Hi, I’m Yasmina and I love VHS, horror and the 80s! Combine all that together and the result is THE REWIND ZONE, my new monthly column where I nerd out on some of my favourite obscure gems from this spectacular era!
If you’re looking for an even lower budget Evil Dead but with lasers and demon boobs, then Demon Wind is what your heart desires. I wholeheartedly believe this movie gets better and better every time I watch it. It has many similarities to Evil Dead: their cars won’t start preventing them from leaving the haunted grounds, there’s an evil spell book with evil-looking script that is found with evil-looking daggers, and demons attempt to trick the characters by changing back to their former human selves. What sets Demon Wind apart is the triumphant execution of B-movie hilarity.
Demon Wind opens up in 1931 with a burning man on a cross, a bloody mess of scattered bodies, and the creepiest fucking song ever! The lyrics go on to sing about being washed in the blood of the night and cleansing souls as the camera pans over pictures of Jesus, candles, and various squash. Then we get a little taste of demon viewing pleasure sprinkled with chunky yogurt and gnarly teeth.
Cut to the present, we see our protagonist Cory driving with his girlfriend Elaine—without wearing seat belts—en-route to his father’s remote farm house to investigate what happened to his grandparents 60 years earlier.
It’s quite convenient that his friends all show up at the same time in the middle of nowhere. They arrive at the desolate farmhouse to discover the bones of the bodies from earlier that were apparently never moved in all these years and Cory somehow has a laser psychic power that can reveal who the skeletons are.
While Dead Alive gave us a priest that can do Kung Fu, Demon Wind provides us with a magician Chuck who can do karate that can command birds to shit on assholes. Dell is your average creepy 80s womanizing macho man with a mullet. His dialogue is probably my favourite in the movie.
Aside from adults playing teenagers and groups breaking apart to investigate something, the 80s always cast the “nerd” character with a very good-looking guy simply wearing glasses. I just love when Jack gets turned into a demon and is still wearing his glasses and also develops some groping skills!
Another thing I love about B-movies is the lack of reaction to obviously insane situations. It’s astounding how much crazy shit happens in this house and how well the characters keep their composures. Not even three little girls manifesting out of thin air, a girl getting turned into a doll then burning to her death or seeing a dead grandmother can cause alarm. Even a particular death was brutally apathetic.
The special effects are awesome! The slashed necks and splattered blood were fantastic and the demon’s faces with their yellow gooey blood remind me of the melting man from Robocop. The altar to the devil is badass; the human skeleton body with a bull skull in front of satanic imagery is pretty evil and I of course love the Alien Nation look Cory gets at the end of the movie.
Demon Wind delivers fun and entertainment for all your demony parties. We see demons morphing into humans, morphing into children, morphing into birds, and a man butt… what’s not to love? And the fact that Lou Diamond Phillips plays a demon makes me adore it even more. Let’s just say that Demon Wind definitely blew me away!
