I'd never heard of this one before (I soon found out why) but the cover looked exciting (yep, I'm a sucker for any drawings of monsters). As I rewound the tape in my VCR (don't you hate people who don't bother rewinding their videotapes?) it made a horrible clanking/screeching sound, which led me to believe the VCR had somehow become possessed by the demon from the film. I think the VCR was just annoyed at having to rewind such a mediocre film though.
This film sorely loses out by being a TV movie, as the format is too restricting for this kind of film. What starts off as a standard rip-off of that granddaddy demonic possession film, THE EXORCIST, develops into something else. The signs of the rip-off are all there; the boy even screams "it burns!" when he is sprayed with holy water during an exorcism (Regan anyone?). Kevin Bacon takes on the role of Jason Miller, begging the demon to fight him instead. However it then turns into a court case, which is a fairly interesting premise, of whether a court will allow Bacon to walk free after he stabs his girlfriend's employer after claiming he was demonically possessed. The last third of the film is concerned with this case, a wraparound affair. Unfortunately, far too much time is spent on the events building up to the stabbing, and it seems to drag on relentlessly. I'll leave the ending for you to find out.
The film tries hard to be scary, and the child actor is fairly convincing in his possession scenes. However when he describes the Beast as wearing a shirt and "ripped jeans" this quickly throws all credibility out of the window. The rest of the cast is generally made up of bland, middle-aged or old actors, which doesn't help. Kevin Bacon does acquit himself well in his early role as the everyday guy who ends up combating evil.
The film contains no special effects, apart from a few camera tricks during the possession and the age-old levitation scene. It's an interesting film, but it suffers from being too bland, too timid in its portrayal of evil, having a dull assortment of characters, and being too derivative of the miles better classic which inspired it. No wonder it's a forgotten film and Kevin Bacon doesn't mention it too often in public.
This film sorely loses out by being a TV movie, as the format is too restricting for this kind of film. What starts off as a standard rip-off of that granddaddy demonic possession film, THE EXORCIST, develops into something else. The signs of the rip-off are all there; the boy even screams "it burns!" when he is sprayed with holy water during an exorcism (Regan anyone?). Kevin Bacon takes on the role of Jason Miller, begging the demon to fight him instead. However it then turns into a court case, which is a fairly interesting premise, of whether a court will allow Bacon to walk free after he stabs his girlfriend's employer after claiming he was demonically possessed. The last third of the film is concerned with this case, a wraparound affair. Unfortunately, far too much time is spent on the events building up to the stabbing, and it seems to drag on relentlessly. I'll leave the ending for you to find out.
The film tries hard to be scary, and the child actor is fairly convincing in his possession scenes. However when he describes the Beast as wearing a shirt and "ripped jeans" this quickly throws all credibility out of the window. The rest of the cast is generally made up of bland, middle-aged or old actors, which doesn't help. Kevin Bacon does acquit himself well in his early role as the everyday guy who ends up combating evil.
The film contains no special effects, apart from a few camera tricks during the possession and the age-old levitation scene. It's an interesting film, but it suffers from being too bland, too timid in its portrayal of evil, having a dull assortment of characters, and being too derivative of the miles better classic which inspired it. No wonder it's a forgotten film and Kevin Bacon doesn't mention it too often in public.