Degs The Demon

Film 1 of Hitchcocktober. The archetypal Hitchcock film. It's a shame the ambiguous ending of the novel was rewritten.

I didn't think this could even come close to matching the power of CAT PEOPLE but I actually would have loved this one equally if not for an ending that left me sour. I don't see how Bodeen could write such an incisive, heart-rending and piercing script like CAT PEOPLE then fumble the resolution of this one so badly. Ignore the ill fitting happy ending and you have a dark fantasy of the highest order, a dark fairy tale that depicts the heartless world faced by children whose imagination and empathy is cruelly severed from them in a poorly concealed act of abusive jealousy. A rare gem of catharsis and wonder.

Watch it at 1.5x speed and just blast your favorite black metal album instead of paying attention to the story cuz this movie has no interest in its own story.

I didn't finish this one. Subject matter felt tasteless and exploitative despite being a very well made film. Imagine if PSYCHO couldn't commit to the premise and lingered unwisely on themes of ableism/transphobia instead of using mystery and suspense to veil its unintentional bigotry.

I didn't realize until about the halfway mark that I had stumbled onto the infamous "Weremoth" horror film with a stacked cast; Basil Rathbone! Robert Flemyng! Kevin Stoney! I'm actually glad I didn't catch on because going in blind kept me focused on the presentation rather than the genre trappings: I thought it was a vampire film. Despite the B-movie effects that have not aged well and the unintentionally campy performances, the story is actually very smart, a complicated deconstruction of the classic Gothic horror tale that critiques scientists as colonizers: the mad scientist responsible for the Weremoth is motivated not by the imp of the perverse ala Dr Frankenstein but rather by the desire to enforce artificial order on and implicit control of the natural world. In particular I found it notable that the procedural and suspense narrative was paused twice during the film, once early on as the mad scientist lectures about phenotyping exotic insects and at midway when a short play is performed that reimagines the Frankenstein story. This is a script that deserves more credit: I feel like it might have inspired Del Toro's MIMIC? Regardless, I personally would want to recut this flick to keep the titular Blood Beast unseen even at the end. Don't get me wrong, the costuming and effects are cool but watching it now the suspension of disbelief is totally shattered by it.

Perfection.

Insufferably preachy. Like if M Night Shyamalan directed Silence of the Lambs.

Gothic horror was always entwined with body horror but this one makes it explicit. I don't love the ending but that's William Castle for you.

It's nice that a great and loyal adaptation of Priestly's story exists so this one can use it to parody the Gothic horror format. There's still traces of a serious drama/thriller here, plot twist in particular is tonally abrupt if completely predictable. There's attempted slapstick that comes off more deranged than comedic but when the cast gets to bounce their characters off of each other, it's a lot of fun. A poor substitute for The Addams Family. Also, pretty sure Nothing But Trouble was plagiarizing this one.

Dark. Yet entertaining.