So, it’s been a while since I’ve done this, but I thought I’d do another Live Movie Review. If you haven’t read these, it’s basically my thoughts about a movie as I’m watching it. Today, I’m reviewing the Shudder original, Sorry About the Demon (2023). On Rotten Tomatoes, the critics give it a 91% while audiences gave it 60%. It’s a horror comedy written by Emily Hagins and directed by… Emily Hagins.  

Here’s your spoiler warning if you don’t want to be spoiled. 

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Here we go… 

So, it starts off with the logos of the film companies and normally it’s rather boring. However, they use a ticking clock, like the ones from the grandfather clocks, and the ticking gets quicker with each tick. It creates a foreboding feeling. Turns out it is a grandfather clock as the camera goes throughout the house looking at the sleeping inhabitants of the house. The clocks turn 3:15 a.m. and that’s when the supernatural stuff starts happening. We’re about two minutes into the film and it just kicks off immediately. I like that because you cut out all the setting up that we’ve seen in every other demon movie. The family moves into the old house, there’s some strange Captain Howdy stuff going on, the little girl gets possessed. We’ve seen it millions of times, move on. We know how Uncle Ben and the Wayne family dies. 

The mom, dad, and brother come to the aid of the youngest member of the family, the daughter. Less than four minutes into the film and the three family members hear a male sinister voice saying, “Grace has been taken.” The demon inhabiting the girl warns the family that they shouldn’t have moved in there because the house is owned by Deominous (Don’t hate me for misspelling that). The brother hilariously calls out the fact that a demon named Deominous owns the house, lol.  

So, instead of calling the Church or an exorcist, the family bargains with the demon. They say they’ll get the demon another human sacrifice if they can have their daughter back and they can live in the house. Interesting alternative choice. The bargain works and Grace comes back. Now they have to find a person to sacrifice.  

Enter Will, a work at home employee of a toothpaste complaint department. His girlfriend of five years is growing tired of him and his oppressive work life. She breaks up with him. Will has to find a new place to stay and falls into the clutches of the family from the beginning. The mom and dad are creepy realtors that prey on Will’s insecurities. 

Will decides to take the place and the family leaves. The demon starts right up to its old tricks immediately, but Will doesn’t even notice.  

There’s a part when Will goes down into the basement and finds a piano. Not only does Will know how to play, but he proceeds to play the theme from Monopoly. That’s when he finds a chair that’s rocking by itself. Do you think Will thinks there’s a demon? No, he just thinks it’s a cool chair.  

Just like clockwork, at the 23-minute mark, the clock turns 3:15 a.m. and the demon goes to possess the slumbering Will. He gets led down to the basement. He finds his lost work phone down there and he just believes that a rat moved his headset down there. However, he starts to get weirded out by all the things happening.  

So, one of Will’s many hobbies is baking. One morning, he wakes up to find a cake in the oven. When he takes it out, it’s frosted with black frosting with red lettering stating, “I will have your soul.” 

And you know what he says…. a simple, “Hmmm.” Bruh, I’d by flying out that house. He invites his friend over and when Will tastes the frosting, the friend starts chastising him about how it could be made with human blood or poison. Love the friend, lol.  

It’s a funny scene. Not hilarious, but funny. 

Turns out there’s a couple of ghosts in the house that are trying to get Will to leave so that the demon doesn’t possess his soul. He tries going back to his girlfriend but finds that she has moved on with another boyfriend. He goes back to his house and when the ghosts tell him to leave, he’s like, “Apparently I’m not welcome anywhere else so we’ll have to figure it out.” 

I really enjoy the ghosts trying to freak Will out, but he’s just not having any of it.  

One of the ghosts tells Will he has to leave because he isn’t the sacrifice the demon wants. Will gets angry at that and asks the ghost to ask the demon what’s wrong with him.  

His buddy tries to set him up one night and it turns out the lady used to cleanse houses to earn extra college money. The three of them go to the house to cleanse it. As expected, the cleansing goes terribly awry. The demon possesses his friend. “Deominous likes nerds,” the demon says. But the lady friend casts out the demon from the friend. 

So, Will decides to stay in the house because the demon doesn’t want his soul. The friend tells his ex-girlfriend that he was in an accident and when Will gets back from the hospital (the demon broke his arm), he finds the ex in front of his house. She asks to come inside the house and Will thinks it’s a bad idea. Because of ghosts, you know? 

The ex walks off leaving Will to enter his house again, but the ex comes back. She ends up entering the house. One thing leads to another, and they have dinner together. And while they’re making love (off screen) you see that the demon rises again.  

The next morning, Will finds out that Amy, his girlfriend, has been possessed by the demon. No shocker, right? 

He ties up his possessed girlfriend so that he can cleanse the demon from her. He tries to exorcise his girlfriend while talking to his boss and HR over the phone but ends up getting fired. His friends show up to help. The original family also shows up thinking that the demon has what it wants so they can take up residence in the house again.  

I won’t spoil the rest of the movie for you. But I thought it was a smart, comical demon possession film. It’s not overly funny, but that’s one of the things I like about the film. It takes the seriousness of a demonic possession film and adds a varnish of comedy over it so that it’s not your typical horror film.  

The acting was good, the script was well written, and the ending was fairly predictable, but I still had fun with things. Overall, I suggest checking out this film with friends and family that like funny horror films.