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Demon Under Glass |  | Director: Jon Cunningham
Actors: Jason Carter, Garett Maggart, Jack Donner, Denise Alessandria Hurd, Ray Proscia
Studio: Bci / Eclipse Music
Category: DVD
Buy New: $8.80
as of 3/21/2010 02:28 EDT details
New (1) Used (3) from $0.98
Seller: fabfreebird
Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 107466
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 111 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 787364533992
EAN: 0787364533992
ASIN: B0002CX1CU
Theatrical Release Date: June 20, 2002
Release Date: July 13, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
 I actually love this (it's good AND bad) December 23, 2009
Amanda Pike (NY)
I'd like to review the film Demon Under Glass. First let me start by saying the story is good, the writing isn't bad. The Demon Under Glass film was written by the same woman who wrote the novel, D. L. Warner. She actually wrote the novel at the same time as she wrote the film. The novel however has double the plot length, and, though obscure, bears an interesting plot.
The film Demon Under Glass was a low budget horror film of the early 2000s and the plot of the film is only about half the plot.
First, a qualitive comparison of the film to the novel since both were written at the same time.
The novel is about double the length, in regard to story content. And once you get past the plot used for the movie the story in the novel really takes off and grabs you. Demon under glass is a very unique novel.
An immortal, traditional, undead, nocturnal, blood drinking vampire going by the contemporary name of Simon Molinar gets captured by the U.S. Government. He is kept in a high tech laboratory cell where doctors study him in secret while the general public remains unaware that vampires truly exist.
Simon Molinar under-goes several cruel experiments which cause the reader to question: Who are the monsters here? The vampire actually befriends one of his captors, a Dr. Joe McKay. Dr. Joe McKay was a last minute replacement for a doctor who had been killed while they were trying to capture the vampire.
As the story progresses, despite being a killer, you start to see the vampire as the tragic anti-hero, reminiscent of Thomas Jerome Newton (the alien protagonist of Walter Tevis' The Man who fell to Earth).
Simon Molinar is unashamed of who and what he is and survives much as many other predators would survive and though classified as evil by almost all of the rest of the story's cast you come to realize he's not the most evil being in the story. He is merely a survivor.
Simon is cruelly experimented on. His confinement consists of a small room with a glass two way mirror and a metal casket-type of box that is locked from the outside while he is sleeping. For safety reasons they keep him in the casket by night, completely throwing off his sleep pattern, as to be certain he can't escape while they are studying him by daylight (which will burn him if he attempts to escape).
One particularly cruel test is when they expose a section of his arm to varying degrees of sunlight to see how severely it would burn him and then when it is over they refuse to feed him blood as to see how quickly he can heal without feeding.
After a time the group decide to destroy the vampire now that they have finished studying him. The fact remains that he is a killer and to be honest they would rather keep in captivity a specimen that has not taken the lives of other humans. It's mostly politics at this point.
Simon Molinar (our vampire anti-hero) manages to escape and this is where the film version ends. I feel at this point D. L. Warner felt her liberty as a writer and started to stretch her legs into the world of Gothic horror / Scifi.
The agency has discovered that their own employ, Dr. Joe McKay, has the rare genetic predisposition to be able to be transformed into a vampire by means of the samples they obtained from their former vampire captive.
After discretely studying Dr. Joe McKay in his day to day life, as a human, for two years, analyzing his typical habits they decide to make their move and transform him into a vampire.
Poor Dr. McKay has no idea of what is being planned for him as he has been living a relatively ordinary life until this point, unaware that every aspect of his life after Simon Molinar's escape, has been carefully studied and planned by the very people he works for, even the woman who claimed to love him.
It's actually by the mercy of his own former prisoner, Simon, that Dr. Joe McKay learns what is going on and must flee from the very people he used to work for with the blood thirsty vampire as his only ally...
The novel is intelligently written though a little heavy handed with some of it's messages, sort of like the film The Breed starring Adrian Paul. In general it's a refreshingly unique take on the vampire story. It's an obscure novel. I had to obtain my copy through amazon but it was worth the bother. I liked it very much. There's some great dark humour to it as well such as an explanation as to why so many vampires seem to shop at Walmart (something Anne Rice started with her novel Tale of the body thief). You can really tell that after writing the screenplay for the film (of which she was writing at the same time) D. L. Warner started to really have fun with the story with the portion of the novel that had nothing to do with the film. The style of writing drastically improves.
It's not a perfect novel but it is a good read and it's not bad for the author's first attempt at legitimate writing. The messages are a little heavy handed and some of the so-called science makes little sense or contradicts real science but this is more plot driven than actual scifi.
The novel used to be published as a simple, medium sized, glossy thin book with a dark brownish cover. The current cover now has a picture of the examination table from the film and the metal casket-like box the vampire was forced to sleep in by night.
The film is a low budget independent piece worthy of Mystery science theatre (now Rifftrax) but the novel is a very interesting read and I recommend it for anyone looking for something new in vampire lore besides the cliches and sparkles of Twilight. It's a worthwhile novel that I enjoyed and will read again.
The author uses science and technobabble in a false intellectualism / Scifi complexity. All it really reveals is her own limited knowledge of biology. Her terminology is flawed and out dated and her so-called Science doesn't hold up well under real evaluation. I know it's fiction but if you're going to use real science you need to have a certain plausability.
The symbolism is heaving handed. The characters like Joe McKay spell things out for you with dialogue that might as well be shouts of 'The vampire's not evil! My bosses are!'
The novel's ending was not as satisfying as it could have been. It felt like the start of an on-gong book series which never actually happened. And the 'sequels' (if you can call them that) are ultimately disappointing as they are really nothing more than published slash fan fictions about Dr. Joe McKay and Simon Molinar. The author of the first novel even gives an introduction at the start of the sequel books to say 'This is not canon to my story. It's fan fiction but it's good fan fiction.' I know she hasn't forgotten her fan fiction writer roots and his trying not to leave her old fan fiction writer friends behind but I'm not into reading sequels by different authors that look like they belong in the adult sections of fan fiction net. And it kind of spoils it when the books themselves begin with the author saying 'These are not canon.' Well, are we ever going to get the canon continuation?
Other than these flaws I really do like the book Demon Under Glass though I could never be so kind about the novel's sequels.
The film Demon Under Glass is another matter. It gets points for being a verbal translation of the novel, unlike Queen of the damned, which had nothing to do with the novel of the same name or the 1944 version of The Canterville Ghost which was nothing more than World War 2 propaganda.
The biggest problem with Demon Under glass is the budget must have been a literal shoe string. I mean it looks like someone probably traded a very pretty shoe string for an old VHS camcorder and shot the majority of the film in his garage studio.
The film Demon Under Glass has a laughable budget, poor effects and some very cheesy over acting.
The very first time we see Simon Molinar in the film it's before his capture. He's roaming a city (or what's supposed to be a city but it looks more like a suburb) looking for a prostitute to feed upon and apparently the film makers had to tell us he's a vampire immediately by having him pause to lick his fangs right at the camera. This was groan worthy.
The next groan worthy moment is during Simon's capture as the men are 'beating' him there is no sound. I don't know if this is meant for dramatic emphasize but it just makes it all the more obvious that they are pounding on nothing.
After Simon's capture the 'High tech' facility holding him isn't very High tech at all. As I said, it appears to have been filmed in someone's garage and the visuals work much better in the novel. The budget was unquestionably low. The telephones used were out of the late eighties at best, the old ground like with the curly cord. Even the cell phones were out of date, looking like the lower quality ones sold in the mid-nineties, the disposable kind. I always figured a secret government agency would have nicer cell phones. Even Joe Dawson's mobile phone on Highlander the series (1995) is more modern than what we see in Demon Under Glass.
Also for a film made in 2002 and set in a hgih tech lab their computers look to be at LEAST ten years old.
The acting is hammy and often forced. At one point a character might as well be saying 'I am government man! The government has sent me!'
I admit it's a fun movie if you want to heckle it though. It's certainly better than Queen of the damned. I like the ideas projected in Demon Under Glass. And the actual story is very good. With a higher budget this could have been a fine movie. I was disappointed that the story of the film is only half of what's in the novel though what is in the film surprisingly IS faithful to the first half of the novel. It's as faithful as you can get with a very limited budget.
So this is a film you should watch for a good laugh as an unintentional comedy or if you can get past the hammy moments and cheese (It sounds like a sandwich when you think of it like that and now I'm hungry...) the actual story and ideas behind it are very interesting. It's certainly a unique vampire film and I'd rather watch it than Queen of the damned or Twilight.
I actually sincerely wish the Rifftrax guys (formerly Mystery Science theatre) would heckle Demon Under Glass. It would be such a pleasure to watch their heckling of this. I like Demon Under Glass as being one of those films that is so bad it's good and, in my opinion, better than some of the successful vampire films out there. It's the vampire equivalent of Plan 9 from Outer Space only with meaning and substance.
A very intelegent film January 3, 2009
anonymous
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This movie came in a compilation of about 10 movies. It was the best of the lot. It's not your standard fare for horror flicks... there's minimal gore and only a hint of nudity. Aside from the main character being a vampire, I'd say it's not really a horror film (I like to think of it as more of an observation of human behavior.) I really liked how the movie was character driven; you really get a feel for each one. Upon starting the film, I had minimal hopes, as less than half the collection were even watchable, but ended up being pleasantly surprised! Two thumbs up!
Privileged to be a part of the fun June 7, 2006
Majinat
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I was privileged to be one of the "independent" contributors to this movie/DVD. Demon turned out so much better than I could have ever imagined. It's not "Oscar"-worthy, but it was never meant to be. The movie definitely makes you think and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the very end. Jason and Garett both brought life to their roles in a marvelous and actually believable way. I may be biased due to my involvement, but I still think it's a really good movie and encourage open minds and imaginations when viewing.
 A new and intriguing twist on the Ancient Vampire legend. March 3, 2006
Frank Rheins
7 out of 12 found this review helpful
Demon Under Glass
Well, I won't use the sweeping phrase "best vampire movie I ever saw," but I will term this unheralded DVD the most interesting of the genre. Made possible by an entity called "Dragoncor/EarthDragon," the film-makers definitely put forth a lot of intellectual effort, and, in doing so, offset the underfunded production values with considerable success. Their cerebral approach? Attempting to attach intriguing scientific explanation to enduring legend; placing supernatural manifestation under the microscope in an attempt to unravel the secrets of a scary phenomenon.
The movie starts off with a briefly written explanation: A serial killer is loose in Los Angeles. Nicknamed "Vlad" by the media due to the distinctively gruesome condition of his victims, the murderous criminal is very soon caught in a prostitution sting, then abruptly confronted by a mysterious task force of the U.S. Government. In a running, pitched battle, the hypothetical vampire is brought to heel and then whisked away to the research section of a VA Hospital.
This unknown, frighteningly dangerous creature becomes the centerpiece of a research project code-named "Delphi." Soon enough the captive earns the term "living impossibility" by the lead scientist, a man who readily blinds himself to risk because of an insatiable thirst for hidden knowledge. Amidst a series of discoveries that unfold in an environment rife with tension-surprising revelations that turn the known mechanics of human physiology upside down-one significant yet slowly revealed "revelation" is grasped too, too slowly by the people who think they hold all the cards: "Vlad" can be persuasive, insidiously so. Secure doors, one-way mirrors and ever-present guards just might not be up to the challenge of keeping him down.
With the overview of this good horror picture out of the way-a production cast and crew alike should be proud of-I will mention here some of the nagging defects that briefly bothered my eye, tickled my ear and caused my brain to spasm during what was largely a superb effort that bore plentiful fruit.
The action scenes at the beginning of the movie could have been choreographed a bit more professionally. I guess such flaws are to be expected; this was definitely a film whose "shoe-string budget" put a damper on the visuals.
The security barriers that kept the outside world away from the research project were ludicrously inadequate; from what I gathered, there was but one: A nurse behind a desk, who seemed to be constantly on the phone. That hardly makes for an effective deterrent against potential intruders, especially anyone who might be motivated to track down a notorious serial killer; a shadowy figure whose results were widely known to the media and certainly impacted the victims' survivors.
It struck me as oddly puzzling how dense and callous one of the leads-a bright and caring young internist-could act at times. First, it took him far too long to link the strange man under his care-a position, admittedly, that was thrust upon him-with the killer tagged "Vlad" by the media. (Maybe because he was so busy seeing to Veterans, he never had the chance to read the papers before the real deal itself showed up and altered his life forever.) Second, he started cooling to the creature a bit late in the game. I mean, any person with the moral fiber this man obviously possessed would have suspected from the get-go his enigmatic patient's fresh blood needs more than likely involved a history of murder.
On top of the youngest doctor's briefly strange lapses, two of his senior cohorts' behavior toward the end also threw me for a loop. Suffice to say the effort to advance the study had one acting in rapid succession fiendishly appalling than brutally uncaring; the other reached disgustingly culpable shortly after oozing a stench of wimpish criminality. (I guess "Vlad" could have been acting telepathically behind the scenes, but, if so, I must have missed that angle entirely.)
Finally, there were a few significant loose strings still hanging at the closing credits. I don't want to get into too much detail here, because it might spoil crucial aspects of the story, but Vlad's past doings could have been explored and explained a bit more comprehensively.
In this last paragraph I do feel compelled to end on a positive note. I mean, it's the least I can do, since I did enjoy the film, very much so. All the actors throughout, despite the aforementioned inconsistencies in behavior and "Vlad's" elegant darkness, struck me as everyday people with everyday good looks realistically and believingly confronting an alluring yet disturbing mystery. No "ravishing divas, incomparably handsome leading men and celebrated acting skills" of the big budgeted movies here. These actors, in an understated professionalism, duplicated very closely what one would expect to see in the environment and situations presented.
(Okay, I lied!! There is one more complaint, and it's not just for this movie: Military guards, who find themselves in imminently hostile environments, are not in the least likely to remain at parade rest incessantly, staring straight ahead and needlessly tiring themselves out, thus being less than fully prepared for danger when it strikes!)
http://www.frankrheins.com
Peeking THRU the glass July 21, 2005
S. Banzhaf (Iowa, USA)
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
..........and what do we find inside?
"Vamp gets caught by nasty Gov and gets the lab-rat routine"
Sounds like Ho-hUM. WRONG. VERY (!!) well made and HIGH quality independant film, well acted and scripted. Nothing new, but presented so well, you will want to watch more than a few times, if not add to your collection. More psychological than scare tactics....but it's the hook that will keep you a fan of this film.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 12
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