"Demon of Paradise" isn't all that bad, and is just simply decent.
**SPOILERS**
After a spate of strange fishing accidents, Annie, (Kathryn Witt) Ike, (Frederick Bailey) and Sheriff Keefer, (William Steis) urge the locals off the waters, despite their refusal to do so and insisting a legendary creature is behind it all. Due to this, Cahill, (Laura Banks) decides the time is right to start up a tourist business to the place and using the legend to tie-in with the idea, which angers them all and causes them to threaten her due to the increasing number of creature attacks in the area. When they continue and finally force her to close down her tourism business, she decides to help in hunting down the creature, which they find is a carnivorous lizard-like creature that lives in the lake and has been disturbed from it's rest by illegal hunting in the area, causing them all to band together to end the deadly rampage.
The Good News: There was some good stuff at times to this one. One of the main good points is that there's some half-way decent action scenes to it. The opening, which is an assault on a fishing boat that blows up from dropped dynamite during the scuffling, to the first attack on the village and it's appearance during the festival all manage to be really enjoyable encounters that provide some decent thrills. The last half to this is really good, where the fight is taken to the creature and some really good action-scenes, including a rather fun idea where the creature is attacked from a helicopter dropping dynamite at it below, with the boats searching around for it and ending with a fun exploding helicopter sequence that ends the fun. That leads into the chaotic appearance at the military base, which is fun for the rain makes it a little more atmospheric than it should otherwise be, and there's a couple of fun encounters. The finale in the caves, where there's a super-fun confrontation within the darkened mines and there's gunfire, grenades and he sight of one victim literally blown to pieces, and these here are all pretty great. The fact that it has a lot right with the creature is a big plus, since they hardly ever show it which makes it's few appearances mean something as it's hidden off-camera for most of the early attacks, mainly signaled with just quick glimpses of it here and there. When it is shown, the sight of the demonic, lizard-like appearance that manages to look different and somewhat effective, being able to take a hail of bullets and more. The last plus in here is that there's a pretty nice body count, even if not a whole lot of it is shown. The fact that there's a lot that are killed off is pretty fun, and manages to be another good factor for the film.
The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot of bad things to this one. The main there here is that the majority of the time, nothing much happens. There's a couple of attacks here and there, but they're a separate flaw and mainly serve to break up the unending monotony of what takes up the most amount of time in here, the dull talking in here. These scenes go on forever and usually consist of the same topic, everyone warning the others about the dangers of the area and them not believing it in for the same reason that's always used, the impending tourist trade. This is used way too often and as the reason why they keep engaging in the same conversations over and over again, it gets tiresome even more than it already is. There's also the fact that the creature in here isn't that convincing, looking rather obviously like a rubber suit in it's few incarnations on-screen and it manages to ruin the mystique it creates really well in the early parts with keeping the creature off-screen or barely there, which is a big shame. The last flaw here is the obscenely bloodless kills on display. Just about all of them are done at an angle that prevents what's being seen clearly, done off-screen or just aren't exciting, such as being dragged underwater or blown up being near something that explodes. The fact that it's the most commonly used death is something of a mark against what kind of film this is, and is really the most telling flaw in the whole film. These here are what's really wrong with the film.
The Final Verdict: While not being all that bad, there isn't a whole lot to it to really make it memorable, leaving it just decent. Really only give into this one if you can appreciate the lower end of the creature-feature spectrum of if it sounds interesting, otherwise then heed caution with this one.
Rated R: Violence, Language and Brief Nudity
**SPOILERS**
After a spate of strange fishing accidents, Annie, (Kathryn Witt) Ike, (Frederick Bailey) and Sheriff Keefer, (William Steis) urge the locals off the waters, despite their refusal to do so and insisting a legendary creature is behind it all. Due to this, Cahill, (Laura Banks) decides the time is right to start up a tourist business to the place and using the legend to tie-in with the idea, which angers them all and causes them to threaten her due to the increasing number of creature attacks in the area. When they continue and finally force her to close down her tourism business, she decides to help in hunting down the creature, which they find is a carnivorous lizard-like creature that lives in the lake and has been disturbed from it's rest by illegal hunting in the area, causing them all to band together to end the deadly rampage.
The Good News: There was some good stuff at times to this one. One of the main good points is that there's some half-way decent action scenes to it. The opening, which is an assault on a fishing boat that blows up from dropped dynamite during the scuffling, to the first attack on the village and it's appearance during the festival all manage to be really enjoyable encounters that provide some decent thrills. The last half to this is really good, where the fight is taken to the creature and some really good action-scenes, including a rather fun idea where the creature is attacked from a helicopter dropping dynamite at it below, with the boats searching around for it and ending with a fun exploding helicopter sequence that ends the fun. That leads into the chaotic appearance at the military base, which is fun for the rain makes it a little more atmospheric than it should otherwise be, and there's a couple of fun encounters. The finale in the caves, where there's a super-fun confrontation within the darkened mines and there's gunfire, grenades and he sight of one victim literally blown to pieces, and these here are all pretty great. The fact that it has a lot right with the creature is a big plus, since they hardly ever show it which makes it's few appearances mean something as it's hidden off-camera for most of the early attacks, mainly signaled with just quick glimpses of it here and there. When it is shown, the sight of the demonic, lizard-like appearance that manages to look different and somewhat effective, being able to take a hail of bullets and more. The last plus in here is that there's a pretty nice body count, even if not a whole lot of it is shown. The fact that there's a lot that are killed off is pretty fun, and manages to be another good factor for the film.
The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot of bad things to this one. The main there here is that the majority of the time, nothing much happens. There's a couple of attacks here and there, but they're a separate flaw and mainly serve to break up the unending monotony of what takes up the most amount of time in here, the dull talking in here. These scenes go on forever and usually consist of the same topic, everyone warning the others about the dangers of the area and them not believing it in for the same reason that's always used, the impending tourist trade. This is used way too often and as the reason why they keep engaging in the same conversations over and over again, it gets tiresome even more than it already is. There's also the fact that the creature in here isn't that convincing, looking rather obviously like a rubber suit in it's few incarnations on-screen and it manages to ruin the mystique it creates really well in the early parts with keeping the creature off-screen or barely there, which is a big shame. The last flaw here is the obscenely bloodless kills on display. Just about all of them are done at an angle that prevents what's being seen clearly, done off-screen or just aren't exciting, such as being dragged underwater or blown up being near something that explodes. The fact that it's the most commonly used death is something of a mark against what kind of film this is, and is really the most telling flaw in the whole film. These here are what's really wrong with the film.
The Final Verdict: While not being all that bad, there isn't a whole lot to it to really make it memorable, leaving it just decent. Really only give into this one if you can appreciate the lower end of the creature-feature spectrum of if it sounds interesting, otherwise then heed caution with this one.
Rated R: Violence, Language and Brief Nudity