Demon City

Well, perhaps that is incorrect. There was a demon and it was a time wasting one. There are very few films I’ve watched that have felt like a waste of my time. Even for films that have left me cold - Kubi, Ashfall, Shadow - or films I’ve outright disliked - The Menu, The Turning, Baywatch - none have outright felt like a waste of time.

Only a few films, such as 2022’s Where the Crawdads Sing, have felt like a true waste of time. So boring, so derivative, so entirely unmemorable they come and go like a missed morning fog. They leave nothing behind, not devastation, not emotion, not even a passing semblance of annoyance or hilarity.

Surely while Silent Hill: Revelation is most certainly a terrible film, at least it is terrible in such a way that can be fun with some drinks, friends, and snacks. Paul W.S. Anderson may only have two truly “good” films under his belt, but Death Race is still a blast to gawk and thrill at.

Demon City doesn’t even have the decency to look interesting. Whilst Love Hurts squanders it’s grade-A cast with a haphazard script, and poor editing decisions it at least has a memorable production design that sets itself apart from contemporaries such as Gunpowder Milkshake, Kate, The Grey Man, and John Wick. The script may have been lacking in wit, charm, and chemistry between the cast but at least it had an aesthetic alongside a committed cast of fun actors.

Demon City can’t even accomplish that.

Director Seiji Tanaka feels as though he was the one being tortured into making this film, strapped down to the financial needs of security to pump out a dull bloody pulp of adaptation of Masamichi Kawabe’s manga Oni Goroshi. The body feels cold even before the first slice of knife cuts through its throat.

Kawabe’s cover art for his series is brilliantly eye-catching, and his pages, while a bit rustic, scream passion for the bloodied subjects encased in the panels of his story.

Where is the passion? James Hadfield of The Japan Times perhaps said it best when he called this film “joyless” and “weirdly anonymous”. There is nothing of note here, nothing memorable. Not even enough to manage a dated quip of “well, that just happened”. Demon City is not even worth that much effort.