A Less-Than-Quiet Mountain Town: A Review Of "ATTACK OF THE DEMONS"
“This isn’t Chef Aid…?”
“Attack of the Demons” has been described as “Evil Dead” meets “South Park,” which is a great logline, but also surprisingly reductive. The animated horror comedy is set in a small Colorado town in the mid-90s, features gross-out gags, and characters voiced by the creators, but it’s far from “South Park” in very significant ways.
Barrington, Colorado is in the midst of hosting its annual music festival, when an evil cult starts unleashing demons to posses and wreck havoc on the populace in some hilariously gruesome ways I won’t spoil. The only hope comes in our heroes, Jeff, Natalie, and Kevin: three unsuspecting 20-somethings who fight back as they try to reach Jeff’s survivalist uncle deep in the woods (no, he’s not named Jimbo). That’s about it, but at 75 minutes, it’s all you need.
The animation was done with paper, but the blood, guts, brains, heads, demons, and other assorted human refuse is plentiful. “Big things can happen in the smallest places” is Barrington’s motto, but director Eric Power and writer Andreas Peterson seem to have adopted it as a mission statement. It’s impressive how much aesthetic mileage they get out of seemingly-limited resources. “Lo-fi charm” can sound like a backhanded compliment, but here it’s a feature instead of a bug.
Few animated films dare to do what “Attack of the Demons” does, by building up to the gorefest. The audience gets to know the main characters before they come face-to-face with the cult’s colorful abominations. While this approach also causes the film to drag in a few places, it mostly works as a way to get invested in our protagonists. The pacing feels more like a live-action film, even if the bloodletting would render that version of the movie NC-17.
Give a hoot, kill some demons
There are a ton of cheeky horror references that don’t make you groan (No “Dario Carpenter, mayor of Kruger Town” nonsense. You know the movies I’m talking about). In addition to “Evil Dead” and “The Thing,” there are subtle nods like a demonic chant where you hear “Bava” and “Ruggerio Deodato” that are meant to bring on the demon apocalypse. There’s even a character named Stuart Combs who carried around a suspicious-looking book.
While it’s no “Relic” or “His House,” expect to see “Attack of the Demons” on several “best horror” of 2020 lists. It’ll put a smile on your face as it’s ripped in half.
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