Demon Wind is a very obscure horror movie that came out in 1990. I had never heard of it before it arrived in the post. It’s directed by Charles Philip Moore, and is the first of only four films by this director, the others being Dance With Death, Blackbelt and Angel of Destruction. Those titles are a pretty good indicator of what to expect. Moore has also been active as a scriptwriter, including the script for the second remake of Not of This Earth.

This movie cost half a million to make, and it’s impressive that it was that much. It’s basically a really shit version of Evil Dead. The lead character goes to investigate what happened to his grandparents at an old farm 60 years ago which has always haunted him, and brings his buddies with him. This is spurned on after his father’s suicide and as you may imagine it’s not a very good idea. It quickly turns into the basic ‘cabin in the woods’ situation, where the characters are under threat in an isolated place where it’s hard to escape. There are demons involved, and eventually they show up after some haunting which precedes their full blown arrival

It’s a very silly rip-off, and while it’s an unimaginative film there are some cool special effects with the demons. It soon shades into Night of the Living Dead territory, because the demons are coming to get them. But it’s fun in a very 80s kind of way, and of course all of the women are constantly taking their shirts off for no particular reason. Lack of money led to using a lot of close-ups, and there is the gore that you would expect.

The film’s producer, Sandy Horowitz, contributes an interview on the disc that he starts off by saying how surprised he was to hear that it was being re-released. This disc from Vinegar Syndrome represents its first DVD release in North America, but it did show up in the UK in 2003, released twice by a company called Pegasus that has long since disappeared—and I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t a totally legal release but instead may have been exploiting some grey area in licensing. The film has been remastered in 2K from the original 35mm negative, which might be a bit more effort than the material deserves but Vinegar Syndrome has its own restoration system and it works great. Additional interviews with one of the actresses, the cinematographer, and the editor (an audio interview) join the trailer, stills gallery and more on this dual Blu-Ray and DVD package.

★★★

Ian Schultz

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