Ciaran the Demon Hunter (2016) Reviews

• Not a horror film, this is an Art-house movie with horror and fantasy elements

  lillymurphy-701652017-04-24

  When I rented this, I was expecting a horror / fantasy film. Well it really isn't. This is a Art-house film that has horror and fantasy elements, at least that's the best way for me to describe it. Possibly more of a chick film than for men. I noticed how all of the female characters are in love with Ciaran. The story is interesting and maybe more European in design since you have to think about the scenes, where American's need everything dumbed down to follow anything today. There's metaphorical scenes such as a floating rose in water with it's dark shadow lurking below... good stuff! This made me really pay attention to each scene and what meaning was being conveyed. It was very unpredictable and I gave it another star for that, I had no idea where it was going and it held my attention completely. The strong music score really helped. The film didn't feel low budget except for some of the film noise in dark scenes, not too bad. I felt the cast (British and American) was very solid. The lead Peter Morton and "Willow" Joanna Wood really shined. I won't mention the VFX's used but they were good, I felt the film could have had more VFX, it was a bit short in length, but all in all for a low budget production it get's 8 stars from me.

• A new twist to exorcisms!

  malibusurferdude2017-05-01

  I've always been a fan of exorcism flicks.. so I rented this film and got to say it was entertaining and much better than I thought it might be. There's just so many "B" movies today in the horror genre that are seemingly made for a few scares, some shock / ultra gore, or some other cliché horror edification. Ciaran the Demon Hunter rises above all of this with an interesting story that blends life, fantasy and desires with horror. The story is about Ciaran a man of druidic ancestry from the Emerald Isle. Give it a go... you may find this as enteraining as I did.

• I keep thinking about this film!

  henryzach2017-04-25

  Strange film, not sure how to categorize it; part horror, part fantasy; a love story; a story of an unfulfilled life. Definitely Art-house, low budget and an no big name stars, but I have to say I really enjoyed it and have watched it twice because I kept trying to figure out some elements that confused me. The music was great, the cinematography was strong, especially in the beginning. I could see this as a TV series like Buffy.

• Privileged Irish line

  nogodnomasters2017-07-15

  Ciaran (spelled with a "C" and not a "K") is of a "privileged Irish line" one where he is raised with magical wood nymphs. An LA bishop requests in Latin for a demon hunter, so you know it has to be serious. Ciaran (Peter J. Morton) shows up and unlike most Irish, he puts demons into whiskey bottles instead of taking his demons out of one. That is the entire repetitive story line until the last 15 minutes when he tries to give away some ecstasy. Clearly they didn't have enough to make a full length feature. The plot was slow developing. The acting and dialogue left much to be desired. Flat characters. The special effects weren't great, but didn't need to be. I thought the first 5 minutes had decent cinematography, camera angles and framing etc. but then when the story turns boring, those things no longer matter. Guide: F-word. Implied sex or whatever that was supposed to be in the bed scene, no nudity.

• Awful

  artzau-531-9788392017-04-23

  Myth is good and in the wake of Peter Blatty's The Exorcist, we've seen a number of sequels, prequels-- none of which measured up to the original. Then we have the Irish fantasies based loosely on folklore surrounding the Celtic notion of the Se, many of which are terrible, stereotyped or used as a boilerplate for a knock-off horror or ghost film. What we have here in this film is a hybrid that meets neither of the generic criteria and takes itself too seriously. The story line goes from confusion to chaos as contradictions and non sequitur occur, ending up in a jumbled up mess that never resolves any of the conflicts. Make matters worse, the exorcist is not even an ordained priest but a shaman who craves to be a rock star with two teenybopper sprites as sidekicks. If you want decent fantasy, check out Robocop, Peter Weller in Buckaroo Banzai who is not only a scientist, CIA operative but a rock star as well.