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I thought that was a really interesting thing.”ĬOVID-19 may have impacted the logistical components of Demonic, but the genesis of the film came from two distinct creative impulses, both of which happened to merge seamlessly here. Those movies were inspirational because they were low budget, the filmmakers just went out and shot them, and they got a visceral audience response from them. I just wanted this surface tension that was there the whole time. “Above even trying to be scary, the main objective was to create a sense of tension and dread. It’s much more of an insular process.” Rather than channeling illustrious forebears, what appealed to him was the opportunity to generate the type of low-fi terror that made The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity such cultural phenomenons. I think horror is very conducive to a low-budget environment, and you can do stuff in that genre that isn’t very expensive.”ĭemonic boasts various touches that recall the works of James Cameron and David Cronenberg (among others), but the director asserts that there were no specific creative templates for the film, saying, “I’m not very good at looking outside at what other films are doing. So when the pandemic hit, it felt like with everything else slowing down, it would be a good time to try that idea. I never knew when I would do that I just knew that I wanted to at some point. “I’ve always been interested in horror, and I was always particularly interested in wanting to do a tiny self-financed horror film, almost like a challenge, like The Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity. Though it shares with his prior output a love of sci-fi tech, Demonic is Blomkamp’s first genuine foray into horror, and the 41-year-old director confirms that he’s long had the urge to do something in the genre. Think of it as The Lawnmower Man meets The Exorcist, shot in stripped-down claustrophobic fashion and embellished with plenty of volumetric-capture effects.

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The story of a young woman named Carly (Carly Pope) who’s invited by shady religious types to participate in a cutting-edge technological trial that involves sending her inside her estranged mother’s (Nathalie Boltt) comatose mind-where, it turns out, an evil entity lurks-it’s a VR variation on a demonic-possession thriller.

20 in theaters and on VOD, Demonic, his first feature since 2015’s underperforming Chappie, is a low-budget horror film that was produced during the pandemic in 24 days. Still, he does divulge that making a sequel in the first place was never a set-in-stone goal rather, it simply sprang from a natural moment of inspiration.Īs he plots a return trip to that futuristic world, Blomkamp has already charted a totally new course with his latest. The writer/director has recently stated that his planned follow-up will be rooted in American history, although when pressed directly about the film, he’s reticent to reveal many details. While Alien and RoboCop didn’t pan out, Blomkamp has another high-profile venture in the pipeline: a sequel to his 2009 breakthrough District 9, the sci-fi apartheid allegory that earned four Oscar nods (including for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay). The only thing to really be aware of is, with a very well-known piece of IP, what does that mean? Just be aware of the elements that are riding on it.” “There’s certainly no reason to not be working with big studios on movies. You just have to do it very cautiously, I think,” he remarks. “I wouldn’t be averse to looking at other large pieces of IP that are owned by the studio.

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