A quick recommendation for The Irrefutable Truth About Demons, a 2000 New Zealand horror movie I only watched because Neill Rea from Brokenwood Mysteries was in it. I stumbled into a wonderfully weird horror gem. Scroll down for the transcript, or click here to listen:

Just a quick one to recommend The Irrefutable Truth About Demons, which I think just recently went up on Shudder. It’s a 2000 New Zealand movie starring Karl Urban early in his career, and I only watched it because I knew that Neill Rea from The Brokenwood Mysteries was in it. But I really got a treat.

Karl Urban plays an anthropologist and professor called Harry who researches cults in his spare time because his brother, Richard, played by Neill Rea in dream sequences, fell victim to a cult. And the cult comes after Harry.

It’s very much like a mixture of the old 1950s Night of the Demon with Dana Andrews and sort of The Serpent and the Rainbow. It’s just one night of this guy running from demons and cult members, and there’s gore, but it’s not excessive or exploitative. It really does serve the plot, and you never know if he’s hallucinating or dreaming or if it’s really happening.

It’s supposed to be that he has to solve it all before morning, but it’s the longest night ever. People die and then they come back to life. You don’t know what’s real.

It has some intentional humor. It probably has more than what I picked up on, because New Zealand English is such a different language than American English. I sometimes miss jokes on The Brokenwood Mysteries, and so I assume I miss some here, but it has that sort of 2000, late-’90s irreverent humor mixed in with the gore.

And while some of the monsters aren’t maybe the best effects, they save them. They’re used sparingly. And when the night finally ends, the way that some of the characters end up, it’s the most beautiful sunny day.

You don’t know what to think. And I like movies where you don’t know what to think.

I will say that I dreamed about it all night after I watched it. I watched a double feature of the 1979 Amityville Horror and then followed it with The Irrefutable Truth About Demons, and I had some dreams.

I don’t even know what they were. Usually I remember, but this movie definitely got under my skin.

And if that sounds like something that you would like, go over to Shudder and watch The Irrefutable Truth About Demons, starring Karl Urban. I think he usually plays a villain, but here you’ll be rooting for him.

And maybe even after the movie ends, like I was.

Have a good day.