If you’re an action/horror mix seeker there’s plenty to feast on in Don’t Look at the Demon, with hapless people being yanked suddenly backwards or into the air by unseen forces and so on. The lady of the house, being the demon’s main focus, bears the brunt of the violence, and whilst I could never be described as squeamish, the level of brutality in many scenes gave rise to some involuntary wincing. There are definitely moments which stood out to me as effectively chilling in their depiction of evil in its rawest form, which isn’t easy to do to someone who’s not scared of films about possession and found The Exorcist a bit of a drag when they finally saw it.

Written and directed by Brando Lee (apparently based on his own experiences) and set in Malaysia (where much of the filming also took place), Don’t Look at the Demon‘s opening scenes we’re presented with a description of Kuman Thong; an ancient, forbidden (now banned) Thai ritual practised by Witch Doctors, in which the spirits of fossilised babies who’ve died in utero are awoken and put to use as minions to assist an evil master in his unholy deeds. Sounds like an imaginative theme twist to set the scene for us, yes? Being the thorough little creature I am I consulted Wikipedia on this, as for some reason I suspected an element of truth. I wasn’t disappointed; in fact the truth is sicker than fiction, but does make for a fascinating (if grotesque) read, if you’ve a mind to.

Jules (Fiona Dourif), a medium with a darkly secretive past and popular paranormal investigation TV show, receives a desperate request for her team to cast a professional eye over a house in Malaysia where the new owners have been subjected to a series of seemingly rather vague but evidently disturbing occurrences. The ghosthunters smell potential publicity seeker at first, but belief blossoms when Jules begins having unsettling experiences of her own. These take on a personal theme with allusions to the touchy subject of her shadowy, traumatic (and so far only hinted at) past, and as the house’s own ghastly history reveals itself and what they’re really up against becomes viscerally clear, her confident facade begins to crumble and disquiet morphs into startlingly convincing fear.

The pace with which she transitions from gifted but rather unlikeable street-brat to vulnerable, frightened prey is perfectly matched by the ever-increasing severity of supernatural events and the spiralling descent of the rest of the group into terrified chaos. This unrelenting buildup of explosive tension adds greatly to the growing sense of loss of control over a situation for which they’re fatally ill-prepared, and their realisation that they’re extremely mortal is as inescapable a fact for the viewer as it is for them.

So, is Don’t Look at the Demon worth a look? Despite its merits and having nothing technically wrong with it, I couldn’t shake the feeling of something not quite clicking. Apart from scoring high points for tension-building, demon effects, and having its roots in true events, there’s nothing that really leaps out as either terrible or terrific. It’s not unmissable, but impressively made, and definitely watchable in my book.

8.5 out of 10 Fleeing Paranormal Investigators