‘Demonic’ Trailer: ‘District 9’ Director Neill Blomkamp is Back With a New Horror Movie

Neill Blomkamp has helmed his first feature film since the 2015 misfire Chappie, and here’s the trailer to prove it. Blomkamp’s latest is Demonic, a horror movie about a young woman who unleashes some terrifying demons. There’s obviously more to the story than that, but everyone is playing things close to the vest here. Even the trailer is careful to not give too much away. See for yourself below.

Demonic Trailer 

“Don’t be scared.”
Here is the exclusive teaser trailer for @NeillBlomkamp’s horror/sci-fi thriller #Demonic. Coming to theaters and @vudufans on August 20th! pic.twitter.com/Aqsct8jw6G

— Fandango (@Fandango) June 3, 2021

Demonic! What’s it about? Well, perhaps this synopsis will help: “A young woman unleashes terrifying demons when supernatural forces at the root of a decades old rift between mother and daughter are revealed.” Okay, that didn’t help much. But I’m curious. There’s clearly a lot more going on here – it looks like the story involves some sort of…video game? Or virtual reality? It’s hard to say. At one point, the main character gets strapped into some gear and wakes up in what looks like The Sims for a second. Maybe this is the spiritual sequel to Serenity, the movie where Matthew McConaughey is a character living inside a fishing video game.

In any case, the film stars  Carly Pope (Elysium), Chris William Martin (The Age of Adaline), and Michael Rogers (The Blacklist). It was written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, making this his first feature film since 2015’s Chappie. Blomkamp burst onto the scene with District 9, a clever, violent sci-fi flick that expanded a shorter film he made. And while it helped make Blomkamp a big deal, District 9 almost didn’t happen. The filmmaker was originally supposed to direct a movie adaptation of the video game Halo, but when that fell apart, he moved on to District 9.

District 9 was a big hit and landed multiple Oscar nominations. All eyes were on Blomkamp, and he followed up his hit with another sci-fi movie, Elysium. While that movie did well enough at the box office, it didn’t receive the same overwhelming praise as District 9. And then came Chappie, which was derided by critics and flopped at the box office (although it still has its fans). Since then, Blomkamp has toyed around with various projects, including a Robo-Cop reboot/sequel, but nothing has really come together.

Can Blomkamp bounce back with what looks like a smaller-budgeted film than he’s used to? Perhaps! I do like a lot of the visuals here, although I feel like I need to actually see what the movie is about before I fully commit to it.

Demonic arrives on August 20.

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