UK DVD Review: Demons Rising

Demons Rising (2008)
Distributor: MVM
DVD Release date (UK): 6th June 2011
Directed by: William Lee
Starring: William Lee, Talisha Battle, Donald A. Becker
Review by: Stephanie Scaife

Billed as an “action-adventure, horror, martial arts, crime drama, cult, vigilante, gangsta flick” Demons Rising is certainly a very ambitious film. William Lee is the director, writer, editor, cinematographer as well as being the main star and he is clearly a man with a vision who has put a lot of effort into this no budget independent film. The end result however is a mixed bag that varies from being unintentionally amusing to just plain boring without ever really amounting to anything, even with its overlong running time.

The plot concerns The Liber Malorum – the book of life and death – that was created by heretic monks to raise the dead and turn the living into demons, thought to have vanished long ago the book has now appeared in Italy. A man named Angelo Montorio has set out to find the book with the aid of Kyle Rush, a thief who specialises in finding rare items. Montorio soon double crosses his partner and disappears with the book having left Rush’s girlfriend for dead following a heist gone wrong. Rush, hell bent on revenge, enlists a former covert operator turned Buddhist monk named Matthias Locke (William Lee) to help him track down Montorio. Meanwhile an elderly woman comes into possession of the book and has turned into a rampaging demon.

The films itself is nothing short of terrible. It looks like a home movie, the acting is wooden, the dialogue is clichéd and clunky, the dodgy camera work makes much of it near unwatchable and the narrative doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It is pretty much exactly what you would expect from this kind of low budget horror film. However, I would feel bad for trashing Demons Rising too much as it is clearly a labour of love for Lee and you can’t deny his dedication and ambition. Perhaps with a budget and some serious editing this could have been something interesting but as it stands it is neither a film I’d recommend or ever want to watch again. 

The DVD is a very basic offering with a 4:3 transfer, DD 2.0 audio and no special features or language options. It is released in the UK on 6th June.