The first full-length feature from special effects and masking-maker turned director Matt Cunningham blends a number of elements we have seen before – a cabin in the woods, dead bodies under sheets but somehow still moving, an unreliable narrator, a framing device straight out of In the Mouth of Madness, and people who can become possessed and act scary faster than you can say Evil Dead 2.

Widowed police officer Joseph (cowriter Peter Tell) has a simple job – stay on the scene with a dead body while he waits for his boss, Chief Winters (Haley Heslip), to return to the cabin in the woods with the family of the deceased (perhaps while waiting he could watch The Vigil for tips). He’s already haunted by loss, but now is actually haunted by the eponymous three demons. He’s seeing things that aren’t there (or are they?). His boss shows up, but it might not be her. There is a voice on the radio that shouldn’t be there to which he eventually turns for help. Is it three demons doing all this creepy, horrific stuff, or is it Joseph imagining them while doing it himself?

Much of 3 Demons relies on us aligning with Joseph and experiencing these things with him. He is unreliable, but so is the world – nothing the audience is shown is guaranteed to be real. The film employs a standard wraparound narrative – it keeps flashing to Joseph in an institution being interviewed by a psychologist Dr. Sawyer (Sherryl Despres) a year later, thus demonstrating his sanity is already questionable, but also that he survived the ordeal.  The horror comes from the audience reliving the experience with him as he explains it to the psychologist and not knowing if what we see is real.

The jump scares are not bad, and the performances competent. Perhaps the best descriptor of 3 Demons is that it is neither groundbreaking nor terrible, but competent. It is not derivative; nor is it inventive. I was never bored, but never truly frightened either. If this sounds like damning with faint praise, so be it.

3 Demons is at its best during Joseph’s phantasmagorical visions (or are they real?) and is visually interesting. The idea is an interesting one — a possession film from the point of view of the possessed (who may not actually be possessed). It just never went to a place where I felt was seeing something truly unique.

6.5 out of 10