In this low-budget horror/mystery hybrid, a freelance private eye /demonologist (Dustyn Gulledge) and his less capable, but highly knowledgeable “guy in the chair” (Eugene Young) are hired by a client in relation to a mysterious case, tied up in demonologist Miles Mako’s own haunted past.
Anyone who’s a fan of DC/Vertigo’s John Constantine, Hellblazer, Jim Butcher’s long-running series of Dresden Files books, Clive Barker’s Harry d’Amour character, or the Buffy spin-off Angel will likely already recognise the kind of territory we’re entering here. The Demon Detective may not do anything new but what it does, it does with a reasonable degree of charm – Eugene Young emerges as the film’s most likeable character, though additional comic relief is provided by a group of irritating, clueless, yet loveable paranormal YouTubers – they’re in the vein of the student filmmakers occasionally utilised on Better Call Saul.
That’s the kind of production Demon Detective is; it doesn’t take itself overly seriously, which helps it to succeed, and when things do venture into darker territory, as in the fairly dramatic climax, it doesn’t blow any of the accumulated goodwill – even if the film does “contain a lot of terminology” as my wife commented watching it. Helping sell it to horror fans is a small but memorable appearance by Doug Jones, Hollywood’s go-to squidman in Hellboy, Star Trek: Discovery and The Shape of Water, as well as giving memorable turns as the Faun/Pale Man in Pan’s Labyrinth and the chief Gentleman in one of the best Buffy episodes. If you’re a creature fan then you’ll wait and wait for him to appear, and when he finally does he instantly steals the show, in an unusually monster-makeup-free rôle. Also putting in bit parts are John Carpenter collaborator Adrienne Barbeau (The Fog, Escape from New York) and Kill Bill‘s Vivica A. Fox, adding value to an unoriginal but well-realised stroll through paranormal territory.