'Demonic' Trailer: 'District 9' Director Neill Blomkamp Is Back With A New Horror Movie

Neill Blomkamp is leaving big-budget sci-fi behind for indie horror. Demonic, the latest effort from the father of Chappie, is Blomkamp's first horror effort, and it's considerably smaller scale than the movies he's made before. Here, a young woman is forced to reconnect with her estranged mother. But this is no normal family reunion. Watch the Demonic trailer below.

Neill Blomkamp burst onto the scene with District 9, a film that landed the fledgling filmmaker Oscar nominations and plenty of hype. But perhaps it was more of a curse than a blessing, because everything Blomkamp has made after District 9 hasn't gone over so well. Is the filmmaker's post-District 9 work really that bad? Or was District 9 such a high-bar that he's had trouble clearing it ever since? I'm sure opinions vary on that one. For what it's worth, I think Elysium has its moments, but Chappie is bad across the board.

And now we have Demonic. It's a change of pace for Blomkamp. For one thing, it's a horror movie. For another, it has a much smaller budget than his previous feature films (Blomkamp is no stranger to smaller budgets, though, having helmed several short films). In Demonic, "A young woman unleashes terrifying demons when supernatural forces at the root of a decades-old rift between mother and daughter are ruthlessly revealed."

That plot is pretty vague! I've seen Demonic, and while I can't tell you my opinion of the film just yet, I can say there's a lot more going on than that synopsis, and this trailer, suggests. But as you can see, there's stuff going on here involving a video game-like simulation.

Demonic stars Carly Pope (Elysium), Chris William Martin (The Age of Adaline, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, The Vampire Diaries), and Michael Rogers (Siren, The Blacklist, Supernatural). Neill Blomkamp, Mike Blomkamp of STABILITi Studios, as well as Stuart Ford, and Linda McDonough of AGC Studios are on board as producers. Miguel Palos Jr., Alastair Burlingham, Charlie Dombek, Viktor Muller, and Steven St. Arnaud are serving as executive producers.

"IFC Midnight is an ideal brand for Neill's first foray into supernatural terror to be released theatrically and in other media and we're very confident in the job that Arianna [Bocco, IFC Films president] and her team are going to do," Stuard Ford said in a previous statement.

Demonic will arrive in theaters, on demand, and on digital on August 20, 2021.