Demonoid (1981)

Time for another possession movie. This time we get an unusual flick starring a demon that is transferred from left hand to left hand. Though before it can move onto another victim the current one must cut off their left hand to set it free. Things get bloody very quickly but before I get too far ahead of myself let’s get to the plot synopsis.

Things open in the past where some guys in robes track down a woman and chain her to the wall, but not before she does some damage to them. They chop off her left hand and seal it in a metal box. Years later a mine owner and his wife find the box and take it from where it was buried. Unknowingly they unleash the demon who first possesses the husband and when he dies comes after the wife. She tries to fight back with the help of a priest and together they attempt to banish the evil that she has inadvertently let loose on the world.

This movie is bonkers. I don’t know how else to describe it. The story is vaguely defined and exists solely as an excuse for horrible things to happen, people to get killed, and hands to be lopped off! The action starts at the mine in what I think is supposed to be Mexico. But quickly after the hand comes crawling along and takes over the husband, he blows up the mine with the workers in it and heads to Vegas with his wife in pursuit. This leads to some over the top violence where faces are torn up and necks snapped. After the bit of mass murder, the husband tries to escape the only way he can (off goes the hand) but it burns him alive as payback! The first few deaths are executed decently but without a lot of gore. Don’t worry though it gets better.

Jennifer, the wife, follows the body of her husband to California. See the police thought his burned corpse was that of a local whose family claimed it and buried him. But before she can convince anyone that the hand is still alive and dangerous it breaks out of the grave and finds more victims. It keeps jumping from person to person all the time maneuvering to possess Jennifer. Something about her setting it free means it belongs to her. This leads to some impromptu surgery with a cauterizing scalpel, amputation by train, and another face being mangled. The damn hand grabs a gun and shoots a nurse! Oh, and as a final bit of fun we see a hand burnt completely down to the bone with the ashes being dumped in the ocean. Yeah that ought to get rid of demonic hand! Yep that had to work…

I can’t say that Demonoid is a good movie, but I sort of liked it. There is some decent gore with character after character being forced to cut off their hands as the demon tries to get to Jennifer. I also dig the crawling hands that keep popping up after it gets free in search of the next host. The sequence at the end where the hand manages to sneak around the church cutting both the phone lines and power before attacking is crazy and a hell of a lot of fun. I kept finding myself saying that none of it makes sense. But then I am watching a movie about an evil demon possessed hand. How picky can I be?

God help me I enjoyed the heck out of Demonoid. I used the word bonkers early in the review and that is the best description that I can give for this movie. The plot is crazy, the action over the top, and the gore cringe worthy. I can’t think of anything else that I could want in an early eighties horror flick. I have to be in the right kind of mood to watch something like this, so it is probably not a movie that I’m going to revisit often. But I can see this being one that I do dig out to show friend occasionally. I recommend Demonoid.

© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer