Demon Hunter (2005)

Working for the church, demon hunter Jake Greyman follows up with brute force and violence when an exorcism fails. But, something bigger is at play now and Jake is tasked with hunting it down and stopping it. He won’t be alone though as his superior, Cardinal White, sends a special Nun to help him. Jake fights evil and keeps Sister Sara out of trouble, as he hunts down the demon of Lust to send him back to Hell.

Shot in just 18 days, Demon Hunter has an interesting concept (even if it is one that we have seen many variations of), but fails to flesh out a good story with compelling characters. Besides his stated heritage, we don’t get any real substance in the background of the main character Jake Greyman (Sean Patrick Flannery; The Boondock Saints, The Devil’s Carnival). Did he suffer as a child? How was he found by the church? What was his training like? Does he struggle with suppressing his demon side? Is he actually suppressing it at all? I think even making a small portion of the film about that would have made me more invested in a fairly flat character. And this lack of depth to the characters affects every single main and secondary character in the film.

The performances from the main cast didn’t help much either. Sean Patrick Flannery is a quality actor but comes across as more irritated or subdued (depending on the situation) than a brooding hero. I think that addressing the issues previously mentioned might have made his performance make more sense, but we will never know. Billy Drago (The Hills Have Eyes, The Untouchables) was cast as the main demon antagonist Asmodeus. His performance was aloof. I don’t know if this was a choice by the director or not, but it made the character appear to not care if his plan succeeded or not.

Speaking of the antagonist, not enough was done to show the true evil of Asmodeus. I felt like he was more of a nuisance than a threat. The secondary Succubus character was more of a danger than the big bad demon lord. Hell, even the Cardinal (William Bassett; House of 1000 Corpses, Black Dynamite) seemed more threatening with his ulterior motives. Maybe just seeing Asmodeus easily kill some lesser servants for failure would have given him more of a threatening presence.

The story really needed to push an armageddon scenario harder than it did. Again, Asmodeus seemed like he was more of a minor threat rather than the world-ending demon they were trying to make him out to be. Perhaps if there were more references to strange occurrences in the world or dark events rapidly occurring off-camera it might seem direr. I never felt like the situation was more than the hero could handle. It felt like a weekend gig for Jake. In fact, the ending just serves into this feeling.

Demon Hunter is more dialogue-heavy than I expected which is not a bad thing. Jake constantly argues his view on the world and his place in it with Sister Sara (Colleen Porch; Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, I Know Who Killed Me). There is some character development in these talks. Sarah does move away from her nun teachings a bit by the end of the movie, but not enough to make the twist ending make sense. Jake is not shown to be affected by these talks and more or less stays the same throughout the film.

There are a couple of fight sequences, and the best-looking one is between Jake and some bodyguards in a cemetery. Sean Patrick Flannery appears to do some of the fight work himself and was convincing in these moments. His stunt double did a good job making most of the moves look smooth.

The effects in Demon Hunter are not bad for the budget. The make-up and prosthetics are pretty good and don’t pull you out of the movie. The CGI is not at a feature film level, but thankfully is not used much. There is not a whole lot of monster makeup or effects for a movie about demon hunting.

Demon Hunter is ultimately boring. It seems to drag and drag and I didn’t get truly excited until seconds before the credits. [SPOILER] By this time, Jake has decided to leave the church and fight evil his own way. [END OF SPOILER] If that had happened earlier in the movie, I probably would have been more interested in what happens to our hero.

Rating:

Jack Savage:

 

I didn’t go into the film with high expectations, but I was still surprised by how little I cared about anything happening in the film. Bad effects? Bad acting? That was expected, but adding the boring and weak story makes me wonder how this was greenlit for production. If you are a hardcore Sean Patrick Flannery fan, then maybe you’ll want to check this out. Anyone else will probably fall asleep before the credits roll.

Trailer:

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