Half-breed Jake Greyman is working for the church as a demon hunter. After an exorcism gone wrong, Jake reports to Cardinal White, and they realize that a demon named Asmodeus is spreading his seed, impregnating mortals in order to raise offsprings. Jake starts hunting for Asmodeus together with a nun named Sarah Ryan who was sent by Cardinal White to assist Jake, something that he doesn't like. Will Jake be able to stop Asmodeus before he creates hell on earth?
Since I just recently did a review of the movie The Tooth Fairy that was written and produced by Stephen J. Cannell, I figured I had to do a review of Cannell's Demon Hunter from 2005 as well. But while The Tooth Fairy was an entertaining little piece of film, Demon Hunter was actually far from it. I have to admit that it was somewhat entertaining at times, but overall, it was not a good flick at all. I think the worst thing about this movie was the dialogue which had a really ridiculous feel to it. It was not that the actors did a bad job delivering the dialogue, it was just that everything sounded truly stupid when talking about demons, impregnating prostitudes, whatever. I know you're not suppose to take it seriously, but since the movie itself had a serious (yet bad) tone to it, it was kinda hard not to.
I've enjoyed a few films/shows that have had Sean Patrick Flanery in them, and I think he's an ok actor for sure. I can't say that he's great here, but at the same time he's not bad at all, it's just that the movie itself feels really bad at times, no matter how good the acting, or other things for that matter. One thing that was extremely cool to watch though were two scenes where Jake (Flanery) beats up a possessed demon girl. Of course I don't like to see girl's get beaten up, but since this was about demon girl's, I guess it's ok. Funny thing was that these two fights goes on for quite some time, and they are pretty brutal. They're just fist-fights but they're well done and you get the feeling that he punches them really really hard. It might sound really stupid, but personally, I think these two fights were the best things Demon Hunter had to offer.
 
Now back to the bad stuff. The make-up and some of the effects used in the movie looks like shite. Some are ok I guess, but does still not come through looking all good either. For instance, there's one demon girl who tries to seduce Jake a number of times, her name is Succubus, and she has two horns on her head that doesn't look very convincing. They actually look glued on to her head, and 'are you kidding?' was the only thought going through my mind every time she showed her face (and horns) on screen. She was a pretty lady though, so we can forgive her for the bad horns I guess.
Acting-wise it wasn't so bad, I'm not saying it was great, but I thought everyone did an ok job, it's just that the story comes out looking ludicrous, and that basically made everything look really bad. The only one I thought should've been replaced by someone else was Billy Drago who plays the demon Asmodeus. He looked like an old worn-out, drugged-up rockstar, and they should've used someone different for that role for sure. Not that he's a bad actor per se, it was just that he wasn't the right man for the job, and it all came out just looking kinda stupid. Last but definitely not least; The score was among the worst scores I've heard in a movie for a very long time. The bands basically sounded like a bunch of amateurish rock-bands, playing crappy songs delivering one major headache after another. Absolutely horrible.
Demon Hunter had some entertainment to offer, but felt like a proper b-movie, and not one of those 'nicer' b-movies, but just a pretty bad one. It looked all right, and the acting wasn't bad at all, but the dialogue was really f**king crap, and made everything look bad. The story was ludicrous, and the score, well some of the songs, almost made me sick for a while, and instead of improving the movie, they managed to tear it down even more. It kinda reminds you of Constantine, since just like Keanu, Flanery is a demon hunter as well. Constantine was crap too, but at least it had some decent effects to look at. I would stay away from this disaster of a movie if I were you.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: Scott Ziehl
WRITING CREDITS: Mitch Gould
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Sean Patrick Flanery, Colleen Porch, Billy Drago
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 78 min
RATING: 3/10
Demon Hunter Website/IMDB Click here
Demon Hunter Trailer Click here
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