The Demon Within
The Demon Within
R | 27 October 2000 (USA)
The Demon Within Trailers

A young artist follows her passion to study at one of the finest art institutes in San Francisco.

Reviews
Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever
CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
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.
przgzr After watching "Sculptress" I did something I am not doing often. I apologized to each one in my family that I invited to watch this movie with me. And I still don't know when will I forgive myself for wasting time. But it is sure that I won't ever trust the network that announced this movie as a psychological horror for intellectuals, making us believe it is something between Omen and Changeling.The only thing that makes this movie unlike ordinary trash (in bad meaning of the word) is that is rather slow, with a good work of camera and some really beautiful scenes instead of repeating blood lakes and strangled necks. Though it is set in the world of art, one would expect more such scenes relied to sculptures, drawings, models; but these scenes have been done superficially (comparing to e.g. Hamilton's "Laura" set in similar environment). Photography, however, makes a proper mood in low lighted places like streets at night, fortune teller's office, adult bars. Unfortunately, nothing else in the movie develops this mood to include it into the plot. Also, the editing can be praised for several scenes, the best of them is overlapping Chris seducing Sarah and Mathew visiting peep show. But again all this well done job is wasted in empty and unbelievable script and pale directing.**SPOILERS** A few examples. Sarah is an ordinary girl, scared by events that happened, and after death of her professor who was the only one to believe and help her she hears that all she can do is run away, or she will be either killed by one demon or obsessed by another. And what does this, so far not very brave girl do? After deciding to run away, and having her things packed, she sneaks into a flat where lives a serial killer obsessed by one of those demons! Why, if not to give him (and a director) time to catch her...Sarah, a girl old enough to go to university on another continent, suddenly discovers her sexuality (!) and she is so shocked that she runs to a church for a confession. And, as if he knew not only what she is going to do, but which church and room for confession she will chose, our demon hero sits there after killing the real priest, and the blood from the corpse is slowly flowing down the walls. If Sarah was in early puberty, it could be interpreted as a symbol of her becoming a woman ("Valerie and her Week of Wonders" or "Carrie") and all the stressful things she has to experience ("Company of Wolves")... but in this case it is only a deja vu of some a bit less bad horrors. Blood is just a blood of a person killed for no reason and no importance for a plot.Lunatic (ex)priest and prostitutes or peep show stars remind us of "Crimes of Passion", but don't hope for anything similar. Perkins and Turner could maybe make "Sculptress" watchable, but only if they made an Oscar nomination job. In this real version of "Sculptress" we don't see any actor worth mentioning at all.And if you watch this movie despite my comment, and feel disappointed afterwards, I won't apologize you. I have warned you.
illeel This movie was outlandish, But so is Jeff Fahey. For one part alone this movie is worth watching. Jeff Fahey is a master of disguises, so with his skull cap, and his totally white painted face with scarf and sunglasses go's to a peep show. He's so smooth taking off his scarf and sunglasses to watch the dancer perform. It's so funny how his eyes look when he see's the dancer. He starts breathing really creepy sounding. It also plays this slow music to enhance the whole scene. The dancer is really hot though it should have showed her more in this movie. Over all this movie is not that great. I can't even remember really anything about it. But for that scene alone it's worth it. So go to Hollywood and rent this one.
K Sprowl Unfortunately I have to say that this particular movie marked Jeff Fahey's descent from "B" to "C" grade actor. How much lower can you go being a impotent demon being a peeping tom on the young girl next door? And, she is mediocre to boot?I found it to be a very sad, depressing film with actors of possibility, but not a good plot or dialog to work with. Characters we not well developed, nor believable.Ending tried to turn a surprise twist when it was totally predictable. Could only recommend if you are a Jeff Fahey fan...sad that he has not been appreciated for the talent he has to be cast in such feeble roles.
princess_charles i watched this movie with my friend this morning, it was horrible. it made no sense and was so totally disturbing... for those of you who have seen it what's up with the part where the girl is in the confessional? so creepy! the whole movie was creepy, and then when Sarah's scary schizo neighbor throws her into the water, it looks so fake as does everything else. despite how cheap this movie was, a lot of the dialogue was great. 2/10