By Jason Kerr
Written and directed by Matt Devino and Dave Yohe the Daemon is a study in trauma, loss and grief. Throughout the film we learn of the struggles of the four main characters and the challenges that ultimately end in succumbing to those inescapable fears.
Tom now an adult ravaged by grief after the suicide of his father, holes up at his father’s cabin in the woods. As he descends into deep depression and childhood memories of his mother death he is joined by his wife Kathy, his brother-in-law Mark and his partner Jess a counsellor who all intend to lift him from the hole he is in.
The soundtrack drones in parts and also plays one note strings and is very effective in adding to the menacing tone. The cinematography creates the water as a character, never calm, changing tone and forever manipulating the group and eventually becoming a vast moving force from which there is no escape. The dreamscape sequence Jess finds herself in particularly stands out with its use of exaggerated colour and unnatural environment.
The lake proves that nature is uncontrollable but has the ability to control us and how we react towards it. Threat is ever present throughout the movie, a menacing client of Jess’s, the black foreboding water of the lake which is more like an ocean, the unpleasant sense of emptiness in Toms fathers house, the secret affair Kathy is having. All of this gives an unsettling sense that someone or something is about to catch up with all of them.
The Daemon screened as part of Frightfest 2024.
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