Demonic has a promising premise and it has its harrowing moments, especially at the beginning. It also has a talented director in Neill Blomkamp. But overall the film is just a mess.

Neill Blomkamp has directed a number of excellent films with futuristic settings, ranging from District 9 (2009), Elysium(2013), to Chappie (2015). I definitely enjoyed those films. But Demonic is scientifically strange, it can be confusing at times, and it’s not in the same class as those previous films.

Demonic focuses on a woman named Carly, played by Carly Pope, who is selected to participate in an operation done via brainwaves, to get to the center of her mother’s issues. The operation goes awry and Carly finds herself in danger. The medical staff involved with the operation are Michael, played by Michael J. Rogers and Daniel, played by Terry Chen.

The premise of Demonic is similar to another film from earlier this year that that I also considered a flop, Reminiscence. There was simply too much confusion in Demonic, too many moments where you couldn’t put the pieces together, which contributed to Demonic being not very thrilling or suspenseful.

Demonic may be worthy of a watch for some viewers, and I was actually looking forward to the film. But it was very disappointing. I still have faith in Blomkamp to make brilliant films in, and about, the future. But until then I would prefer to revisit his other classics. I give Demonicjust two stars.