I’m really starting to believe that indie filmmakers have the most fun, when working on a film. Without any restrictions from major studio execs or higher-ups, anything can be said and done and nothing needs to be held back. One new film which shows the exact type of fun I’m talking about is The Demon’s Rook, written and directed by and starring James Sizemore.
Young Roscoe is visited almost nightly by an ancient wizard monk named Dimwos. Dimwos abducts the young boy and keeps him in a magical underworld known as the dark womb. Years later, a fully grown Roscoe (James Sizemore) emerges from the dark womb, but along with him comes three demons, bastard children of the dark mother. Roscoe and his childhood friend, Eva (Ashleigh Jo Sizemore), must stop the demons and their hordes of the resurrected undead before it’s too late.
I had no idea what to expect from my first viewing of The Demon’s Rook. Within the first 20 minutes or so, I was convinced I was watching yet another indie horror flick with poor acting and a strange, hard-to-follow plot. Fortunately for me, once things started rolling, my first assumption couldn’t have been further from the truth! Filled with magic, demons, and zombies, The Demon’s Rook turned out to be one of the best times I’ve had watching a movie in a long time!
I already mentioned that James Sizemore wrote, directed, and stars in Rook, but that’s not all this jack of all trades did for this production. The Demon’s Rook features some of the best special effects work I’ve seen in quite some time. Designed and created by Sizemore himself, along with a team of some other very talented people, the film’s demons looked amazing, the gore was outstanding, and the zombies looked like something straight out of an 80’s Fulci flick. More and more indie filmmakers are taking on multiple roles to fulfill their vision on camera and James Sizemore is definitely one of the best on that seemingly growing list of people. If you love over-the-top gore, you will fall in love with this film for sure.
The Demon’s Rook isn’t your typical zombie film, by any means. With a strange, but beautiful mix of the dark arts, creature feature monsters, and legions of undead corpses, this film is certainly one of the most original of the past few years. After watching Sizemore’s short film, Goat Witch, which is also included as a bonus feature of the film’s official DVD release, it is clear that the young filmmaker has a deep interest in the occult and black magic. He does it extremely well and I am excited to see if this trend of genre-blending continues. I can’t wait to see how he tops this film and I hope to hear of a new project from him very soon.
You can officially grab a copy of The Demon’s Rook on DVD this coming Tuesday, February 3rd, from Cinedigm and Tribeca Film. The disc includes a behind-the-scenes look at the demon creation process, a blooper reel, and filmmaker commentary, among other cool little goodies.
I give this film 4 Bovine Fantasy Invasion posters out of 5.
Sounds exactly like my kind of movie, I’m almost sure I’ll love it