My Demon Lover (1987)

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nMy Demon Lover (1987)

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nDirector:  CharlienLoventhal

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nCast: Scott Valentine, Michelle Little, Robert Trebor

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nBack when I was around twelve years old, seeing a film like MynDemon Lover was prohibitive for me because the household I grew up in was fanaticallynChristian and therefore any film with demons or sex was extremely off limits asnfar as my parents were concerned and My Demon Lover had both! But back then, Inwas just starting to fall in love with special effects, so I found a way to seenit; I waited for just the right moment in which my parents were gone and then, alonenand in the dark, I feasted my eyes on the demonic imagery. I have to admitnwatching My Demon Lover was all about the thrill of doing something I wasn’tnsupposed to be doing. What attracted me to the film wasn’t the sex or possiblennudity because truth be told, there’s very little of both on this movie, no,nwhat I wanted to see were those crafty makeup effects! You see, back in then80’s, horror movies where pushing the boundaries of what could be done throughnmake up effects. Back then, every horror movie was about gooey, slimy monsters.nThe Nightmare on Elm Street franchise spear headed this gruesome movement inncinema, but many smaller budget movies emulated this idea of turning a filmninto a special make up effects showcase, My Demon Lover was one of them.

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nI’d been meaning tonre-watch this movie for the longest time, to re-live this forbidden fruit of mynyouth one more time, but for some strange reason, this movie disappeared fromnthe planet. This is something that happens to a lot of low budget horror films.nSuddenly, poof! They vanish from the face of the earth! But I never forgotnabout My Demon Lover, it was this little horror movie that thrilled me when Inwas a kid and had fond memories of enjoying it, I needed to give it the oldnre-watch! For nostalgia’s sake! So anyways, one day I go into Amazon and therenit is.  Warner Bros. had released itnunder their ‘Warner Bros. Archive Collection’ banner. Under this banner, WarnernBros. has re-released a lot of these “forgotten” sci-fi/horror/action moviesnlike Freejack (1992), If Looks Could Kill (1991) and The Green Slime (1968). Sonanyways, I quickly snatched a copy and re-watched My Demon Lover, a film I hadnnot seen since I was twelve! And of course, it’s silly as hell. As silly as anynother 80’s movie you’ve seen and of course, that’s exactly what I loved aboutnit. It took me back to simpler days in cinema, when a film could be about twonsilly kids falling in love in New York City; where a movie could be about ancouple of crazy kids with no bigger priorities in their lives save for fallingnin love and having fun. The film runs on that idealistic idea that the world mightnbe messed up, but we can survive it with a little love in our lives. Weird thatnthe filmmakers decided to mix demons with love, but such is the nature of thencinema of the 80’s.

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nIn retrospect, My Demon Lover is less a sex comedy and morena date movie. It’s about accepting each other with our flaws, finding ways ton“make it work” and finding someone you want to care for. On this film everybodynis trying to date somebody, it takes place within the bachelor world, wherengirls and boys are constantly worried about finding “the one”. In this way itnreminded me of films like About Last Night (1986), where the two sexes arenconstantly analyzing each other. So you get the typical “men are like this,nwomen are like that” conversations. ‘Denny’, the main character in the film isna working girl who falls for the worst guys; losers who dump her by stealingneverything in her apartment. Then we have ‘Kaz’, a bum from the streets whonplays the saxophone on the train and oogles and harasses the ladies he sees onnthe streets. Oh, he’s also cursed to turning into a demon whenever he tries tonhave sex! There’s an allegory there, about how guys can turn into wild animalsnwhenever they want to get it on with the ladies, but you shouldn’t really readntoo much into that. This isn’t exactly what you’d call a ‘deep film’. Itsnthemes are simple yet valid ones: if you truly care for someone then you havento do something truly noble for that person; you have to show some real lovenand go beyond just sexual attraction. 

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nThe entertaining part of the film comes of course whenevern‘Kaz’ gets horny and turns into a demon. What’s cool about the concept is thatnhe turns into a different looking demon every time he turns, so we get anvariety of monsters throughout the film. Kaz goes from turning into a werewolfndemon, to turning into a fat bald guy who can’t stop laughing, to growing demonnwings among many other amusing transformations. The makeup effects are notnanything I’d call amazing or award worthy, but they sure are entertaining… andngooey. There’s a lot of slimy, squishy stuff going on. My Demon Lover was producednby New Line Cinema’s head honcho Robert Shaye, the guy responsible fornproducing so many of the Nightmare on Elm Street films before New Line Cinemanbecame a major film studio. This explains the films emphasis on makeup effects work;nit was just the thing to do during the 80’s when latex monsters ruled thenscreens. If you wanted a movie to make money, you put a lot of special make upneffects in it. New Line Cinema was after all known as “The House that FreddynBuilt”. This make up effects frenzy ran its course and ended in the mid 90’s whennhorror switched back to ‘slasher mode’ with the success of films like Scream (1996)nand I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). It’s interesting to note how it was horrornmaestro Wes Craven’s creations that decided the direction horrornfilms would take throughout the 80’s and 90’s, he certainly had a pulse on the genre.  

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nSo what we got here is a silly, simple yet entertainingnlittle horror movie from the late 80’s. It reminded me of another film younmight want to check out if you end up enjoying My Demon Lover, it’s a filmncalled Date with an Angel (1987). It shares a similar premise (that of falling in love with a supernatural being) but instead ofndating a demon, the main character falls for an angel. But if you ask me, all of these movies in which regular people fall in love with a monster, or a creature are influenced by Ron Howard’s Splash (1984), that’s the one where Tom Hanks falls for a mermaid played by Darryl Hannah. Seeing My Demon Lovernmade me think about how modern movies aren’t populated with regular peoplenanymore. I miss that about movies, where the protagonists don’t have to benperfect, politically correct, unrealistic tight asses, in fact, a lot of filmsnfrom the 80’s were about the working class, those of us surviving to make it innthe world, this is something we don’t see that much anymore. In movies from then80’s, characters weren’t afraid to be silly and ridiculous, they werenimperfect, they were more like us, the regular everyday people. In this way, charactersnin films from the 80’s feel more real to me, even though they are extremelynsilly because let’s face it; all pretensions aside, most of us are still anbunch of grown up kids pretending to be adults. Deep down inside, we’re allnlittle kids who want the thrill of watching horror movies in the dark, without our parents’ permission.

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nRating: 3 out of 5 

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