Demonic, Produced by James Wan

A swampy Baton Rouge location will make any haunted house scarier, but this one happens to have an especially nasty ritualistic history. You know it must be frightening, because it carries the imprimatur of James Wan, arguable the most successful horror filmmaker of the last ten years. To make even creepier, it boasts an alleged real deal predator as an executive producer—Harvey Weinstein of course. His brother Bob was always the go-to guy for their Dimension genre releases, so his grossness really shouldn’t tarnish this rather scrappy exercise in supernatural horror. History is out to repeat itself in Will Canon’s Demonic (trailer here), which releases today on DVD.

In 1988, Martha Livingston killed four of her friends and then committed suicide as part of a Satanic ritual. Sometime around the present day, six young people visited her spooky old house, hoping to raise the spirits of her victims. We would know this was a spectacularly bad idea, even if the film’s flashback structure did not reveal three of them are already dead. First on the scene, Det. Mark Lewis discovers the deeply disturbed John, who could either be a victim or the perp. It turns out he has a close connection to the previous murders. His mother was the one that got away in 1988. His pregnant girlfriend Michelle and her jerky ghost-chasing ex also happen to be the two who are presently unaccounted for.

Soon, he will turn over his interrogation to police head-shrinker Dr. Elizabeth Klein, with whom he was supposed to have a date that night. The horrific events will unfold for viewers through John’s flashbacks and the bits and piece of footage restored from the team’s many surveillance cameras.

It is baffling why TWC-Dimension gave Dimension such shabby distribution, especially since it comes with the Wan branding. Despite the stupid twentynothings, this is a pretty good horror film for adults, because of the professional demeanor and personal chemistry shared by Lewis and Klein. Frank Grillo and Maria Bello are both terrific as our intrepid investigators. They act like grown-ups but still have very attractive yet seasoned screen presences.

As for the immature victims, they are mostly functional grist for the mill, but Aaron Yoo adds some awkward eccentricity as their socially stunted computer guy. It also should be stipulated, the surprise survivor who turns out to be the evil entity helps make the most of the terrifying revelation.

Unlike most supernatural horror films, Demonic adds elements of the mystery genre rather adroitly. Klein and Lewis are also unusually strong genre characters, so it is too bad Demonic’s theatrical release was squandered, thereby making a franchise based around them highly unlikely. Sure, the ending is a little nuts, but that is how it goes with haunted house-possession movies. Recommended for horror fans, Demonic releases today on DVD.

Stephen King’s Big Driver, On Lifetime, for Real

In publishing, the term “cozy” describes mysteries in the Miss Marple tradition. It is often used derisively as short hand for old lady books, until the author hits the bestseller list, at which point they become divas and we kiss up to them. Tess Thorne is not there yet, but she was getting close. Unfortunately, a violent attack will interrupt her well planned life in Lifetime’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novella Big Driver (promo here), which premieres this Friday on the cable network.

“Self-promoter” is a term we also use for authors who are compulsively willing to drive off to an event where they might sell a few copies. Thorne assumes her latest library speaking engagement will be that sort of gig. She does fine with her fans, but she runs into terrible trouble when Ramona Norville, the programming librarian, suspiciously punches a so-called shortcut into her GPS. Instead, she takes a detour into Hell when some jagged road debris punctures her tire. At first, she thinks the man she will eventually know as “Big Driver” is a Good Samaritan, but he turns out to be a homicidal sexual predator.

Let’s be upfront and frank about this. The sexual assault Thorne endures is far more graphic and intense than anything you would expect from anything on commercial cable, especially Lifetime, for crying out loud. It will be a deal-breaker for many people, so be forewarned. On the other hand, it certainly establishes the stakes and lays the dramatic framework for the somewhat dissociative state in which Thorne plans her vengeance.

Left for dead by her tormentor, Thorne never considers reporting Big Driver to the police for a number of mostly rational reasons (sadly). Instead, she tracks down her assailant employing her mystery writer’s deductive reasoning and attention to detail. She will do this alone, but her subconscious will offer commentary in the guise of Doreen, the leader of her novel’s crime-solving knitting circle and her GPS (this works a lot better than it sounds).

So yes, Big Driver is dark, but it is also intense. Screenwriter Richard Christian Matheson (the son of the legendary Richard Matheson, who has adapted King for television before) really gets into the dark corners of the human psyche, combining elements of the psycho horror movie and the Death Wish thriller. Director Mikael Salomon (the cinematographer on Backdraft and The Abyss) maintains an atmosphere of dread and moral ambiguity that ought to meet with the author’s approval. Frankly though, he might push things too far in the first act.

Maria Bello gives a brave performance in Thorne’s victimization scenes and is also impressively fierce during the subsequent payback sequences. As Norville, Compliance’s Ann Dowd continues to make a name for herself as the go-to creepy late middle-aged lady. Joan Jett also adds some attitude as Betsy Neal, a bartender who helps Thorne pick up Big Driver’s trail.

Big Driver is the second novella from King’s Full Dark, No Stars collection to get a dramatic treatment this month, closely following Peter Askin’s Stephen King’s A Good Marriage. That’s half the book. So far, so good. Thanks to the contributions of Salomon, Matheson, and Bello (and King too, by extension), Big Driver is a taut, provocative telefilm, but it might be too much for the Netowork’s regular viewers. Recommended for King fans, Big Driver airs this Saturday (10/18) on Lifetime.

Parents in Hell: Beautiful Boy

Parents think they know their greatest nightmare. Sadly, one nearly estranged couple experiences anguish beyond their worst fears in Shawn Ku’s Beautiful Boy (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Bill and Kate might not have been the best parents in the world, but they stayed together for the sake of their son, Sammy. As a father, Bill has been a bit aloof. Conversely, Kate has been a somewhat overbearing mother. Together, they were probably about average. Certainly, they were not abusive or overtly destabilizing. Yet, something went profoundly wrong. Always a relative loner, the troubled Sammy turned into a monster, setting off on a campus killing spree before taking his own life. Confused and bereft, Bill and Kate find themselves pariahs in the community, grieving parents who are not allowed to grieve.

Wisely, Boy never shows the horrific act directly, only revealing details obliquely and sporadically as the devastated parents attempt to shut out the world. However, Ku walks a perilously fine line in his approach to Sammy. Granted, he offers nothing to excuse or in any way ameliorate Sammy’s ghastly actions. Yet, early in the film viewers see him through his parents’ eyes, as a rather sheepish young man. This has a humanizing effect, regardless of intent. As a result, anyone who has lost a loved one in an incident like the Fort Hood shooting should probably avoid Boy.

Left with only fragments of a marriage on the rocks, Bill and Kate will be spared nothing. In truly visceral performances, Michael Sheen and Maria Bello strip themselves naked in every way imaginable as the couple struggles with guilt, anguish, denial, and resentment. In fact, they are even moments of surprisingly mature physical intimacy (but to the regret of Maxim readers, none involve Moon Bloodgood, who is largely wasted as Kate’s sister-in-law, Trish).

Some of the film’s promotional copy suggests the tragedy will bring Bill and Kate back together in unexpected ways. Though not necessarily false, circumstances are far more complicated than a pat Oprah ending would permit. Indeed, Ku and co-writer Michael Armbruster have little truck with easy sentiment, while Sheen and Bello are simply too honest and raw to indulge in cliché.

Did I mention Moon Bloodgood is in this film? It bears repeating, because Boy is so oppressively claustrophobic and dashed disconsolate, viewers will need something—anything—to hold onto. (Perhaps Meat Loaf in a brief but sensitively turned supporting role works for you instead.) Without question, Bello and Sheen put on a true acting clinic, but the cumulative effect is exhausting. A film worthy of respect and praise, but difficult to recommend to those looking for a little escapism as they go about the challenging business of life, Boy opens this Friday (6/3) in New York at the Angelika Film Center.