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The Demon Murder Case
USA 1983
produced by Len Steckler, Dick Clark (executive), Preston Fisher (executive) for NBC
directed by William Hale
starring Liane Langland, Kevin Bacon, Charles Fields, Tom Ligon, Andy Griffith, Beverlee McKinsey, Eddie Albert, Joyce Van Patten, Cloris Leachman, Ken Kercheval, Richard Masur, Frank Hamilton, Jack Davidson, Benjamin Hendrickson, Becca Lish, Brian Lima, Armen Garo, Duncan Inches, Erika Kruse, Thomas Dorff, David Kennett, William Begley, Peter Gerety, Tom Griffin, Harvey Fierstein (voice)
written by William Kelley, music by George Aliceson Tipton
review by Mike Haberfelner
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11 year old Brian (Charles Fields) starts acting weirdly, so much so
that his parents call in a demonologist (Andy Griffith) to confirm to them
what they already seem to know: The boy is possessed by a demon (voiced by
Harvey Fierstein). One day, the shenanigans of the boy/demon get too much
for Kenny (Kevin Bacon), the fiancé of Brian's sister Nancy (Liane
Langland), and he challenges the demon to exit the boy and possess him
instead - and soon enough, the boy is healed from his demonic possession
while Kenny might act a little erratically, but nothing to really worry
about. Eventually, Kenny and Nancy move into a house owned by Nancy's
boss Phil (Tom Ligon), who's quite open about having a soft spot for
Nancy. At a party, Phil gets pretty drunk and pretty much throws himself
onto Nancy, which causes Kenny to grab a knife, start a fight with Phil
and eventually stabbing him to death. Only when he makes his escape it's
indicated he might be possessed by a demon. When he's finally arrested, he
claims to have no recollection of the incident whatsoever. In court,
Kenny's lawyer (Richard Masur) tries to blame the whole murder on demonic
possession, but the judge (Jack Davidson) is level-headed enough to reject
all evidence supoorting this line of defense - and ultimately Kenny is
convicted not for murder but for manslaughter. This
made-for-TV-movie starts out as an amazingly unimaginative and
atmosphere-free Exorcist rip-off, only to then give way to your typical
love triangle-plot told soap opera-style all framed by an incredibly
silly piece of courtroom drama. The genre mix of course totally fails to
work out because the director seems to fail to understand (let alone try
to excel in) any of the genres the film touches, and a flat screenplay,
cardboard characters and a sloppy ensemble effort don't help very much,
neither. And despite some unintentional efforts, it's not even so-bad-it's-good
... In all, a film to be avoided.
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