Demon of Paradise
Demon of Paradise
R | 28 April 1987 (USA)
Demon of Paradise Trailers

Hunters become the hunted when illegal dynamite disturbs the ageold slumber of a carnivorous lizardman. Resort owner Angela, joins forces with Sheriff Keefer to save tourists from the beast's path of death.

Reviews
Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall
Blucher One of the worst movies I've ever seen
Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
Aaron1375 I got this film in a pack of two films, the other being a film called, "Up From the Depths". Neither film is particularly good as neither takes the course of action that would of made both films cheesy fun which is good graphic kills and lots of nudity. Sure, there is blood featured in both and sure there is a topless scene in each, but both films would have benefited by taking the Italian horror movie approach which is excess! The two films feature aquatic monsters and the other thing they have in common is that they both take place in Hawaii and another thing they share is that neither film was actually shot in Hawaii. "Up From the Depths" did an okay job of recreating Hawaii; however, this film did not. In fact, it did quite a bad job of it as they did not even bother filming in a location with the ocean, instead electing to say that the resort featured in this film was on a Hawaiian lake which did not resemble a lake in Hawaii as it was rather dirty. I thought the people looked like they were from the Philippines and I was correct as that is where this one is shot. As I said, you just did not get a Hawaii vibe from this film at all.The story has some dudes selling illegal dynamite and it is an explosion from one of this sticks that we have to deduce freed the monster. The boat setting off charges explodes and get used to that as there are more explosions featured in this film than there are on screen monster kills. The sheriff is skeptical that there is a monster while a scientist thinks there is something and the dudes selling dynamite may be going into business with the mob. A reporter decides to not report the story and instead hook up with the owner of the most depressing looking resort ever to try and lure people into the place by advertising the monster. Occasionally, the monster shows up and oftentimes the poor thing does not get to kill anyone as there is an explosion that kills everyone. At the end, the monster goes on a full on assault because it is probably tired of not getting to kill anyone.The characters in this one are another weak point in said movie. They are all rather bad. You have sheriff with a secret past that is skeptical, but wants to stop the killings. You have the scientist who wants to take in the beast alive and who sees something in one of her underwater jaunts that is so upsetting, but I couldn't tell you what it was. You have irritating newspaper guy and resort owner who at least die, but not horrifically enough. Then, like in "Up From the Depths", there is supermodel who is staying at said resort who flashes her boobies. I guess it is not too surprising that this film is similar to, "Up From the Depths" as Roger Corman had a hand in both of them and he would literally remake a couple of his films nearly shot for shot.So, this film is bad. It is hard to believe that this one was not more awesome considering that Roger also made the similarly themed, "Humanoids From the Deep" which had lots of good kills and nudity. It is like he did not even try here and instead nearly made a remake of the equally bad, "Up From the Depths" only replacing the shark monster with a humanoid monster which didn't look all that bad. Too bad they were too busy showing us illegal dynamite sellers and other pointless plot points when they could have shown more monster on the rampage scenes. Also, the ending line where the scientist says, "You ever cut the tail off a lizard" is rather lame because the monster was blown the up in this one. A lizard can grow its tail back, but said tail cannot grow a lizard and a lizard's body cannot regenerate at head!
leo_crazydude Cirio H. Santiago's Demon of Paradise is a cold, gritty film which draws parallels with the then imminent cold war. At first glance this masterpiece may be seen as a simple monster flick, such as Jaws or Godzilla. However if studied closely the immersive story and fast pace make this film a modern classic.Set in the idealic Kihono, Hawaii which gives a great locale for the gripping story. Along with the great location a great cast appear. One shining example of this is from the late William Steins who gives a chilling earthy realism to his acting. The special effects bring the carnivorous lizard-man to life, you can truly see the rage within him. Of course the carnivorous lizard-man connotes the soviet rule. Where communism is here to wreak havoc with capitalism. Not only is this film a monster flick, it is a political point of view.Edward Achacoso's musical score adds to the suspense of the film with its synthesised instruments which give the film a sense of un-easiness. The score is up there with others such as Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey.Cirio H. Santiago's Direction gives this film a fast pace with an intelligent storyline, which makes great viewing.I give this film 9 stars.
FieCrier Some fishermen using dynamite manage to blow themselves up and an undersea lizard man starts attacking people. Stuff blows up every once in a while.A woman decides to promote her resort in the area of the monster sightings to people into the Loch Ness Monster, the abominable snowman, and the yeti. She hires an obnoxious reporter as her PR man. A bunch of people do show up. She has a monster egg hunt, and there's no payoff for this: we see the hunt begin, but do not see them find either the egg she hid, or a real monster egg (if there were any). The hunt starts, and then all of a sudden it's nighttime.One woman takes her top off and goes swimming. She has a nice figure. Nothing happens to her, which is OK, but there's not even any suspense in the scene.At one point the monster somehow jumps up out of the water, grabs onto a helicopter, and pulls it down into the water. This was pretty hilarious. Then the copter predictably explodes.Inexplicably, the monster is bulletproof. Grenades, however, are capable of decapitating it. Is there more than one? You'd think so, but I don't know.Not worth watching at all. You're much better off with the Creature from the Black Lagoon series, and Humanoids from the Deep. The back of the video box states "Come along on this tour and get it all., plus an unadvertised bonus: 84 minutes of monstrous terror." If the movie is 84 minutes long, how is its running time a bonus? If it is advertised by that blurb, how is it unadvertised?
Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) Someone wakes me up when something starts happening. Otherthan Kathryn Witt's form fitting 80's jeans I see no reason to botherwith this stinker. Seems to have been fashioned as an excuse toshoot a bunch of footage with one of those helicopter enginepontoon swamp boats & discussion scenes at a Hawaiian touristresort during an off-season winter lull. I also love how thehero/heroine are thrown out of the resort one scene & the nextthey go back to have a drink. THEN they get thrown out again, andare back four scenes later since that was the best set they had.I love low budget horror trash as much as anyone else, butsomething ought to happen every once in a while, and if you aregoing to have an attractive woman play a herpatologist in a horrorfilm she had better be seen at least topless & getting far more outof her career than she bargained on, or you have blown it.As for the monster suit, heh, I thought it was kind of fun to seesomeone not even bother to make something that looked "realistic" -- Kind of like Lamberto Bava's MONSTER SHARK, butwithout any point to it & lacking that movie's ridiculousentertainment value.Best line: "It takes two to mate." [Flushing sound]