Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4853 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-04-06
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 264 minutes

Synopsis
Luke Rutherford (Christian Cooke) is leading the normal, somewhat boring life of any London teenager, when an incredible revelation about his ancestry rocks his world. His late father's best friend, Rupert Galvin (Philip Glenister, LIFE ON MARS), travels all the way from America to reveal to the oblivious teenager that he is the last descendant of Abraham Van Helsing, the famous vampire-werewolf-and anything-in-between slayer. Rupert offers to train Luke for his new duty, and demonstrates a certain expertise in getting rid of evil creatures... being an accomplished demon-hunter himself. Another fundamental aid to the youngster’s supernatural new mission comes from none other than Mina Harker (Zoe Tapper, SURVIVORS), a good-hearted, blind, piano virtuoso vampire, once romantically linked to Dracula. To complete this unusual squad comes Ruby, Luke’s clever and enamoured best friend. Will Luke be up to the demanding role of World’s new defender against evil?

Customer Reviews

Entertaining drivel, but...
...Demons could have been far better than in fact it was. No, it's not supposed to be a heavyweight drama -anything where you have a line that remarks 'I shall surely smite thee you freak' is not exactly going to trouble Shakespeare. Demons is a bit of escapist fun, pure and simple, where you park your brain in neutral for a hour, and get on with the serious business of slaughtering various supernatural entities on a mass scale. However, even keeping that in mind, it still wasn't all that it should have been.

The premise of a 'last Van Helsing' (that being, I believe, its provisional title during filming) is a reasonable one, and it certainly gives a wide scope to the writers. Take one teenage college / schoolboy, who's father died when he was a baby in mysterious circumstances. Cue appearance of odd Godfather, who informs him he's descended from Abraham Van Helsing, of Dracula fame, and that his destiny, once he's been trained up a bit, is to give a variety of demonic presences a damn good thrashing. In this task he will be assisted by his pretty, vivacious best friend, Ruby, who happens to have a crush on him which he has completely failed to notice, and a staggeringly beautiful, cooly flirtatious blind concert pianist named Mina Harker, who subsequently turns out to be (surprise!) the same Mina Harker from Dracula; now a 150 year old immortal half-blood vampire forced to clense her blood of the curse upon her by regular dialysis. Mina's blindness is in fact a consequence of her refusing to surrender to the curse in her veins, and therefore a direct choice on her part, for not only does she regain her sight should she drink blood, in a further twist clearly plundered from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (and why not?), her long-fanged side would [re]assert itself and she would become the most powerful vampire on Earth. As she demonstrates twice in the course of the series.

Not a bad starting point then. Unfortunately, thereon in, things start to go pear-shaped, as tragically, the stories and scripts were what let Demons down. On occasion, an interesting idea would emerge, but sadly, they, along with the characters, remained largely undeveloped. The nagging impression was that the series was something of a rush-job; a good initial idea in search of some decent stories. A shame, because the basic idea behind it was fine, and if it had a real strength (and it does), it lies in the excellent quality of the four leads.

Philip Glenister usually gives a good performance, and what he gives in Demons is no exception. His American accent was not quite as bad as some have suggested, and he does bring some depth to his performance, as far as the scripts and stories allow (sadly, not very far). Christian Cooke had probably the most thankless role in the series, despite his character of Luke Rutherford being nominally the central figure, as by nature, the young, demon-smiting novice is rather overshadowed by Glenister's older, jaded mentor / Godfather. His character, in dialogue terms, also pales compared to the catty give and take between the two female leads. He clearly did what he could with what he had to work on however. Holly Grainger proved impressive, she has a very nice presence indeed on camera, being natural and eminently watchable. Although again, her character had little depth, she also did an excellent job with what she had.

Zoe Tapper however, as Mina Harker, effortlessly stole the show (although that was undoubtedly not her intention), and those episodes that centred upon her were the pick of the bunch. Inherently, Mina was by far the most interesting character, as she was the only one who had any depth, while Zoe herself is one of the finest young actresses I have seen for some years. She managed to squeeze more out of the mediocre scripts / dialogue she had to work with than anyone had any right to expect, while her verbal rivalry with Ruby, and downright purred put-downs (probably the best written things in the series) were a weekly highlight. All of these actors, along with guests Richard Wilson and Mackenzie Crook (loved the beak), deserved so much more to work with in material than they recieved.

The series direction was sporadic; sometimes quite atmospheric, sometimes laboured & contrived; however, the effects were good, some of the camera work was imaginative, and they'd clearly spent some money on the sets.

So, is Demons worth buying? Yes actually. I think so. It's shallow, it's mostly poorly written, but the acting varies from the decent to the excellent, and there are far worse programmes out there. With any luck, they'll get the green-light for a second series. Hopefully however, they'll write some decent stories and scripts for it. The potential is there; anyone can see that. It's just a matter of exploiting it. It would be a real shame if they didn't.

Couldn't give it any less
I started to watch this TV programme as it looked good when advertised on ITV I soon however found out that this was not the case I gave up half way through the series after having enough of the childish quip 'I'll Smite You', demons by the name of Mr Tibbs and Phillip Glenister's tacky and unrelistic American acent, great actor but how silly to cast him as an American. After watching three episodes I decided it wasn't going to improve and enough was enough.

How to smite the chance of a second series.
Saturday Night TV has become an intriguing battleground since the return of the re-invigorated Dr Who. ITV responded first with the silly but entertaining Primeval - Series 1 and 2 Box Set [DVD] and the BBC came back with Merlin - Series 1 - Complete [DVD] [2008]( which is made by the same production company ) . Demons is the latest attempt to put some dramatic fizz back into weekend telly and it looked promising with its tally of half-life's, vampires and errr demons . Yet despite this exciting premise it has proved more underwhelming than an England second innings.
Young Luke Rutherford( Christian Cooke) is happily drifting through life looking all moody and pouty in vests and having a flirty friendship with the equally pouty Ruby (Holly Grainger) , alas not in a vest when suddenly into his life appears Galvin ( Philip Glenister) who knows something about the death of Luke's father when he was a yickle baby .Apparently he is the last descendant of the Van Helsing line and is destined to join the fight against the "Half Life's" and sundry nasties which means he must be dedicated and train really hard so he can , as Galvin puts it "smite" them .Luke's not happy but cheers up a bit when not only does he get to play with cool looking guns he gets to hang around in a wondrous underground lair where Mina Harker( Zoë Tapper) also hangs out. Mina-yes she is that Mina- is a beautiful vampire who has forsaken a life of bloodlust via some potion or other . Consequently as a human she is totally blind , though if she drinks blood and reverts to a vampire she can see again which is handy.
During the series the group tackle a human /rat hybrid, Mina's vampire son with a bloody chip on his shoulder, an angel that kidnaps children and a demon posing as a voluptuous young women who Luke yawn...falls for .In truth the synopsis is more exciting than the eventuality as each episode starts promisingly than fritters away in a plethora of bad dialogue usually involving smiting , Luke's reluctance and gradual acquiescence of his role and a final confrontation that never fails to disappoint . There is the story arc of what actually happened to Luke's father which leads to the big finale with the shows best villain the wonderfully named Gladiolus Thrip (McKenzie Crook) which as usual is over before you can blink but leads to a promising set up should there be a second series.
It's almost worth watching Demons just to hear Philip Glenister,s appalling American accent ( revenge for Keanu Reeves? in Bram Stoker's Dracula (2 Disc Deluxe Edition) [DVD] [1992]) . The acting is variable with Glenister going low key in , i think , a deliberate move to distance himself from Gene Hunt .The star by some distance is Zoë Tapper as Mina and not just because she is playing the (mostly ) disabled role. She gives the vampire/human a dignity and gravitas that doesn't really belong in some lightweight pot-boiler. The fact she is quite a looker is a nice bonus as well. The series special effects are fine until we get to the CGI, which like Primeval , is distinctly underwhelming .
I'd like to see Demons given a second series but the scripts need to improve and it needs to concentrate on what it should be about- horrible succubus's, inter dimensional monsters and creepy entities , not teenage navel gazing and paternal crisis's. The idea has potential and it deserves the chance to live up to it......but make it about real Demons not insular psychological ones.....the show isn't clever enough for that.
Demons has lovely cinematography ( if you can have that on the telly) and it makes our capitol city look ravishing at times. The best since episodes of the Apprentice in fact ,though regrettably there is nothing anywhere near as frightening as Katie Hopkins in Demons. Maybe next series?

P.S. I have just heard a strong rumour that the second series has been cancelled so there you go.