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Demon - AKA, My Big Fat Demonic Polish Wedding
Let me start at the end of the review. Demon is one of the strangest and most disturbing movies I’ve seen in a while. I’ve seen ratings that are all over the place, from high to low. I think critics think more of it than viewers. It also has a tragic side. After the release of this movie, the co-writer and director Marcin Wrona, a Polish film maker, hung himself (for real). Its genre is closest to horror, but it’s also a horror movie with some comedy. Most of all, however, it’s just bat-sh*t crazy, far more than the misleading trailer suggests. For all of the reasons above, I’m going in the middle, giving it a 3 mainly because I have no idea how to review or rate something like this. Demon is partly in English and partly in subtitled Polish and Yiddish.
Demon has some foundation in an old Jewish ghost story of the dybbuk, in this movie, the spirit of a dead woman who lures in and possesses a young man. Itay Tiran plays Piotr, who is engaged to Zaneta (Agnieszka Zewelska). They are to be married in her parents old house, a rural farm house somewhere in Poland. Zaneta’s family has reservations; they don’t know him well and it’s been a short engagement. The wedding gets off to an ominous start when heavy storm rains intrude. Piotr is considering adding a pool to the home, is digging with a backhoe but runs into a buried skeleton. Things go straight downhill from there. He slips, or is sucked, into a muddy pit, seems to be drowning, but strangely turns up the next morning, clean, and sleeping in his car.
Soon after, the wedding happens. It’s a big drunken affair with massive amounts of vodka and sleazy behavior, held in the big house. The groom seems to not be able to handle his alcohol. It only gets worse, however, when he starts to have seizures. The father of the bride, not wanting to ruin the wedding, brings in even more vodka and the guests get even more drunk. Piotr is carried off to another room as his condition deteriorates and it’s apparent that whatever afflicts him is far worse than being drunk. When he claims to be Hana, a dead Jewish woman, a priest is brought in to pray but his condition worsens. Whatever is afflicting poor Piotr seems to have its roots in something far worse, like when the father of the bride exclaims that you can’t dig anywhere in Poland without hitting a grave. The big wedding turns into a horror. Awful weather, disgustingly drunk guests, a missing bride and groom and nobody knows WHAT is going on.
What is this movie about? I have read accounts of medieval events like St Anthony’s Fire, plague dancers and insanity, associated with ergotism. Ergot is a toxic grain fungus that causes vivid hallucinations, seizures, gangrene and even death. The most benevolent component of its brew of alkaloids is LSD. What’s happening here, however, is not just fungus poisoning. It seems to go far beyond that into some sort of other realm, like the ghosts of Jews in the Polish soil. While only Piotr is possessed, all of the other guests, along with the bride’s family, seem to be on the verge of madness in the rainy, muddy, wedding hell. Nothing good comes from this.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. You may or may not like Demon. It’s not exactly scary in the conventional horror movie sense, but you really do NOT want to visit this Polish town, especially in the rain. It’s been described as a dark comedy. There are “Greek Wedding” moments in Demon, but it really is dark and that is the pervading feeling. Some elements (especially the ergotism hints) remind me of the excellent The Witch, but this is far stranger. I don’t know enough about director Wrona to hazard a guess about what he meant to say in this film, but it has a gloom and fatalism that really is not something I’d want to live with. His suicide is tragic and somehow not inconsistent with the feel of this movie. Technically, it’s well filmed, the acting is excellent and everything about the movie is convincing. It can’t be full of plot holes, because most of the plot doesn’t make conventional sense anyway. It’s not a date night movie but if you're in the mood for off-balance atmosphere, you will get it in Demon.
Let me start at the end of the review. Demon is one of the strangest and most disturbing movies I’ve seen in a while. I’ve seen ratings that are all over the place, from high to low. I think critics think more of it than viewers. It also has a tragic side. After the release of this movie, the co-writer and director Marcin Wrona, a Polish film maker, hung himself (for real). Its genre is closest to horror, but it’s also a horror movie with some comedy. Most of all, however, it’s just bat-sh*t crazy, far more than the misleading trailer suggests. For all of the reasons above, I’m going in the middle, giving it a 3 mainly because I have no idea how to review or rate something like this. Demon is partly in English and partly in subtitled Polish and Yiddish.
Demon has some foundation in an old Jewish ghost story of the dybbuk, in this movie, the spirit of a dead woman who lures in and possesses a young man. Itay Tiran plays Piotr, who is engaged to Zaneta (Agnieszka Zewelska). They are to be married in her parents old house, a rural farm house somewhere in Poland. Zaneta’s family has reservations; they don’t know him well and it’s been a short engagement. The wedding gets off to an ominous start when heavy storm rains intrude. Piotr is considering adding a pool to the home, is digging with a backhoe but runs into a buried skeleton. Things go straight downhill from there. He slips, or is sucked, into a muddy pit, seems to be drowning, but strangely turns up the next morning, clean, and sleeping in his car.
Soon after, the wedding happens. It’s a big drunken affair with massive amounts of vodka and sleazy behavior, held in the big house. The groom seems to not be able to handle his alcohol. It only gets worse, however, when he starts to have seizures. The father of the bride, not wanting to ruin the wedding, brings in even more vodka and the guests get even more drunk. Piotr is carried off to another room as his condition deteriorates and it’s apparent that whatever afflicts him is far worse than being drunk. When he claims to be Hana, a dead Jewish woman, a priest is brought in to pray but his condition worsens. Whatever is afflicting poor Piotr seems to have its roots in something far worse, like when the father of the bride exclaims that you can’t dig anywhere in Poland without hitting a grave. The big wedding turns into a horror. Awful weather, disgustingly drunk guests, a missing bride and groom and nobody knows WHAT is going on.
What is this movie about? I have read accounts of medieval events like St Anthony’s Fire, plague dancers and insanity, associated with ergotism. Ergot is a toxic grain fungus that causes vivid hallucinations, seizures, gangrene and even death. The most benevolent component of its brew of alkaloids is LSD. What’s happening here, however, is not just fungus poisoning. It seems to go far beyond that into some sort of other realm, like the ghosts of Jews in the Polish soil. While only Piotr is possessed, all of the other guests, along with the bride’s family, seem to be on the verge of madness in the rainy, muddy, wedding hell. Nothing good comes from this.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you. You may or may not like Demon. It’s not exactly scary in the conventional horror movie sense, but you really do NOT want to visit this Polish town, especially in the rain. It’s been described as a dark comedy. There are “Greek Wedding” moments in Demon, but it really is dark and that is the pervading feeling. Some elements (especially the ergotism hints) remind me of the excellent The Witch, but this is far stranger. I don’t know enough about director Wrona to hazard a guess about what he meant to say in this film, but it has a gloom and fatalism that really is not something I’d want to live with. His suicide is tragic and somehow not inconsistent with the feel of this movie. Technically, it’s well filmed, the acting is excellent and everything about the movie is convincing. It can’t be full of plot holes, because most of the plot doesn’t make conventional sense anyway. It’s not a date night movie but if you're in the mood for off-balance atmosphere, you will get it in Demon.