Jake Greyman(Sean Patrick Flanery)is a "half-breed", a hellspawn born from a mortal whose father was a demon, one of the devil's angels. Jake has a rather bleak view of mankind, yet, despite not be loved by God, works for the Cardinal of a Catholic Church, hunting down the possessed and killing the host bodies if priests are unable to exorcise the demons. Billy Drago(..relishing this role)is the Demon of Lust, Asmodeus, and he plans to spread his seed, creating an army of half-breeds to do his will, by devouring the souls of hookers and "women of the street" on the seedy side of downtown LA, and the Red Light District. Colleen Porch is Sister Sarah, a nun who developed very well in the convent, is assigned to partner with Jake as they pursue Asmodeus. Asmodeus has a luscious, seductive horned succubus in a leather suit with wings(..often as Jake and Sarah move from one location to the next we see a wing flap open at the top left hand corner of the screen)keeping an eye on Jake, curious of his activities. The succubus believes she can cast her spell over Jake and possess him to follow Asmodeus..will Jake allow darkness to envelope him? Can Jake actually succeed in upending the forces of darkness far more powerful than anything he's ever faced? What Jake doesn't know is that the Cardinal has been keeping a secret hidden from him concerning Sarah. Asmodeus desires Sarah, an innocent he yearns to possess and impregnate. William Bassett is Cardinal White, the one who gives out orders for Jake to accomplish, much to his chagrin.
As Jake, Flannery remains solemn throughout, a man whose life doesn't amount to much, except what he's skilled at, removing anyone or thing that threatens his goals to take out demons possessing humans. Nancy Yooin is Nancy in the film, a prostitute who married a 90 year old millionaire and is the last on a list of girls to be possessed and planted with a demon seed after Asmodeus seduces her with overwhelming ecstasy. I'm always amused when they cast these women like Porch as nuns, so we can see her, out of habit, in a tight dress and shirt(..with a coat to dress her in a modest means of reducing her obvious sexy figure), so we can later see them absent clothing(..in a bra, but still, we can see that she's no ordinary nun).
There's an emphasis on action in this one and a brooding Flannery toned an athletic body for this film, allowed to combat men and the possessed with considerable ease, using martial arts. In truth, it's easy to see in Flannery's fight with Drago, that it's staged with stuntmen through the use of quick edits and fast camera work. We can see that there was some "wire-fu" as well particularly when Flannery has to contend with demon possessed humans in flight. There was a lot more nudity than I has anticipated and some moderate gore. If one thing is missing, you don't get a whole lot of graphic violence, most of Jake's dirty work is committed off-screen, which is always a drag to me. I guess one could call Demon Hunter a poor man's Constantine, because this was shot on a much smaller scale considering it's overly ambitious plot.
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