Eight people are imprisoned in a secluded mansion on an uninhabited island. After waiting in vain for the host, they find a model with eight self-propelled pawns that reproduces the movements of each group member in real time…
The Laplace’s Demon, the second feature from director Giordano Giulivi, delves into the great debate between fate and free will. Isaac (Walter Smorti) and his team have been studying ways to predict physical events. Most notably the number of pieces a glass will shatter into. Their work has been noticed by the mysterious Dr. Corneilius who has invited the team to his isolated manor atop a secluded island. However, soon after they arrive the team of seven and captain of the boat that delivered them to the island finds themselves trapped as the subjects of Dr. Cornelius’ own prediction experiment.
Though set in present day, Giulivi does a masterful job of recreating the look and feel of a 1930’s horror films. The film’s black and white cinematography, tight upward angles along with its grainy film stock appearance all contribute to a feel of early Hitchcock. The influence of German expressionism dominates the film. The intimate and claustrophobic style does a terrific job of creating a sense of grat unease as you watch these eight characters try to survive and ultimately render the doctor’s experiment a failure.
Dr. Cornelius appears only in shadow on a VHS tape the group discovers. On the tape he explains to them that he has perfected a formula that allows him to precisely predict all of their movements and behaviors throughout the night. By morning they will all be dead by way of a mechanical monster in the house programmed to kill each individual at given points during the night. 
To show them he already knows their every move, he has provided them with a model of the house containing eight chess pawns to represent each of them. They soon notice that as they move around their corresponding piece moves as well in real time as if it were mimicking their movements. However, they quickly discover that pieces are being moved by an elaborate clockwork system that has all of them movements preset.
The performances from the entire cast are spot on. Each actor feels as though you would think nothing of spotting them in any early Hollywood horror/thriller film on Turner Classic Movies. Their performances are all appropriately melodramatic and yet subtle enough to convey the horror of the situation they are trapped in.
While The Laplace’s Demon has the feel of and shares similarities with the 1945 Agatha Christie film And Then There Were None, the overriding question of fate vs free will makes it feel more like a Twilight Zone episode. The characters desperately try to come up with ways to outsmart Dr. Cornelius and prove their free will. But everything they do instead just seems to back up the idea that they are doing what they are fated to do. Their movies are firmly known that Dr. Cornelius converses with them through the video tape. They try fast forwarding the tape to disprove what he’ telling them. However, the point they stop it has the doctor asking if fast forwarding made them feel better and then he continues the conversation.
The one “flaw” of the film however is the sound. Unfortunately the sound quality doesn’t match up with the look of the film. It is way too clean. All the dialogue in the film has clearly been dubbed and it sounds like it. But I would say that this “flaw” was something that did not do too much to take away from my overall enjoyment of the film. I liked it quite a bit and I would love to see whatever else this filmmaker comes up with next.
The Laplace’s Demon debuted at the 2017 Fantasia International Film Festival. Hopefully it will find a wider North American release sometime in the near future.
| The Laplace’s Demon | ||
| RATING: | UR |  |
| Runtime: | 1hr. 45Mins. | |
| Directed By: | ||
| Written By: |
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