Demon of Paradise

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source: Demon of Paradise

Cirio H. Santiago's Demon of Paradise is a cold, gritty film which draws parallels with the then imminent cold war. At first glance this masterpiece may be seen as a simple monster flick, such as Jaws or Godzilla. However if studied closely the immersive story and fast pace make this film a modern classic. Set in the idealic Kihono, Hawaii which gives a great locale for the gripping story. Along with the great location a great cast appear. One shining example of this is from the late William Steins who gives a chilling earthy realism to his acting. The special effects bring the carnivorous lizard-man to life, you can truly see the rage within him. Of course the carnivorous lizard-man connotes the soviet rule. Where communism is here to wreak havoc with capitalism. Not only is this film a monster flick, it is a political point of view. Edward Achacoso's musical score adds to the suspense of the film with its synthesised instruments which give the film a sense of un-easiness. The score is up there with others such as Blade Runner and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Cirio H. Santiago's Direction gives this film a fast pace with an intelligent storyline, which makes great viewing. I give this film 9 stars.

One of my many personal defaults is that, for some incomprehensible reason, I desperately desire to see all the cheesy mutant sea/swamp monster movies ever made. Knowing that approximately 95% of those are incompetent and amateurish Z-grade trash productions, my obsession is actually the equivalent of cinematic self-torture! "Demon of Paradise" is another piece of rock-bottom, pretty much on par with notorious titles such as "Zaat", "Octaman", "Spawn of the Slithis", "Hydra", "Rana: Legend of Shadow Lake", "Monstroid" and "Up from the Depths". If none of these titles rings a bell, that means there still hope for you! Stay away from them as far as possible! "Demon of Paradise" takes place in a small Hawaiian fishing community, where the obnoxious villagers have been using so much illegal dynamite in their profession that it has awakened an ancient and very upset lizard monster. What follows is an incredibly boring and clichéd film with immeasurably long sequences where nothing happens and pseudo-intellectual dialogs that are irrelevant and senseless. The monster itself is reasonably good-looking, although it's another umpteenth attempt to imitate the appearance of the "Creature of the Black Lagoon", but it nearly doesn't receive enough screen time. Cirio H. Santiago produced and directed approximately 80 exploitation films in his life, all of them shamelessly cashing in on some trend that was popular and money-earning at some point. I've only seen a handful of his titles, but more than enough to declare him to be one of the worst directors who ever lived.

This is the seventh film I've seen by Filipino director Cirio H. Santiago; of the previous six, I've only rated one higher than 4/10 (the gloriously daft Future Hunters). Demon of Paradise does nothing to raise my average rating for Santiago's movies. Set in Hawaii, but most likely filmed in the Philippines, the film is an aquatic B-movie creature feature that features one of the worst man-in-a-rubber-suit monsters I've seen - not quite Zaat or Octaman bad, but still more likely to elicit laughs rather than screams of fear. Not that we get to see much of the 'demon', the majority of the film revolving around the human characters, with only the briefest glimpses of the monster as it pokes its ridiculous looking head out of the water looking for victims. A carnivorous humanoid reptile from the Triassic period, Akua (as the locals call it) is woken from hibernation by hunters using dynamite to fish the waters of a lake. Herpetologist Annie (Kathryn Witt) hopes to catch the creature alive so that she can study it, but local cop Keefer (William Steis) wants it dead before it kills any more people, in particular the guests at the local resort owned by Cahill (Laura Banks), who has used the rumours of a legendary lizard monster to bring in more business. With plenty of scope for exploitative fun, this should have been a corker - a Filipino Humanoids From The Deep - but Santiago's dull direction, the tedious talky script, the risible creature, and not nearly enough gore and nudity all go to make this film quite the snooze-fest for most of the time. We get a total of two mauled bodies (mediocre make-up), only one pair of breasts (courtesy of Leslie Scarborough as coke-snorting glamour model Gabby), and the hilarious sight of Akua leaping into the air to pull a helicopter into the water (just how much does that creature weigh?) - I expected more. The awful ending sees the apparently bullet-proof monster finally being blown to pieces by hand-grenades, with Annie remarking ominously to Keefer, 'You ever pull the tail off a lizard?'. Sure, Annie, but I've never seen a lizard put itself back together after being reduced to bloody chunks by high explosives. 3/10.

Demon of Paradise (1987) * 1/2 (out of 4) A bunch of mean guys using dynamite to fish end up disrupting a lizard-like creature who soon goes on a killing spree where no one in the Hawaiian locations are safe. DEMON OF PARADISE comes from the Philippines and is pretty much a wannabe CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. How much entertainment you get out of it will depend on your feelings towards ultra low-budget movies with bad acting, bad dialogue and just an all around "bad" movie feel. If you're looking for a good movie then go check out the Universal title. If you're just wanting to kick back, turn your brain off and have some cheap fun then you might want to check this out. I will admit that I enjoy watching bad movies but this one here had a few too many boring spots to keep it at an entertaining level throughout. With that said, there are certainly some moments of hilarity that make it worth watching for fans of bad movies. For starters, the lizardman costume is so funny looking that you can't help but think the creature in THE GIANT CLAW had a baby with some sort of lizard. Another great moment happens when a helicopter is flying a tad bit too low. I won't spoil what happens but laughs will certainly follow. It's really too bad that DEMON OF PARADISE didn't have more scenes with the monster because he's certainly the funnest part of the film. As it is, there are too many slow and boring scenes with talky dialogue that isn't entertaining.

Cirio H. Santiago is a prolific Filipino director who churned out a string of exploitation movies throughout the '70s, '80s and '90s and is still going strong today. I'm sure his films always make money, for the simple reason that it costs about ten bucks to make them! DEMON OF PARADISE is a case in point, a cheesy re-run of the classic CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON with the absence of anything approaching a decent storyline, any notable actors or acting, and, most unforgivably, a serious shortage of creature action. Sure, in the last ten minutes the monster goes wild and on the rampage, but even then we don't get to see any gore or serious bloodshed. Fans of '80s monster movies will, I'm sure, know to expect and love some carnage from their rampaging beasties, but here there's nothing. Nada. I'll say this for Santiago: he always knows how to shoot a good-looking film on a low budget. Here, there are plenty of lush Filipino locations, from lakes to forests and beaches and more. Now, the film is supposed to be set in Hawaii, and an overcast, cloudy Philippines sure as hell doesn't look like Hawaii, but the locations are still the best part of the movie. Well, those and the music, which is of the cheap synthesiser variety but still pretty damn decent for a film of this ilk. As for the storyline, as I said before there isn't one; instead, it's like the writer took a load of elements from the JAWS movies and PIRANHA and other associated films and threw together a cheap monster flick as a result. Santiago shows his predilection for action with a few shoot-outs and plenty of cool explosions, which break up the monotony of the movie but are still few and far between. The high point of the film is a reprise of the 'helicopter attack' from JAWS 2; if you thought the scene in that film where the shark pulls a helicopter into the water couldn't get any cheesier, check out this film (let's just say a toy helicopter features heavily). Acting is rubbish from the entire cast, with Kathryn Witt as the female scientist being particularly bad. Wooden William Steis isn't much cop as the sheriff, either, and it's down to sometime scream-queen Leslie Scarborough to raise the male pulse with a * swim that goes nowhere. The monster suit for the 'demon' is laughably bad as you'd expect and the ending is absolutely hilarious. Was there a sequel? Nope, but "have you ever pulled a lizard's tail off?".

Dynamite used for illegal fishing awakens a man-like lizard creature on a Hawaiian island, which draws the attention of the local sheriff (William Steis) and a marine biologist (Kathryn Witt). A resort owner (Laura Banks) takes advantage of the region's mythological monster to attract business, but the situation turns horrific when bodies mount up. "Demon of Paradise" (1987) is a creature feature that mixes the basic plot of "Jaws" (1975) with "The Great Alligator" (1979) and "Gargoyles" (1972). The helicopter scene from "Jaws 2" (1978) is ripped off, but is sophomoric by comparison. Some have called it an unacknowledged Filipino remake of "Up from the Depths" (1979) by the producer of that movie, Cirio H. Santiago, albeit with a different monster. While the events purportedly take place in Hawaii, the scenery appears like the Philippines and the natives look like Filipinos, obviously because that's where it was shot. If you can get past that and the low-rent opening credits, this is a decent creature feature with a relatively unique-looking monster. I was expecting something more along the lines of the Gill-Man from "Creature of the Black Lagoon" (1954) or the creatures from "Humanoids of the Deep" (1980), and there's a little of that, of course, but it's different enough and effective enough. The sheriff and marine biologist make for stalwart and likable protagonists, but they're offset by the shrill Banks (the resort owner) and the trying-too-hard to be "comedic" Frederick Bailey. Meanwhile the beauty department is limited to the too-thin tall blonde Leslie Scarborough. The film runs 1 hour, 27 minutes. GRADE: C

I got this film in a pack of two films, the other being a film called, "Up From the Depths". Neither film is particularly good as neither takes the course of action that would of made both films cheesy fun which is good graphic kills and lots of nudity. Sure, there is blood featured in both and sure there is a topless scene in each, but both films would have benefited by taking the Italian horror movie approach which is excess! The two films feature aquatic monsters and the other thing they have in common is that they both take place in Hawaii and another thing they share is that neither film was actually shot in Hawaii. "Up From the Depths" did an okay job of recreating Hawaii; however, this film did not. In fact, it did quite a bad job of it as they did not even bother filming in a location with the ocean, instead electing to say that the resort featured in this film was on a Hawaiian lake which did not resemble a lake in Hawaii as it was rather dirty. I thought the people looked like they were from the Philippines and I was correct as that is where this one is shot. As I said, you just did not get a Hawaii vibe from this film at all. The story has some dudes selling illegal dynamite and it is an explosion from one of this sticks that we have to deduce freed the monster. The boat setting off charges explodes and get used to that as there are more explosions featured in this film than there are on screen monster kills. The sheriff is skeptical that there is a monster while a scientist thinks there is something and the dudes selling dynamite may be going into business with the mob. A reporter decides to not report the story and instead hook up with the owner of the most depressing looking resort ever to try and lure people into the place by advertising the monster. Occasionally, the monster shows up and oftentimes the poor thing does not get to kill anyone as there is an explosion that kills everyone. At the end, the monster goes on a full on assault because it is probably tired of not getting to kill anyone. The characters in this one are another weak point in said movie. They are all rather bad. You have sheriff with a secret past that is skeptical, but wants to stop the killings. You have the scientist who wants to take in the beast alive and who sees something in one of her underwater jaunts that is so upsetting, but I couldn't tell you what it was. You have irritating newspaper guy and resort owner who at least die, but not horrifically enough. Then, like in "Up From the Depths", there is supermodel who is staying at said resort who flashes her boobies. I guess it is not too surprising that this film is similar to, "Up From the Depths" as Roger Corman had a hand in both of them and he would literally remake a couple of his films nearly shot for shot. So, this film is bad. It is hard to believe that this one was not more awesome considering that Roger also made the similarly themed, "Humanoids From the Deep" which had lots of good kills and nudity. It is like he did not even try here and instead nearly made a remake of the equally bad, "Up From the Depths" only replacing the shark monster with a humanoid monster which didn't look all that bad. Too bad they were too busy showing us illegal dynamite sellers and other pointless plot points when they could have shown more monster on the rampage scenes. Also, the ending line where the scientist says, "You ever cut the tail off a lizard" is rather lame because the monster was blown the up in this one. A lizard can grow its tail back, but said tail cannot grow a lizard and a lizard's body cannot regenerate at head!

A carnivorous reptilian humanoid brute of local legend (played by some poor zhlub in a laughably hokey and obvious rubbery suit) terrorizes a tropical resort after fishermen using dynamite awaken it from its many decades of slumber. It's up to fetching herpetologist Annie (an appealing turn by the fetching Kathyrn Witt) and skeptical no-nonsense sheriff Keefer (a likable performance by William Steis) to kill the bloodthirsty beastie. With fumbling (non)direction by Cirio H. Santiago, a plethora of dippy dialogue, a meandering narrative, poky pacing, infrequent and flatly staged monster attack set pieces, mild cheesy gore, zero tension or spooky atmosphere, loads of exotic local color tossed in as complete filler, and a priceless rousing conclusion with a commando unit of army guys opening up a king-sized barrel of raw hurtin' on the creature, this amusingly silly and schlocky piece of pure celluloid flotsam sure ain't remotely good, but still manages to be pretty enjoyable and occasionally quite sidesplitting in its hopelessly blatant ineptitude. The cast struggle gamely with the incredibly inane material, with especially admirable work by Laura Banks as bitchy and greedy resort owner Cahill, Frederick Bailey as obnoxious and opportunistic journalist Ike (Bailey also came up with the extremely asinine story), and striking blonde hottie Leslie Scarborough as vacuous pin-up model Gabby (the luscious Leslie removes her shirt and bares her beautifully bountiful breasts for the flick's yummy obligatory gratuitous topless scene). Ricardo Remias' bright cinematography gives this picture a slicker and more attractive look than it deserves (the effectively moody fog-shrouded nocturnal scenes are quite impressive). Ding Achacoso's shivery and syncopated score does the funky trick. A real tacky hoot.