Demons Never Die

Demons Never Die
Directed by	Arjun Rose
Produced by	John Adams Idris Elba Nick Leese Jason Maza Joanne Podmore Arjun Rose Rhian Williams
Written by	Arjun Rose
Starring	Robert Sheehan Jennie Jacques Jacob Anderson Jason Maza Emma Rigby Ashley Walters Reggie Yates Tulisa Contostavlos
Editing by	Tim Murrell
Distributed by	Exile Media Group
Release dates	October 28, 2011 (2011-10-28)
Running time	93 Min.
Country	UK
Language	English
Budget	£900,000

Demons Never Die (originally titled Suicide Kids) is a British 2011 slasher film starring Robert Sheehan, Jennie Jacques, Jacob Anderson, Jason Maza, Emma Rigby. Ashley Walters, Reggie Yates and Tulisa Contostavlos^[1]

Plot

While at home alone, Amber (Tulisa Contostavlos) is attacked and murdered. However, the murder is passed off as a suicide by Officer Bates (Ashley Walters). A group of troubled teens, including Archie (Robert Sheehan), Kenny (Jason Maza), Ashleigh (Shanika Warren-Markland), Ricky (Jacob Anderson), Jasmine (Jennie Jacques), Samantha (Emma Rigby), James (Jack Doolan) and Cain (Femi Oyeniran) have been contemplating suicide for a long time, and after hearing of Amber's death, decide to make a suicide pact and kill themselves at Ashleigh's upcoming party. Howht, as Samantha is making a suicide diary she is stabbed to death by a masked killer. Meanwhile, after Ashleigh leaves her house, Kenny breaks in with his friend Davey (Andrew Ellis) to set up cameras around her house, so the group's suicide can be recorded and Davey can exclusively release the footage. Meanwhile, Archie and Jasmine start a romance, which leads to Archie suggesting he and Jasmine remove themselves from the suicide pact, but this repels Jasmine. Soon after, Bates and his partner Mason (Reggie Yates) discover Samantha's death scene.

The following day, the group is shocked by the death of Samantha. At college, Jasmine is attacked by the killer, but manages to phone the police and lock herself in a room. Archie finds Jasmine, and she is taken to the hospital while he is questioned by Bates and Mason who seem to think Jasmine is suffering from a condition which made her imagine the attack. At night, Ashleigh, Ricky, James and Cain meet up and contemplate who could have attacked Jasmine, and soon have doubts about whether they want to continue with the suicide pact. Meanwhile, Kenny, who is now being filmed by Davey for a suicide diary, decides he will shoot everyone at Ashleigh's party so his death will be more famous. The following day, while walking down the road, James encounters a bully, Curtis (Arnold Oceng), but the rest of the group defends him. The group then meets with Kenny and tells him they are not going to do the suicide pact, angering Kenny. Mr. Hudson (Patrick Baladi), a teacher at the college, makes a phone call to an unknown receiver, telling them he is out of the deal. Upon returning home, Mr. Hudson finds his wife dead, before he too is murdered.

As the group try to figure out who the murderer is, suspicion falls on nearly everyone. At night, while making his way to Ashleigh's party, Ricky, believing he hears Amber's voice, has his throat slashed by the killer. At the party, Bates and Mason patrol the grounds. Inside, everyone is having fun. Curtis and his date go to the bathroom, where both are stabbed to death. Outside, Kenny and Davey arrive, but Bates and Mason apprehend Kenny before he can enter the house with the gun. After a while, the party begins to wind down. James is stabbed to death, before Ashleigh is chased outside by the killer and hides in the garden after she fails to get the attention of the party-goers. The killer cuts the electricity off, sending the rest of the party-goers home. When Ashleigh see's the others out of the house she attempts to get their attention but fails when the kills stabbs her and drags her away

Archie and Jasmine, who have been spending time alone together, return to the party to find the house empty. Inside, they are stalked in the darkness and discover Cain's and Davey's bodies, and are eventually split up. Moments later Jasmine emerges from the house distraught, as Bates arrives. Bates enters the house and finds Archie dead. Outside, Jasmine reaches the police car and finds both Mason and Kenny murdered, before Bates attacks her, revealing himself to be the killer. As he is about to kill Jasmine, Archie reveals himself to be alive and together, Archie and Jasmine overpower Bates and shoot him. As Jasmine tends to Archie, Bates narrates the line "Demons Never Die" before opening his eyes.

Cast

• Ashley Walters as Bates
• Tulisa Contostavlos as Amber
• Robert Sheehan as Archie
• Reggie Yates as Mason
• Emma Rigby as Samantha
• Jason Maza as Kenny
• Jennie Jacques as Jasmine
• Shanika Warren-Markland as Ashleigh
• Andrew Ellis as Davey
• Jacob Anderson as Ricky
• Jack Doolan as James
• Femi Oyeniran as Cain
• Patrick Baladi as Mr. Hudson

Release

The movie opened to 121 cinemas (one late night showing per day) and made £470,536 in its first week.^[2] The movie was released on DVD on 20 February 2012.^[3]

Reception

Shot in 19 days on a shooting budget of just £900,000 the film was distributed by new firm, Exile Media through an online campaign.^{[citation needed]} Youth media such as RWD magazine gave the film 4 stars, whilst traditional media such as The Guardian described the film as "part bleeding heart emo love story; part urban Brit flick; part high school slasher" and gave it two stars out of five.^[4] Empire said "Interesting when the kids are debating whether or not they really want to die and boasting a very decent cast. Surprisingly, the actual 'horror' part is the let-down" and also awarded two out of five stars.^[5] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has collected 8 reviews, all but one of which have been negative resulting in a 13% approval rating.^[6]

References