Reviews and notes

There's horror, and then there's NEW ZEALAND horror. And while Standring is hardly setting out to remake Bad Taste, he certainly doesn't let the standard droop. Good thing too, considering the mess his film leaves on the floor.

The Irrefutable Truth About Demons is a solid entry into the 'initiation' canon, wherein a supremely confident character is shaken to his very core by revelation and enlightenment the hard way. Harry (played by Karl Urban, Xena's Caesar) is a cult debunker who gets a tape in the mail covered in (he hopes) pig's blood. He's the target of a particular baddie named LaValient (ahem), and while he dismisses the threat, the fact that he's soon chained by the neck to the floor of a warehouse clues him in that it's serious. Events spiral even further out of Harry's control, as he's implicated in the bloody crucifixion of his girlfriend, this nutty chick named Benny is following him around and LaValient's friend, the eight-foot tall wall-climbing demon, keeps killing Harry's friends.

Another film (like Ginger Snaps) made on the cheap to great effect, The Irrefutable Truth About Demons is an amazingly effective horror thriller for a first-time director. Standring has a good feel for when to give the audience some slack and when to tighten the thumbscrews. And while the movie doesn't cover any new ground (the Invisibles influence is fairly noticeable) it does find a couple of interesting detours.
- Anton Sirius, Ain't It Cool News, 14 September 2000.


Today's tale tells about a man who is possibly being stalked by demons. He is a professor at a local university and he studies the occult. His brother was murdered a year earlier by unknown occultists, and now he believes they are after him. Of course there is good reason to believe this, since they kidnap him and torture him, or do they? Our professor is stressed out, still grieving from the loss of his brother, and has a predisposition to taking drugs. All the ingredients for an old-fashioned mind fuck! He encounters a mysterious woman who guides him on his journey into madness. This occult thriller takes you down a long dark road, and is a helluva trip, so let's go!

There was a decent amount of gore in this movie. There was a noteworthy crucifixion and a heart operation done completely without tools. There was also a lot of blood at times. There was some good violence too. Demons and mad cultists alike ripped, tortured and maimed. There was no nudity, I don't think... Hardly worth mentioning.

This is a dark movie, literally. Almost all of it was filmed at night in a dirty industrial part of a city in New Zealand. I loved this atmosphere. It distracted me from the fact that this was a lower budget flick that was filmed in a very short amount of time. Despite this, the acting was quite good, and the cult guys were downright scary looking. I thought Katie Wolfe should have been nominated for a Best Supporting Actress award as her portrayal of the lunatic ex-cultist Benny, but the Committee wouldn't hear of it. Good stuff nonetheless.

Overall, this movie was right up my alley. At no time was I bored. The low budget was rarely if ever exploited. The movie was dark and evil. The plot and storyline was good and the ending didn't piss itself.
- WL Paynecraft, Horrorwatch, 18 March 2004.

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