“Demonic” is yet another miss for a once promising filmmaker.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 16, 2023

With stilted acting and grueling plot mechanics that promise excitement which never comes, viewers might struggle to even make it to the film’s third act.

| Original Score: D- | Sep 22, 2022

A return to a set of horror genre stereotypes that tries to reinvent demonic possessions without success. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 14, 2021

Demonic feels nervous, restrained somehow as if from a first-time filmmaker uncertain of his craft. The script, cast, and direction are all cautiously flat, rendering the final result blandly forgettable.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 15, 2021

... perhaps one of the shabbiest excuses for a horror film in recent memory ...

| Original Score: 1/4 | Sep 11, 2021

Demonic is one of these terrible horror movies where hallucinations and nightmares are over-used to try and distract viewers from the badly conceived story. Expect to see a lot of boring, repetitive scenes that just lead to a ridiculous ending.

| Sep 10, 2021

The tension is genuinely non-existent and there are no creepy or scary scenes/visuals to fall back on. Boring and simply not very good.

| Original Score: 1/10 | Aug 28, 2021

The fact that the scares are so low and the film is so uneven makes it a frustrating watch.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 28, 2021

A decent genre festival selection, but barely feels like a Blomkamp film.

| Original Score: C+ | Aug 27, 2021

Demonic is, for most part at least, pulpy fun with inventive sci-fi horror embellishments.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 27, 2021

Despite all the bright-eyed new concepts, Demonic is just not interesting to watch, and much too derivative to warrant a recommendation.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 27, 2021

Blomkamp takes a fresh approach to the narrative that's more gritty than gothic. But he can't resist diving fully into a jolt-happy, hyperviolent finale.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 26, 2021

There's no great pleasure in stating that Demonic is disappointing. One hopes that Blomkamp comes roaring back with his next film, fulfilling the early promise of District 9.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 26, 2021

Unfortunately, what could have been a neat take on the possession movie is let down by slack pacing and pedestrian direction from Blomkamp, who shows no flair whatsoever for the genre.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 26, 2021

It's cautiously compiled, competent work-for-hire, but the wild swings and grand designs of this film-maker's earlier output are sorely missed.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 26, 2021

Demonic starts off strong with a unique setup but it fails is in its boiler-plate approach with the rest of its story beats.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Aug 25, 2021

Stealing a trick from Tarsem Singh's The Cell (2000). Blomkamp's film uses zones constructed from the detritus of the unconscious as a way of giving cinematic form - sight and sound - to otherwise internal struggles and states.

| Aug 25, 2021

Demonic is a film of missed opportunities. As soon as Blomkamp disregarded his film's biggest strength, he doomed his creation to profound mediocrity.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 25, 2021

Inexplicably abysmal...

| Aug 24, 2021

All of the 'big' moments that happen outside of the relationship between Carly and Angela are left to aftermaths and outcomes. It is just too bad that everything else takes a second seat to Carly and her mom, including the scares.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Aug 24, 2021