Haiku888 Review of Demon

Demon (2015)

Disturbing psychological thriller that demands viewers connect the dots

[7/10 · 7 December 2018]

A serious and disturbing movie, all the more so as the director took his life shortly after its release. Billed as a take on the legend of the dybbuk, it is more an indictment of keeping secrets in Postwar Poland. The movie focuses on Peter, an outsider we assume has Polish background but has grown up in England. He comes to the rural Polish town his fiancee Zaneta is from to marry her and settle down. The film has two tracks: an ostensibly happy, folklore-ish Polish wedding with beautiful rustic setting & costuming, traditional music, and the ties of friends and family; and the story of the land and house Zaneta's grandfather has willed her, which we find out rather quickly has dark secrets. Keeping those secrets hidden is the main motivator of action: whether by not telling anyone what we have found, physically covering it up with an earth mover, silencing those who speak out, playing the music loudly, or pouring more and more vodka. Peter and Zaneta are the only ones who can't hide the secrets: Peter because they increasingly throughout the night manifest in his body, and Zaneta because she has been kept innocent. This is a deeply atmospheric film with lots of metaphoric imagery. The film hints at but doesn't detail what the secrets are - if you don't know something of the history of rural Poles & Jews in Poland during the WWII era it may be difficult to understand what is going on. We never find out the specific crime or who was at fault: whatever happened or who did matter less than the ongoing cover up, which all but one guest is complicit in: of the literal skeleton & family history, and then of its manifestation in the bridegroom. It also doesn't provides a neatly packaged ending - it seems the issue of dealing with the past has been solved by disappearing its manifestation, Peter, and that Zaneta has decisively rejected nostalgia & the romantic ties of the land. It's a very stark ending and an indictment of those who would celebrate the cute aspects of folk culture without addressing its darker aspects.