Demon Under Glass (2002)

Doctor Hersch spearheads research into the capture and subsequent 'understanding' of 'the vampire' he has named Vlad (although his real name is revealed to be Simon Molinar), but he is killed during the creature's capture and the project is assigned to his subordinate, Doctor Bassett. Bassett then enlists the help of the idealist Doctor Joe McKay who is entirely new to the project and becomes hazardously sympathetic to the prisoner.During the lengthy experiments, the vampire seems compliant, even docile. Simon describes his vampirism as a curse of nature he has no control over; he reasons that his victims are from the less respectable avenues of society, and that is how he elects to justify his lifestyle. His captors cause countless deaths through their various experiments. So who is the true evil here?Originally this film was called simply 'Vampire', about which little is known. It is under the title 'Demon under Glass' that it has proved more widely available. Even as a fan of low budget horror films, I found the first few scenes quite off-putting. The lighting and camera work is immediately blurry and the direction fails to capture all of the action on screen. Whether I got used to this, or things improved once the story had settled into a sedate pace more befitting the nature of the unfolding story, I don't know (probably a little of both).Happily, 'Demon under Glass' proves to be extremely enjoyable. The moral grey area between the 'decent' scientists (who are revealed as anything but) and the 'evil' vampire (who is mostly composed and honest about his condition) is exploited in a compelling script.And yet the vampire is, understandably biding his time. When he learns that once the experiment is over, he will be destroyed, he clearly wishes to escape, which he does. The last we see of him is when he is gleefully picking up a prostitute in a night club, proving that despite being a victim of his own nature, he also clearly enjoys himself.So were Molinar's monologues while imprisoned truthful, or was he just stalling for time so that he could make his escape? Such conclusions are left open in this highly enjoyable film.

I'd like to review the film Demon Under Glass. First let me start by saying the story is good, the writing isn't bad. The Demon Under Glass film was written by the same people who wrote the novel, D. L. Warner. She actually wrote the novel at the same time as she wrote the film. The novel however has double the plot length, and, though obscure, bears an interesting plot. The film Demon Under Glass was a low budget horror film of the early 2000s and the plot of the film is only about half the plot. First, a comparison of the film to the novel since both were written at the same time. The novel is about double the length, in regard to story content. Demon under glass is a very unique story. A vampire going by the name of Simon Molinar gets captured by the government. He's kept in a high tech cell where doctors study him in secret while the general public remains unaware that vampires truly exist. Molinar under-goes several cruel experiments which cause the reader to question: Who are the monsters here? The vampire actually befriends one of his captors, a Dr. Joe McKay. McKay was a last minute replacement for a doctor who had been killed while they were trying to capture Molinar. Despite being a killer, you start to see the vampire as tragic anti-hero. Molinar is unashamed of who and what he is and is a survivor. You come to realize he's not the most evil being in the story. Molinar is cruelly experimented on. His confinement consists of a small room with a two way mirror and a metal casket-type of box that is locked from the outside while he is sleeping. They keep him in the casket by night, throwing off his sleep pattern, as to be certain he can't escape while they are studying him by daylight (which will burn him). One particularly cruel test is when they expose a section of his arm to varying degrees of sunlight to see how severely it would burn him and then when it is over they refuse to feed him blood as to see how quickly he can heal without feeding. After a time the group decide to destroy the vampire now that they have finished studying him. Since he is a killer they would rather keep in captivity a specimen that has not taken human lives. It's mostly politics at this point. Molinar manages to escape and this is where the film version ends. I feel at this point D. L. Warner felt her liberty as a writer and started to stretch her legs into the world of Gothic horror / Scifi but you would have to read the novel to know the rest of the story. It's a refreshingly unique take on the vampire story. The symbolism is a little heavy-handed. Characters like Joe McKay spell things out for you with dialog that might as well be shouts of 'The vampire's not evil! My bosses are!' The novel's ending felt like the start of an ongoing book series which never actually happened. Other than these flaws I really do like the book and film. Te film gets points for being a verbal translation of the novel, unlike Queen of the damned, which had nothing to do with the novel of the same name or the 1944 version of The Canterville Ghost which was nothing more than World War 2 propaganda. The biggest problem with Demon Under glass is the budget must have been a literal shoe string. The film Demon Under Glass has a laughable budget. The first time we see Molinar in the film it's before his capture. He's roaming a city looking for a prostitute to feed upon. the film makers had to tell us he's a vampire immediately by having him pause to lick his fangs. The next flaw is during Simon's capture as the men are 'beating' him there is no sound. I don't know if this is meant for dramatic emphasize but it just makes it all the more obvious that they are pounding on nothing. The 'High tech' facility holding Molinar isn't very High tech at all. As I said, it appears to have been filmed in someone's garage and the visuals work much better in the novel. The budget was unquestionably low. The telephones used were out of the late eighties at best. Even the cell phones were out of date, looking like the lower quality ones sold in the mid-nineties, the disposable kind. I always figured a secret government agency would have nicer cell phones. Even Joe Dawson's mobile phone on Highlander the series (1995) is more modern than what we see in Demon Under Glass. Also for a film made in 2002 and set in a high tech lab their computers look to be at least ten years old. I like the ideas projected in Demon Under Glass. And the actual story is very good. With a higher budget this could have been a fine movie. I was disappointed that the story of the film is only half of what's in the novel though what is in the film surprisingly IS faithful to the first half of the novel. It's as faithful as you can get with a very limited budget. If you can get past the weak moments the actual story and ideas behind it are very interesting. It's certainly a unique vampire film and I'd rather watch it than Queen of the damned or Twilight. I actually sincerely wish the Rifftrax guys (formerly Mystery Science theatre) would heckle Demon Under Glass. It would be such a pleasure to watch their heckling of this. I like Demon Under Glass but I love watching things I like get made fun of. It's better than some of the successful vampire films out there. It's the vampire equivalent of Plan 9 from Outer Space only with meaning and substance.

I loved this movie. The actors in this movie are some of the best. Now if we could just get either another movie out of it or, even better, a series. I understand that this was a low budget movie but man, whoever wrote this movie then filmed it sure used that 'low budget' to their advantage. I don't think the movie got enough publicity or it would have been a lot bigger than it was. I know nothing of film making but if this movie could get some good backers I feel it could go far. The main actors in this movie fit the parts so well it was like it was written with just them in mind. I feel to do another movie or series without the two main actors would be a shame.

Fans of Jason Carter will rave about this new film. As vampire Simon Molinar, Carter is stunningly convincing as an ancient predator. Dark, brooding, complex and humorous, this film is a mix of modern thriller and time honored horror staples. Those viewers who don't have an axe to grind with the films first-time, unconventional producers will find 'Demon Under Glass' a fascinating twist on the centuries old myth of vampires both riveting and thought provoking. Definitely worth a second look.