Very well executed

one of my absolute favorites!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Not sure what to say about this movie other than it has some kind of personality disorder and tries to stick it's finger into too many movie genre pies. I have however learnt that Polish weddings are a blast and I'm off to make some Polish friends so I could get invited to their booze fuelled celebrations.

The Jewish legend of the "dybbuk" is earning prominence in horror cinema; and, to be honest, I find the movies employing it more creative than most of the tales about Catholic exorcisms. I think The Unborn was the first one I saw, and the simple change of mythology was enough to bring it a fresh and different atmosphere; The Possession put a girl in danger, with unexpected spiritual consequences; and more recently, it was the turn of Demon (probably the first Polish horror film I have ever seen), whose interpretation of the dybbuk is adorned with copious references to Jewish culture, possible psychological explanations and abundant black humor which lightens the experience without diluting its general impact. It might even be more adequate to classify Demon as a black comedy, or maybe as a psychological thriller, because even though the first minutes seems like an usual horror introduction (the opening of a secret tomb), the rest of the tale lacks of the formulas commonly associated to this genre: there are no shocks, or violence, or special effects; we simply have a man erratically acting during the noisy reception of his wedding, while the guests try to find a rational explanation to his behaviour. Besides, the affair of the dybbuk can be taken as a metaphor of the abrupt change implied by the marriage, altering the life of the bride and the groom who will never be able to recover their individual identities; or, in the worst of the cases, it might represent an analogy of those people who discover they got married to someone very different than what they expected too late. Or maybe, it might be a comic farce in which the humor arises from the contrasts between the joyful family celebration and the groom's internal turbulence, possessed by an evil spirit, or a ghost looking for justice, or the fear to marital commitment. Anyway, I found Demon a fascinating variation of a sub-genre which rarely offers innovation, supported by the excellent performances from the whole cast (highlighting Itay Tiran, who brings an amazing work in the leading role) and a bizarre energy. In summary, a unique experience which might or might not belong to the horror genre... until we get to the somber ending, and we remember why the dybbuk belongs to that genre.

This movie could have been so good. Great acting , atmosphere, insight, writing. It was a treat to see something so Polish. You really get to visit a small polish town and meet the locals here. But they just went so far off into left field with the plot. First of all, it's not the normal possession film. The groom gets possessed by a ghost. Not a demon. In fact it's weird that the title of the movie and everyone thinks this is about a demon.. a meek, sweet, murdered Jewish girl isn't a demon! The movie just went a little south.. misdirected. The entire thing. From the title , to how characters reacted and handled the mishap, the end, it just wasted itself. It isn't a horror movie at all. It's a drama . It might be a comedy in Poland, but in America it isn't. The humor is polish and drunk. So it misses a beat there just with the cultural lost in translation thing. I think there is a subtle prejudice too throughout this movie and I can't honestly tell if it's a good thing or a bad.. I can't tell if they are serious or if they are trying to show how bad prejudice is. I also sort of fast forwarded the end of the movie but as far as I could tell, there was no big town secret that came out. TNhe bride here really stole the show though. She is going to be a star if she doesn't get hooked on coke. She is talented , fetching , beautiful and charismatic.. if anything it's her showcase. Hopefully we will see her in more movies. Also the sad Jewish man was superb. The grooms performance was just .. weird. Like I said lots is lost in cultural translation , there is a lot here that we just don't get because we aren't polish. So would I rent it? No. Would I pay to go see this? No. I would say probably the only way this movie should be watched is if you're polish , want to go to a polish wedding, or if you enjoy foreign movies for the sake of being foreign. There really isn't a plot here, no mystery, no real character development that you want to see or know about, and no substance. Like I said, pretty much a waste of money, film and movie time. This should have been a play. It just isn't a film. And there isn't enough wackiness to make it an art house film either .. all in all, just blah and the ending was blah too. Nothing happened. Nothing is resolved . Obviously the writers here didn't attend a writing school... it was all very anticlimactic. It would have been nice if we found out who the ghost was, why she was there, who murdered her. Why she died. And also to have her either leave the groom, or be set free , something . Like I said I did fast forward the end, it just got so tedious that I wanted to see if anything actually happened and all that it seemed like happened was nothing. The groom takes off, never to be seen again and the end.

The washed out, depressing landscape greets us at the beginning of this Polish film.Film promises the bleak journey into the heart of rural Poland where our self-assured protagonist (Pole living in England) expects to meet his wife to be, seal the deal and start a new life with his beautiful Polish bride.You gotta know a little something about Slavic weddings...they are drunken and unpredictable. Well, surely not all of them, but the mentality permits a bit of over-the-top behavior fueled by the good ole booze, for sure. Isn't it the same worldwide? Not like the rural Slavic wedding, no.Hence, aside from some hints it's not easy to determine what's wrong with the groom. Yeah, he's seeing the unmarked grave and the skeleton, he's seeing ghost of a Jewish girl, he's twitching and having seizures...yep, the guy's possessed.The story goes back and forth from in-laws trying to cover up the groom's bad state to dancing and drinking, but he's in such a bad shape it's no longer possible to hide. Finally the old Jewish professor attending the wedding gets called to examine the man, but....The story ends before it has gotten a proper explanation, bit of backstory, just pieces of a dream, hints and photographs. We are left to fill in the blanks on our own, but it was an interesting ride, and the "clinging spirit" does not let go of a marked soul.If you compare this possession film to (traditionally filmed) American films in the same vein, it's very different, and therein the key to the East European cinematography appreciation lies. It's extremely realistic, bleak, the mud is muddy and the sky is overcast; nothing is either romanticized or glamorous, rather very raw. There lies the dramatic effect, cause the world where the characters live is very much 'real', never dreamy, not even for supernatural activities' sake. The complexity of everyday life is stressed in all its ordinary, fleshy glory.I find the dybbuk legend to be very interesting, it mostly appears in old German and Polish films, but like every demon it has its needs and its path, much like any other you're likely to encounter in western cinematography. Those demons, they all want the same, a living being to cling to and possess their soul so that the body can become a vessel. What then...well, I guess it's nice to be among humans again! Also, the most interesting thing here is the stark contrast between the world of living and the dead, the joy and sorrow, which can become one, which always live side by side, as one of the final shots reveal nicely. Nice film to ponder on, surely open to interpretation and one that demands multiple viewings to fully appreciate.