Horror comedies are hard to get right. For every Shaun of the dead, Tucker & Dale against eviland more recently the two Scare package movies, there are plenty of duds. It is a challenge to strike the right tone and not let one genre dominate the other. But if there’s one trend toward horror so far in 2023, it’s that horror has become, well, fun again. Just look at the blockbuster of M3GAN as an example. It’s too early to tell if this is a reaction against the “lofty horror” trend of recent years (I hate that term), but Shudder’s latest, Sorry About The Demon, is a near-perfect horror comedy.
The 30-year-old feature film writer/director, Emily Hagins, has been making movies since she was a pre-teen. Yes, you read that right. Her first video pathogenpremiered in 2006. More recently, she has worked on the V/H/S TV Miniseries and Scare package. Sorry about the demon shows the skill of a filmmaker who really knows her stuff. The feature has some generally creepy moments, all while hitting all the right comedic beats. It’s a strong and entertaining movie.
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Sorry about the Demon’s Everyman
Created by Aaron B. Koontz and Cameron Burnstwo of the guys behind the Scare package movies, Sorry about the demon stars Jon Michael Simpson as Will, an incredibly relatable character who is heartbroken because the love of his life, Amy (Paige Evans), dumped him. You see, Amy is going somewhere and she recently got a promotion. However, Will is a 27-year-old who has a minimum wage customer service job for a toothpaste company. He’s not the best friend at first either. For example, shortly before ending the relationship, Amy asks Will why he was not at her celebratory dinner. He doesn’t exactly have a good excuse, and instead of actually listening to her, he bakes her cake pops, all while wearing a headset and taking customer service calls at 1am.
That said, Will is relatable for being a nice guy overall, even if he doesn’t initially realize how he screwed up the relationship. Furthermore, you should feel a little sympathy for him, because his life is not progressing. While Amy is promoted, Will seems stuck in the same dead-end job with no clear plans for his future. At least most of us have been in a relationship where it feels like the other person is changing and withdrawing, whether it’s because of their career or something else. To add, Simpson does enough work in the role to sell his character, giving him an “ah shucks” sort of feel that makes you feel for the guy. Again, he generally comes across as a kind and compassionate dude who just needs a kick in the ass to get his life on track and pay attention to Amy’s needs.
Sorry for The Demon Isn’t Your Typical Possession Movie
Sorry about the demons The first sequence feels very much like a cold open, something you’d see in an anthology horror movie, but it sets up the rest of the film nicely. Parents Ken (Dave Peniuk) and Tammy (Sarah Cleveland) Sellers make a deal with the demon Deomonous to save their daughter Grace (Presley Allard) from eternal damnation. In return, the demon, voiced in a chilling fashion by Tony Vespe, demands a human sacrifice.
This is where Will comes in. The sellers rent him the house in hopes that the hellspawn will steal his soul and thus save their daughter. However, because Will is such a loser, the demon passes him on and tries to possess everyone he brings into the house. This includes his childhood friend, Patrick, played by Jeff McQuitty, and his romantic interest/coworker/exorcist-in-training, Aimee, played by Olivia Ducayen. Together the trio form a kind of group that tries to drive out evil.
Not only do the comedic beats consistently work well in the movie, but so does the scare. Hagins understands restraint. There are no pea soup moments here. There are some real scares though, like when one of the two ghost kids who inhabit the house can be seen in a mirror while Will is working out. Likewise, there are no long, drawn-out exorcism scenes in the last act either. This makes the feature so much better. Hagins understands that sometimes more is less. It’s what sets her movie apart from the countless run-of-the-mill exorcism/possession movies out there. Vespe’s voice work is also chilling, reflecting that earnest pitch of Pazuzu that Regan (Linda Blair) possessed.
Sorry about the Demon being the perfect Valentine’s Day movie
As Valentine’s Day approaches, Sorry about the demon could also work as a perfect movie for a night out, at least if your partner is into horror comedies. Ultimately, among all the ghost and possession stuff, the feature film is about a man trying to win back his wife. As the story unfolds, you want Will and Amy to get back together, but it’s also fun to see Will’s character evolve to the point that he understands that people change. Apart from scares and jokes, Sorry about the demon is a movie about a relationship and the way two people change as the relationship progresses, which brings its own challenges. This is what Will is slowly beginning to understand. As Amy progresses in her career, he is stuck in the past, to the point that he lives in a house with 90s relics such as a cassette player and an old TV that he uses to play VHS tapes of 1990s teen soap operas. to watch.
Sorry about the demon possess shiver on January 19. It’s a perfect mix of horror and comedy with a lot of heart. I can’t wait to see what Hagins will do next. Stay up to date with the latest originals and exclusives from the streaming service by following my Shudder Secrets column.
Brian Fanelli is a poet and educator who also enjoys writing about the horror genre. His work has been published in The L.A. Times, World Literature Today, Schuylkill Valley Journal, horror living room, and elsewhere. On weekends, he enjoys going to the local drive-in movie theater with his wife or curling up on the couch and watching movies with their cat, Giselle.
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