of wandered around. The closure offered no answers, lessons learned, or something to think about, it almost feels like there were a couple of scenes missing at the end that would have closed out the movie.

Do not recommend

Through his best friend in London, Peter (Itay Tiran) meets Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska), and soon he travels to her home village in Poland to marry her and settle down in the large, if somewhat isolated, house of her parents. Left there overnight, he does some digging and appears to uncover a skeleton; but the next morning, the hole and the bones are gone, and Peter has spent a rather strange night. Shrugging it all off, Peter and Zaneta marry and a huge party is held at the house; much dancing, speechifying and, especially, drinking of vodka ensues. But Peter isn't feeling quite himself shortly after the party begins, and soon he's acting *very* much out of character…. This is a retelling of the Yiddish tale of the dybbuk, a kind of ghost story, and it's very well done here - the acting is excellent, the atmosphere alternates between wild partying and sheer creepiness, and the horror, while striking, is more of the quiet variety than the blood-splatter type (for which I was grateful). I don't know how available it is in North America - I saw it at Montreal's always-brilliant Fantasia Festival - but it's well worth searching for!

On the big day for an engaged couple the groom uncovers a grim secret, and the celebrations don't go quite as intended ...

This seemed so intriguing, and I was rubbing my hands as the action kicked off at a lively pace with good humour from the actors. Then we switch to a Polish-Jewish wedding, with great music and dancing and lots of knowing observations. But where's the horror? Instead we get an oblique reflection on the secrets buried in sad soil - it's worth the telling, but doesn't dare to be explicit. I guess the aim was to achieve a haunting atmosphere, but it doesn't really make it - although the fate of the director after the movie was released adds a terrible twist. Is there any such thing as a Jewish horror movie?

Performances are good, but the plot and characterisation are uneven. There's a running joke with characters getting soaked in rain and vodka, and the photography is good. One scene is captured brilliantly, when the couple emerge from the church and get caught in a flurry of snow and umbrellas.

Music is OK, with a joke about Chopin that then fails to switch the music from electronic to piano. Lots of play with several languages and a few puns.

Overall: Spirited but not demonic.

Well the fact that yet another movie was presented as horror when it had nothing to do with the genre, makes it all so beautiful! Really! I saw Demon and Neon Demon, one after the other, and I've seen less horror than when I run out of toilette paper.

Sure the movie gets you sucked in, you start to feel the dizziness, the walls seem to get closer and the alcohol is starting to play tricks on you. The movie is efficient, for a drama, a nice depiction of some Polish habits, some interesting facts here and there, and then, nothing! Out of the blue, you get the end credits. Abadi abadi abadi aba- That's all Folks!

So you're a horror fan and you curious, so you'd like to throw an eye on Demon. But are you sure? I mean, not for the horror part, I hope. In rest, sure, as I previously stated, this has some different elements to offer. No horror. No scares. No tension. Just a lot of unanswered questions. If you can put up to this, then by all means, go be disappointed.

Cheers!

Your NOT going to get this. In fact it's so terrible, the people in this are so terrible, the storyline is such complete and utter nosensical trash that I'm actually angry that I was fooled by these reviews and waisted the time to watch this hot mess. I think maybe if you grew up like I said in Poland and heard the stories about whatever the heck this is supposed to be about, you'd maybe enjoy this???? But for those of us that are going into this clueless, you'll leave even more so. And yes, that's possible I assure you. Somehow they managed to find the worst human beings on the planet and put them into a barn together..... Then recorded them getting drunk and being well... Trash. I'm sorry there is no other word for these people or their behavior. There is zero payoff. Zero explaination as to WHAT IS HAPPENING. Not a single creepy or cool moment in the entire thing. It's just dumb. Super super stupid. These high reviews are either paid for, or done by pretentious heels that didn't get it either but are pretending like this is some kinda artistic masterpiece. Lol. It's a joke. And not a fun one!

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie until the last 15 minutes or so. The wild polish wedding in rural isolation with the foreshadowing of a death and funeral a few miles away, the clueless, friendless groom from out of town London and the Father of the bride trying desperately to keep everything seemingly normal, "It's food poisoning", while his son in law gets possessed by the spirit of a, probably murdered, young Jewish girl from over a generation ago and does a St. Vitus Dance at the wedding.

The groom finds a skeleton near his new home right under the nose of his wedding venue and tries to keep it a secret as the spirit begins to take possession. The hilarious cowardly priest and the rather sad scene where one old Jewish wedding guest realizes the groom is now speaking Yiddish and the spirit talking through the groom is of a young Jewish girl he once knew who thinks her whole family is still alive waiting for her.

The build up is fantastic and the location and characters reactions all make this story feel very real, as if it could be taking place right now somewhere in Poland, but the ending gives nothing. You must decide what happened with the spirit and the poor groom. All said, I still really enjoyed the movie.

This starts OK. Is reasonably well acted. But I think the ending is way too fuzzy. They needed to be far more clear about what was supposed to have happened there.

Otherwise I struggle to see what some find so entertaining about this dreary, boring, extremely unsatisfying film. No resolution, no excitement, just a buildup followed by lack of direction and frustration.

Not sure what to say about this movie other than it has some kind of personality disorder and tries to stick it's finger into too many movie genre pies.

I have however learnt that Polish weddings are a blast and I'm off to make some Polish friends so I could get invited to their booze fuelled celebrations.

This is surprisingly funny for a scary movie. But don't be fooled by the comedy or the lack of color. It is scary and it will take you on a wild ride. If you are into it, and if you want to see what "legend" exists for Jews. It's the Dybbuk (if I wrote that correctly that is) and it is a very mad and bad entity.

And it happens on one of the happiest day of ones life. Or it should be. But the movie plays with many things, expectations and while in other instances it just doesn't fit, they made it work in this case. It takes a spin on something you have seen a couple of times and makes it feel fresh and inspired. And for that, I love this little independent horror movie, that does not have explicit scenes as a stronghold, but rather strong characters and an interesting story