What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Demonoid: Messenger of Death (1981) * 1/2 (out of 4) Ultra bizarre horror film has Jennifer Baines (Samantha Eggar) traveling to Mexico with her husband. The local workers refuse to go down in a mine due to their superstition so of course our two people do. Before long the curse of a severed hand has struck them and before long more and more people are coming under the curse, which requires them to cut their hand off.In 1981 who didn't want what is basically a remake of THE CRAWLING HAND? In all seriousness, there have been countless horror films going back to the silent era that have dealt with a possessed hand coming back for some sort of revenge. This film pretty much takes elements of THE EXORCIST and mixes it with one of these movies and the end result is pretty bad but mildly entertaining.The best thing going for this film is the fact that it offers up quite a bit of violence and some silly death scenes. As one person gets "possessed" with the hand, it eventually requires them to cut the hand off so we get several scenes where people have to be creative to try and get the hand off. There are also a few scenes where skulls get crushed by one of the hands, which adds some red stuff.Eggar turns in a good performance but you can't help but feel she's wasting it on a picture like this. At least she showed up and did the job unlike so many who usually just cash their paychecks with movies like this. I also thought Stuart Whitman was good in his role of the Father trying to help the woman destroy the hand.The biggest problem with this movie is that it just doesn't contain too much plot or characters that we actually like. We basically just get a bunch of short scenes where people get possessed, kill and then cut the hand. There's certainly no tension to be found anywhere, although the ending itself is quite nice.

All the signs pointed to this being a bad film...but I went ahead and watched it anyway. To its credit; Demonoid is very fast paced, but the credit ends there as despite the plot playing out quickly, the film is still very boring and the swiftness in the story's movement seems to be a lame attempt to mask this. The plot has something to do with a Mexican mine and a possessed demonic hand. Mark and Jenifer Baines are attempting to reopen the mine, but find themselves in trouble when the workers won't go down for fear of an ancient curse. This leads the couple to go down the mine...and guess what? They release an ancient curse. I actually wish they'd listened to the locals and left the mine closed, as then there would have been no reason for this film to be made. The idea of someone's hand becoming possessed and developing a life of it's own was very well used in classic horror Evil Dead II, but here the idea is sadly squandered and unfortunately the best way to describe Demonoid is simply 'damp squib'. As you might expect, I can't recommend this terrible film as there is nothing going for it.

I wonder if this movie somehow inspired "Evil Dead II"!! A demoniac and perverted hand with a bad attitude spreads terror. That's all you need to know.Damn it, the effect of the moving hand is the best feature about this cheapie mess. The hand's performance was truly menacing and comic at the same time! It starts a killing spree while possessing, then, it hides under Samantha Eggar's sheets (dirty hand!), and if it wasn't enough, it jumps over a moving car without a stunt double. That's my kind of entertainment. Now seriously, this movie is as cheap as you can imagine. There are some unintentionally funny situations, CHEAP false scares, horrible f/x, and putrid score. Not even the groovy music is likable.The premise is good but you can't do anything good with such an extremely low budget and cheap production values. But in defense of this movie, it's meant to be pure B-entertainment. Although the movie is boring, it has it's moments of cheesiness and Mystery Science Theatre material. At some points I thought I was watching a bad episode of "Miami Vice"! The car chasing, and shootings just demonstrate how poor this Horror oriented movie is. "The Hand will kill again!". Oh , I forgot to praise the horrible one-liners.

A couple (Samantha Eggar and Roy Cameron) while working in a Mexican mine discover a severed hand. The hand becomes one with Cameron and possesses him, causing him to commit all kinds of nasty murders.Not as bad as other people make it out to be, but nowhere near good. And poor Eggar gives it her all even though she is in such an unispired production. Some of the effects are incredibly grotsque though. My rating: 5 out of 10.Rated R; contains Graphic Violence, Nudity, and Language.