Forest of the Damned renamed

From Moviesonline, "We have your exclusive first look at the dvd artwork for Forest of the Damned, here in North America its going under the title Demonic. The great Tom Savini (of George Romeros Dead trilogy fame) is staring in a new indie horror flick called "Forest of the Damned" !

The story follows a group of teenagers who are on summer vacation. As they are driving through the Miranda forest they accidentally (of course!) run over and kill a young girl. With their car out of commision and no cell phone reception they are stuck to wandering the woods. They soon come across the cabin of Stephen (Tom Savini). Stephen is a lonely hermit who has spent most of his life holed up in his cabin in the woods after witnessing his parents brutal murders by the strange 'nymph' creatures whom inhabit the forest. These nymps were actually angels from heaven who were expelled once they began to experience human emotions such as lust, desire, hatred and the like. Stephen, bored with his lonesome life, uses the kids as bait for the nymph's dirty work."

Review, "When I first popped this film into my DVD player I didn't really know what to expect. I assumed that the top billing of Tom Savini would actually mean he appeared in about four seconds of the movie. Boy was I in for a surprise. Not only does he actaully have a huge part, but the entire film is pretty good with characters of depth, cool effects, an original story and solid acting.

One thing I must add is that I began to notice a trend concerning the names of the characters. They are Judd, Molly, Ally, Andrew, Emilio...you get the idea. That's right, they went there. They named the characters after the brat-packers. I actually think this is a cool send up to the films that we all loved as teens, but it is too bad that it was done by Sleepaway Camp 2 first.

Of course I expected to see the usual throwaway characters of the typical slasher flick variety. Once again I was pleasantly surprised. These guys work their butts off and produce some impressive reactions to the crap they have gotten themselves mixed up in. My two favorite characters are Daniel Maclagan and Nicole Petty as Judd and Molly. Watch for their scenes. They work really well together. Ally, the bitch of a sister is the one character I couldn't wait to see die. I wanted to kill her myself. I personally would have thrown her ass out of the van in the beginning. I hope she was just a really good actress. ;) Savini is convincingly sinister if not a little over the top.

Often films will have good actors and a good story only to fall short with the effects. That is not the case with Forest of the Damned. The vampish sirens are significantly spooky with their mouthfuls of scary as Hell teeth. The make up and the death scenes are decent all around.

Johannes Roberts directs this film with style and an obvious eye for gore. My only issue with his work is that sometimes the scenes will go on a little longer than necessary. It sometimes reminds me of those Saturday Night Live skits that don't know when to quit. I caught myself saying several times "if they would have just stopped right there, they would have nailed it." But Roberts is a capable director who knows what horror fans like to see. His ability to build tension is remarkable. I look forward to seeing more of his work."