Okay, so I've seen a few posts about this in other threads, but I have some specific questions about this film. I understand Trevor is something of an expert on it. I'm hoping perhaps he may have posed my exact questions (or variations thereof) to Mr. Percival Rubens himself before he passed on. I'm curious about THE DEMON because it was the first horror film I ever saw. It's like losing your virginity to a creepy, ugly babysitter with no social skills -- you'll always wanna know what she's up to, and what her problem was.
What's up with the sea? Did the Demon come from the sea? Where did the Demon come from? Was he actually a demon?
Why was one of the girls American and the other South African? Was the South African one trying to do an American accent? Was it supposed to take place in South Africa or "America?" Was the South African girl visiting the American one or vice versa?
Why were the stories so tangentially related? Was it organic to the script, or reworked to fit the actors' schedules?
Why did the naked broad put a shower curtain and shower cap on at the end? What exactly happened at the end? Why did the demon turn into a plastic mask and bad wig after the girl stabbed him?
Was the randomness of the plot a creative choice on the part of Percival Rubens to be ambiguous and mysterious, or was it just bad filmmaking? Likewise, was the darkness a creative choice on the part of the DP to be spooky, or just bad filmmaking? Is the tackiness and rough-hewn appearance of the film due to a bad print circulating around the US, or did it always look like that? What's the difference between the version widely available on video, and the one in the SA archives?
Was Percival Rubens happy with the way the film was received? Did he make out like a bandit, or was he miffed that it didn't do better? How successful was it, exactly?
What's an underpants archivist? Do you archive underpants in film, or underpants in person?
To answer your last question, I've been a film archivist for the last 22 years and my undies are a standing (as they can actually stand on their own by now
) joke around here so I just combined the two.
I addressed almost all of your questions in my summing up part of my review: I will post it before the end of this month.
Percival was a long time friend of mine and the DP Vincent Cox ASC is both a friend and mentor to me.
The print we have at
www.national.archives.gov.za is, according to Percival, completely uncut and in pristine condition ~ however we can't view it because it is considered a master as we don't hold the original camera and optical sound negatives of this film.
All shall be revealed before the end of this month: but not my undies, thankfully.
