Demon Eye is the second feature film from Ryan Simon and Jamie Cymbal, following 2016's Seizure. The film-making duo are from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire and the film was shot on location in nearby Eccles, Leeds, and Saddleworth Moor. The Moor contributes much to the feelings of strangeness and isolation that surround the main character, Sadie.
She has returned to her childhood home, on the edge of the moors, following her father's suicide. In researching a local legend about a magic amulet that grants wishes, created by a woman later burned as a witch, Sadie's father, John, found the story was true. He recovered the amulet, the Demon Eye, and used it to wish his daughter home. The Demon Eye granted his wish then drove him mad and took his life. Sadie now has the amulet, or does it have her? She is haunted by the Burning Girl and her spectral accomplice, Padfoot, a demonic black dog.
Simon and Cymbal have constructed an effective chiller, combining ghosts and gore well enough to keep fans of explicit and implicit horror satisfied. The story is well put together, with old surveillance tapes explaining just enough to make sense of the story and characters pushing Sadie to a conclusion she can't see until the very end.
The acting is good throughout. Kate James carries the film as Sadie, moving forward from obnoxious brat to damaged woman who finds the love within her to make the necessary sacrifice to survive. Liam Fox is a slimy, malevolent presence, hollowed out by his obsession to reclaim the Demon Eye. Chris Blackwood is a standout as a gruff, grizzled editor of the local paper, and Ellie Goff excels as Sadie's nasty newspaper colleague Faye, her death scene is the best sequence in the film.
A sense of humour, especially early on, gives Demon Eye some extra personality which makes it all the more appealing. Its inventive use of local folklore makes it more intelligent than most low budget horror fare.
