Very, very slow and very, very contemplative, THE DEMONS (2015) unfolds much like a day in the life of a ten-year-old boy such as its protagonist, Felix (Édouard Tremblay-Grenier), whose every waking moment seems like a crossroads of decision and discovery.
Everyday things such as struggling through lessons, gyrating in the gym, swimming at the public pool, and all the tentative social interactions that go along with them, while hazily familiar to us, are life-altering experiences for Felix and are often accompanied by intensely dramatic music which he no doubt hears in his mind as the soundtrack to his life.
Writer-director Philippe Lesage shows us Felix's mental and emotional development in near-plotless fashion, very matter-of-factly presenting him with a constant flow of unfamiliar things to deal with.
In some crucial instances, Felix must let his conscience decide how cruel or how caring he's willing to be to others. At other times, he fearfully explores a burgeoning obsession with sexuality that causes almost unbearable inner turmoil and uncertainty.
We can remember how it was to seem normal on the outside while all this was raging inside us. We see Felix in situations we recognize such as hanging out with his older brother and his friends, hearing their strange and thought-provoking conversation that he finds in many ways confusing.
We feel his pain when he suffers the pangs of unrequited love for a young teacher, and recall the casual contempt he inflicts upon a younger boy his mother forces him to play with. A blow-up between his parents becomes a major family drama, and he constantly frets about signs of infidelity that prey upon his mind.
Lesage allows all this to play itself out at such a placidly languid pace that the film is almost halfway through before we really start to be truly engaged in watching Felix develop as a person. (Some viewers will no doubt have dropped out by then.)
It's also about this time that a rumor told by one of older brother François' friends, about a mysterious serial killer said to be preying upon local children, starts to affect Felix in ways both harrowingly real and disturbingly imagined.
Here, the film's odd title comes into play when some of Felix's childhood fears and regrets become hauntingly overbearing, while his conscience suffers new pangs of spiritual unease.
We want him to come through it all as most people do with age and experience, but we fear the evil that has already turned its eyes upon him.
THE DEMONS shows us a bland veneer, gradually reveals its many unquiet undercurrents, and makes us remember when growing up was like being lost in a dark forest and trying to follow the light.
Order it from Film Movement
Film Movement
2015
118 Minutes
Canada
French with English subtitles
Drama, Coming of Age
Not Rated
Extras: none
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