The Demon Within

The Demon Within (2000), AKA The Sculptress, is a supernatural/succubus story centered around Sarah (Kate Wright), who is from England, but studying sculpture at a San Francisco art academy. She sports the worst British accent (when she remembers to use it) that I have ever heard.

She runs afoul of her teacher, who is French, but with no accent, because she keeps sculpting things other than the live model she is supposed to be doing. Then he realizes that it is "psychic sculpting," and she can't help herself. Meanwhile, her neighbor is an ex actor and ex priest, whom Satan has chosen to impregnate Sarah. Satan screwed up, however, as the neighbor (Jeff Fahey) is impotent. If you think that is silly, you should hear him reciting Shakespeare to his apartment walls.

NUDITY REPORT

The exposure comes from Emmanuelle Vaugier, who plays a stripper/figure model who is fired from the art school, and is killed by Fahey. We see a long shot of her breasts and buns when she is fired, a pretty good bun shot in the peep booth, and buns and a side view of a breasts in her apartment with a lesbian girlfriend. The girlfriend shows one lovely large breast, but is, unfortunately not identified.

awaiting DVD info, but not that eagerly

The plot is silly, and the acting is terrible, but some of the scenic shots of San Francisco are very nice, including a dusk shot of San Francisco taken through a restaurant window in Sausalito. The few critics who reviewed it were cruel, wondering allowed how it got even a limited theatrical release. IMDB readers have it at 3.4 of 10. I have to agree, this is a bad movie, and not in the good sense of the word.

The Critics Vote

Rotten Tomatoes summary. There are two graded reviews. One gave it 0/4. The other gave it .5/5. That's about as bad as it gets.

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 3.4/10

with their dollars: it got a trial run on 25 screens. the next week, it was on one screen, and only did a couple hundred bucks on that one! Total gross - less than $7,000.

IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well. G means that the film features Jeff Fahey.

Based on this description, this film is a G. (Would be a D- except for the Fahey rule)

Scoop's note: in the past seven years, Fahey's top film at IMDb is rated 5.1. Yet in his entire below-average career, he has not been in a film rated lower than this one.