Réalisation:
Marcin WronaPhotographie:
Pawel FlisActeurs·trices:
Itay Tiran, Agnieszka Żulewska, Andrzej Grabowski, Tomasz Schuchardt, Adam Woronowicz, Maja Barełkowska, Katarzyna Herman, Cezary Kosinski (plus)Résumés(1)
A bridegroom is possessed by an unquiet spirit in the midst of his own wedding celebration, in this clever take on the Jewish legend of the dybbuk. Peter (Israeli actor Itay Tiran) has just arrived from England to marry his beautiful fiancée, Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska), at her family's country house in rural Poland. The old homestead is a gift from his future father-in-law, and Peter is excited to renovate it into a home for his new family. While inspecting the grounds on the eve of his nuptials, Peter finds skeletal human remains buried on the property. Haunted by his discovery, Peter slowly starts to unravel while the joyous and drunken traditional Polish wedding goes on around him; and soon, he is overcome by what seem to be epileptic fits, panicking his bride and scandalizing his father-in-law. As the night wears on, it becomes apparent that there is an uninvited guest at the wedding, that she is lonely – and that she is very, very dead. (Cinemax)
(plus)Critiques (3)
A disjointed wedding. A film about asking questions and running away from the answers. In an alcoholic haze, the wedding party refuses to deal rationally with the problems of the found skeleton in the closet and the crazy groom is only problematically coming to terms with his past, just like the Polish nation. In an intoxicated sense, Demon is a film told under the influence. It portrays very accurately that state when you are a little aware, a little crazy, bump around the room and fell like outside yourself. Whether some dybbuk spirit gets involved or not, is not that important. It’s art, but the kind of art that it’s gratifying, atmospheric, intoxicating and surprisingly funny – the whole theatre laughed many times. Wrona was a great talent, it’s a pity.
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I can’t deny that there’s an atmosphere to this movie. It’s properly dark and it almost makes you feel a sense of doom. But the atmosphere is the only upside of this movie that makes it worth watching. Otherwise, it’s basically a hotchpotch of various scenes in various strange situations with equally strange people who don’t manage to grow on you and you’ll constantly marvel at their behavior. Demon might have a good director who has paid extra attention to the technical adaptation, but if the movie leaves a sour taste in your mouth, then not even holy water could help.
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The Polish-Israeli production Demon proves that it is possible to make a different and original horror movie with a strong, social message and remain interesting and not boring. At least from my point of view, the movie was interesting and not boring at all. It feels like it was made by European moviemakers, which is a good thing. It indeed offers a completely new and different twist on the classic subject matter of demon possession. This movie is something else.
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