Demon House

True story:  A little while back – I’d say a couple years or so – I awoke from one of my usual mundane-yet-bizarre dreams (they often consist of me going about my daily tasks in a job I’ve never held), but I’m not sure I was fully awake.  Y’see, I can remember looking at my wall, on my stomach, unable (or unwilling) to move.  Then I feel a distinct pressure on my back, as if someone had just begun kneeling on me.  The weight was palpable.  All of a sudden, I hear a sustained growl, a low-end guttural noise that verged on a lion’s roar.  I remember feeling shaken, disturbed, terrified.  I mean, think of the implications!  Next thing I know, I’ve snapped to reality (worry not, gravity was fine), wondering what the hell just happened.  It’s one of a handful of dreams I’ve had that have stayed with me, contemporaneous internal feelings included.  Kinda reminds of a scene from The Exorcism of Emily Rose or something.  As it is, I can only shrug and assume I was still dreaming.  But you never know.

Now, take that whole bit and base a film on it.  Such may or may not have been the foundation for Demon House.

Brought to us by Zak Bagans, the guy responsible for the Ghost Adventures series (a seemingly endless source of entertainment for my buddy and me), the film purports to tell the story of an apparently deeply possessed house in Gary, IN.  Supposedly, it’s (somehow) been estimated that over two hundred demons have resided/appeared there, causing various maladies for former residents and just about anyone who’s crossed the threshold.  Bagans gives us a history lesson about the house, talks to previous owners, and even jumps back to his Ghost Adventures roots and locks himself in the house in the dark to document any strange happenings.

The most immediate analog I can think of is The Fourth Kind, that alien abduction flick from almost a decade ago.  Like that film, this one employs a blend of documentary, re-enactment/dramatization, and found footage to craft a surprisingly atmospheric haunted house flick.  Sure, some of the acting is stiff and emotionless (at one point, the family that initiated the claims of possession returns to the house with the police in order to recount their experiences, and everyone, despite alleging deep traumatization, is in good spirits, laughing about things and not thinking much of them, nearly breaking my immersion), especially with Zak, and the writing is uneven and stuttery, with heavy pacing issues, but I think that adds to the charm.  Would The Blair Witch Project have been so effective if they hadn’t kept up the conceit of raw reality?

Of course, if Bagans was aiming for pure verisimilitude, he missed the mark a bit.  Despite claiming that the “dark forces” (my words, not his) can invade others’ beings on a whim, including via electronic transmission, he’s pretty damn capricious in exposing so many people to this phenomenon, and, no, the disclaimer at the start doesn’t absolve you, buddy.  Throughout, there is a running theme of non-involvement, people related to the events or the house in some way refusing to take part in the filming, which Bagans takes as demon-based fear, rather than an unwillingness to deal with potential charlatans and look foolish.  Near the beginning, the former residents stop returning Bagans’s calls, possibly due to the interference of a film studio that wants the film rights to the family’s story.  Bagans responds the rational way by tracking them down and confronting them in person at their home.  He is turned down by those involved, but a different relative is more than fine with sharing some stories; later it’s revealed he was kicked out of the house, an event Bagans interprets as being due to the man’s contact with “infected” people, rather than an intrafamilial fight over involvement in the production.  And money turns up later, when Bagans apparently bribes a person to talk to him after getting nothing from said person’s significant other.

The re-enactments included are just as hilarious as any from the various haunting-based TV shows out there, giving the film some much-needed comic relief, intentional or not.  For anyone looking for a heavy dose of the usual Ghost Adventures schtick of night vision cameras and such, disappointment reigns, as that portion only comprises part of the last few minutes of the film.  There are other places where the crew encounters some mysterious happenings a-transpiring, but the editing and acting (I can only call it such, call me cynical) make these scenes feel drawn-out and faked.  Bagans isn’t the most charismatic or seasoned narrator, and his interview style leaves much to be desired (there are way too many spots where he cuts off the interviewee and/or leads them to saying what he wants them to say), hindering many of those sections.  Some subtitling occasionally shows up during the footage, but it’s unnecessary (everyone’s speaking mostly intelligible English) and comes off as kinda racist, as the subtitles only appear for African-American folks.  Plenty of the Ghost Adventures dudebro style of taunting demons is here, though, including a cameraman seemingly calling a demon manifestation a “little bitch”, so there’s some entertainment to be gleaned regardless.

Overall, the film’s insistence on situational validity is undercut by its hokey and question-raising presentation, but there’s nonetheless a decent amount of atmosphere present.  The laughs I’ve gotten from Bagans and his misadventures in the past come into play, but they’re fewer and farther between than in the TV show (with which this film features no stated link, I should point out: I’ve just been drawing the comparison myself).  It’s worth a watch if this sort of thing is your bag, but don’t be expecting much in the way of hard investigation or anything, much less anything close to answers.