It was the first week of May in the year 2000. Santana had a number one hit but it wasn’t even “Smooth”; anyone remember “Maria, Maria?” Me neither. Coolboards 2001 and Driver 2 were both successful sequels on the Playstation One and Center Stage hit the big screen to influence a generation of adolescents forever. And somewhere, down in New Zealand, an almost never talked about Karl Urban feature debuted.
I’m here to tell you about The Irrefutable Truth About Demons.
Now as time went by, it would come to be known as the abbreviated The Truth About Demons. Directed and written by Glenn Standring, the movie has been lost to the annals of time. Standring would go on to create The Dead Lands, a short-lived show in 2014, before writing 6 Days, and Karl Urban would go on to have a successful career with roles in huge tentpole franchises such as Star Trek and the Marvel Universe.
In the film, anthropology director Harry Ballard, played by Urban, moonlights as debunker, taking after Houdini and going around busting religious cults and sects as frauds. With the suicide of his brother Richard weighing on him, Harry is sent a strange and malicious tape from a High Priest in The Blade Lodge, a Satanic cult his brother had been a part of. He ends up getting drawn into their plans to summon a great demonic power, and alongside a mysterious woman named Benny, looks to bring down the cult and get revenge for Richard.
Here’s the thing: The Truth About Demons is so incredibly *millennium*. It fits in snugly in the same space with films such as Blade; full of chokers, dusters, overtly gothic environments, questionable CGI and lots of leather. Because of its lower budget and non-Hollywood origins, production values line up more with primetime supernatural shows of the era, such as Charmed and Angel. It’s almost impossible to not draw comparisons to Constantine, with Urban’s ruggedly handsome and charming occult detective also drawing parallels to CW hit Supernatural.
But before you get too excited, it’s not as good as any of those. Okay, it’s at least as good as an episode of Charmed. That doesn’t mean it isn’t enjoyable, though. Some smart writing and fun performances make The Truth About Demons surprisingly watchable. It’s a fun flashback into the era; every subordinate in the cult looks primed and ready to be dancing to Nine Inch Nails in an old goth club, and so many rooms are candle lit with writing on the walls you can’t help but smile.
Jonathon Hendry stars as High Priest Le Valliant and chews scenery like a goat. It’s delightful. Katie Wolfe, who would go on to have a successful and prolific film career behind the camera, does her best Helena Bonham Carter as Bennie. She shows up as Harry’s potentially unstable partner in crime, leading him deeper and deeper into the cult because of her ex-member status. Urban is the leading man for a reason, and he carries the movie on his charm.
It’s not going to blow your mind but if you’re fiending for a movie that transports you right back to the early 2000s, The Truth About Demons is a fun and welcome addition to the roster.
source https://bloody-disgusting.com/editorials/3625490/karl-urban-channeled-inner-constantine-irrefutable-truth-demons-aughta-know/
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