The Demon (2016)

directed by B. Tsogt-Erdene, O. Munguntulga
Mongolia
71 minutes
2.5 stars out of 5
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I was looking forward to this because I feel like it can be difficult to find movies that are just from Mongolia. A lot of the time you see movies made somewhere else (usually Russia, sometimes China) that are set in Mongolia. Or, if you're watching the SyFy Channel, maybe you'll end up with a movie filmed in Texas that's supposed to be set in Mongolia. Looking at you, Mongolian Death Worm (2010).

The interesting thing about The Demon is that the backbone of its plot is so old and archetypical, even though the rest of the movie tries very obviously to be as modern as possible. For instance, there are some shoehorned-in references to Western media, like when two characters argue over whether "Last Christmas" is by George Michael or Wham!. The setting of the film (young adults partying in a haunted house) is a cliched trope mostly invented by the horror genre, but the reason for their being pursued by an evil spirit is probably older than recorded history: the house they're in is where somebody died a bad death. She wasn't a bad person who did bad things, but because her death was unresolved and traumatic, she lingers on as a hostile spirit. I just find it really interesting that we're telling the same stories over and over even though the setting has changed.

It's interesting too that most of the characters are genuinely innocent. The only person with any real culpability is the kid who decided to just go on ahead and snatch his uncle's keys even though his uncle warned him to stay away from the house. None of the people this guy invited to the house had any idea of its history, but they were still targeted because the idea behind the lingering spirit isn't that it punishes people for what they did wrong, it just lashes out because it's angry, no matter if you're a good person or not.

I did give this a low rating, because objectively it's not a good movie for a lot of reasons. As a horror film it's lazy, with no personality or body for its villain other than that she's a scary witchy-looking thing that shows up sometimes and grabs people with her long craggly nails, and no personality for most of the good guys, either. But as happens often with films made outside of the mainstream- or even indie- U.S. entertainment industry, the low rating doesn't reflect my overall opinion of this film, because I appreciate that it exists, I appreciate everyone involved in making it, and I want to see more horror movies from Mongolia and from every other country that's been neglected in favor of American summer blockbusters about teens who get killed with axes. Also this is a Christmas movie so get in the spirit y'all.