Demon Hunter, 2016.
Directed by Zoe Kavanagh.
Starring Niamh Hogan, Alan Talbot, Michael Parle, and Aisli Moran.
SYNOPSIS:
Taryn makes a deal with Falstaff to fight demons like the one who killed her sister, but finds herself fighting for her mind instead when Falstaff reveals his true intentions.
You can’t change the past but when a decision made without thinking comes back with a terrible toll, the knowledge that it could’ve been avoided makes easy regret. Taryn (Niamh Hogan) was supposed to walk her sister, Annabelle (Aisli Moran), home from school but blew her off to keep talking to a friend. Later, when Taryn uses phone GPS to find her, Annabelle is on her last breaths and dies before help can be called.
This is how Taryn comes to behead a demon with a katana the first time we meet her. Annabelle’s killer was a demon and the details of Taryn’s rise to fighting their kind get exposed over a series of well-spaced out flashbacks. Some of the editing for these fight scenes asks viewers to connect the dots, with loud noises used to mask quick movement changes, but the line Taryn drops to egg on her opponent is cornball chic.
New mythology makes burial of the heads necessary, with consequences for anyone who digs them up after. The idea gets cut short when all of the other demon hunters tote guns instead of swords. You don’t get many beheadings that way. Still, the police are pretty annoyed that Taryn manages to pass off the noggin before they can place her under arrest, an act that would save their lives if they dropped the subject.
Beckett (Alan Talbot) was one of the detectives originally assigned to Annabelle’s case and arrives late to the crime scene. He’d promised Taryn he’d find her sister’s murderer, and his failure to do so helped put her on the path of fighting monsters. Not that he’s feeling guilty about it, until he recognizes her. Talbot’s eruption prone performance is a pretty humorous affair. Escalating to quickly yelling during an interrogation (“Where’s the head? Where’s the head!?!”), gusts of anger clash with complete stillness after his daughter gets kidnapped by Falstaff (Michael Parle). It’s a stillness his wife sets right as soon as she wakes up at the hospital, and realizes he’s waiting for her instead of out searching.
The main antagonist, Taryn meets Falstaff after an associate of his crashes Annabelle’s funeral. We know he’s going to be the bad guy, but Falstaff introduces himself as the one who can offer Taryn what she desires, abilities that will make her a viable threat to her enemies.
Falstaff’s power involves taking control of people’s mind. Demon Hunter doesn’t go overboard with the possession scenes but leaves it to the actors involved, more than a few of which suffer Falstaff rattling around in their brains. Some black pupils and voice modulation make these the most effective scenes in the movie.
The ending muddies character motivations and, unless a sequel is planned, skips over Taryn’s personal problems for a general statement about the infinite struggle between good and evil. Characters don’t get closure and the killer that set Taryn’s career change in motion is unaccounted for. Demon Hunter started from a personal place, and proved adept at managing Taryn’s backstory, but closes on a non-ending.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Rachel Bellwoar
Originally published March 1, 2017. Updated April 15, 2018.
