Demons In My Head
By John Oak Dalton • Aug 31st, 2004 • Category: Science FictionA meteor crashes in an average joe’s backyard, cracking open to reveal a strange headset that channels another dimension. Before long, our nebbishy protagonist is using the headset to take sweet revenge, and other bad things, in Neil Johnson’s The Demons In My Head, a
head-scratching mix of Cthulhu mythos and pulpish Sci-Fi.
Matthew Mariconte is Travis, whose dead-end life–brimming with unrequited love and self-loathing–takes a troubling turn when he finds the unusual headset buried in the smoking meteor. Soon he is seeing into a dark and twisted version of our own dimension–and likes what he sees. The longer he wears the headset, the greater his power over it grows, and soon he has opened a doorway between the
dimensions–as one might suspect, a bad idea.
Caught in the crossfire are two roommates, a man and a woman (Jane Rowland and Greg Bowman-Miles); the former, who he has been in love with, and the latter, who has loved him from afar. A rival for his roommate’s affections, and a pair of missionaries, also fall under Travis’ increasingly cold and alien gaze, and are forced to team up to defeat Travis’ unholy power.
Director Neil Johnson has cooked up a lot of clever ideas in The Demons In My Head, though some of it is somewhat cryptically presented, as the plot takes a couple of sharp twists and turns. Despite the rather grim and often grisly subject matter, Johnson has a light touch and a wry sense of humor. Especially enjoyable is a dimension-hopping old scholar who tries to turn Travis back on the right course; this character, played by David Vallon, reminded me not unkindly of William Hartnell or Jon Pertwee of Doctor Who fame, as I suspect was the intention.
The “behind the scenes” features on the DVD reveal that a lot of work was put into the CGI elements of the project, and are admirably done; thus, I was surprised when some of the core elements of shooting/editing/sound recording seemed a bit uneven. But Johnson showed a pretty steady eye throughout, and his unique vision outweighs some fundamental technical flaws.
I enjoyed The Demons In My Head for its original scripting, unique FX work, and other unusual elements; and I hope director Neil Johnson can parlay these talents into greater works in the future.
Three stars.
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John Oak Dalton is a Community Television Station Manager by day, and a DIY acolyte by night. In the 80s he made Super-8 movies and his own basement mix tapes. In the 90s he hosted a cable-access show and made his own zines and minicomics. In the 21st Century he began working with grassroots video and microcinema and writing b-movies, and has more than a dozen projects on the shelf, on screen, in development, or in production.
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