The Demon’s Rook
Was it the child’s imagination which created the demons or brought them forth from their realm, or did the boy somehow perceive what was already there, lurking in the woods beyond his house in rural Georgia, his bedroom wall decorated with a bestiary of sketches including the horned Dimwos who one night summoned young Roscoe to join him on the other side.
Years later, trained in the ways of magic and with knowledge of the monsters which lurk given him by his guardian and trainer Dimwos he emerges, a man of long hair and full beard who finds that the evil is already upon the world, his childhood friend Eva’s father already killed by the risen dead and the locals being haunted and picked off, one by one or in groups.
Writer, producer, director, musician and production designer as well as the adult incarnation of Roscoe, the dedication and energy of James Sizemore cannot be doubted in the creation and wrangling of The Demon’s Rook to completion, a low budget fantasy horror in which he seems to have enlisted the help of the entire town of Moreland to either play victims or the demons who prey on them.
Keeping it a family affair with wife Ashleigh Jo Sizemore playing the older version of Eva, the abstract and dreamlike opening moments offer a promise which evaporates in the light of day of the equally non-specific “years later,” the film progressing with enthusiasm and unselfconscious abandon from all involved but also a sense of logic akin to a child’s storytelling with little in the way of logic or direction.
Instead, there is running around and screaming, a possessed huntsman killing his buddies and girlfriend with bow and arrow, and a board game night descending into topless demon groupie orgy – with cake – before the horde arrive at the barn where the locals are getting drunk to the metalbilly sounds of Bovine Fantasy Invasion and their biographical ode Devil in a Cornfield.
Where the film does excel, and again credit goes to Sizemore in his capacity as special makeup effects designer, is in the demonic makeup worn by John Chatham as Dimwos as well as his horned and decaying cohort and the dozens of undead who spread out across the fields in search of flesh and chaos, The Demon’s Rook an oddity which plays at times like someone has done little more than shot a Hallowe’en party, though that in itself is not necessarily a losing proposition.
The Demon’s Rook is streaming on the Arrow platform now
