[Film Review] Demon (2021)

The stages of grief are no easy task to work through; for Ralph (Ryan Walker- Edwards) his pain has manifested an evil he cannot outrun. Through the lens of noir filmmaking Demon (2021) showcases a state of suffering that may or may never end. 

We are introduced to Ralph through the lens of a home video camera, his younger self holding a birthday dessert for his mother who is humbled by the surprise. It is here where Ralph is faced with the loss of his father. Blowing the candle out to end the chapter, while the home video style implies a sense of surveillance that will remain throughout the film. 

His mother’s birthday, the anniversary of his father’s death, creates a vortex that Ralph falls through during his train ride. Pleading with the bank manager (Jemma Redgrave) that a simple £30 fine when he fell asleep during the ride got out of hand. We are the closest to Ralph at this moment, as the frame increasingly grows closer to his face, forcing our gaze to focus on every small detail of his changing emotions. We are able to understand his frustration as he now owes more than £1,000 in fines and no one seems to be able to give him a break.

It is then that he subjects himself to isolation in an attempt to ease his paranoia of being arrested. Ralph is like everyone else, a hardworking young man who has experienced loss at a young age, losing someone he needs. Yet the rejection of help causes Ralph to sink further as he goes on the run. Fleeing London with the favor of his best friend Kent (Jacob Hawley) to hide out in a remote forest motel under his name. Kent clearly cares for Ralph and wants to help him through his troubles but Ralph pushes him away. 

Demon has come at a time when people all over the world have suffered and continue to suffer a great deal due to the pandemic, political hellfire, and financial instability. The character of Ralph represents many individuals who feel tortured, unleashing a demon of their own to escape and somehow heal their wounds. Ralph thinks he is running from reality but in actuality he has placed himself within his own purgatory. 

More than hellish events begin to unfold during Ralph’s stay, with the first seeing Ralph mysteriously awakening in the woods after having fallen asleep in the motel room. There he meets David (Gary Beadle) a man who seemingly asks simple unalarming questions until he doesn’t. This scene in particular is the only moment we are given color, red, film theory tells us that red is the most well-rounded color which can represent anything from passion, lust, anger, and evil. It is here that we take a turning point with Ralph as David explains to him that it is, ‘time to start over’. Ralph wants nothing more than a do-over, a redo for his train fine, and more so a do-over regarding the life of his father. 

Ralph struggles to accept this lingering change, and although there are people around him to help he yearns for the guidance of his father to help him through this moment. Without him, Ralph finds himself in precarious situations of self-harm, sex, and accidental crime. He not only pushes his best friend away, but his mother as well, and even tries to fill her space with the motel custodian Carla (Imola Gáspár). The two have an understanding of one another, and understanding that life is not always beautiful. 

It is Carla that will guide the troubled young man as she nurses his wound during a scene where they share a bubble bath together. She changes his bandage and states, ‘You must clean the infection, it spreads before you know it, and then you’ll be in trouble’. Up until this point Ralph has been unaware of the spreading infection that is his grief and pain regarding his father’s death. This scene is intimate yet in a parental-like manner as Ralph himself is shown as childlike throughout the film. Viewing life through the lens of a video game and even giving himself a new name when he entrusts a strange couple to take him to the airport, Oladayo, a name with Yoruba origin meaning ‘My wealth is my joy’. Ralph not only lacks wealth in money but wealth in a family as he wrestles to confront the loss of his father.    

Demon (2021), presents us with a character whose trauma has stalled his ability to live his life akin to many of us during the consistent historical traumas happening all over the world. Our lives have stalled, and the trauma will heal, but things will never be the same. Ralph’s experiences through the film change him, whether we believe the change to be for the better is a personal perspective. Director George Louis Bartlett has given us a visual representation of the pain many have gone through in order to move on and with a beautiful performance from Ryan Walker-Edwards, Demon (2021) reminds us that we are all battling our own demons, but we must keep moving forward and eventually rewind to start over.   

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