FURY OF THE DEMON (2016 - French)

Studio:       Wild Eye Releasing
Director:    Fabien Delage
Writer:       Fabien Delage
Producer:  Christophe Battarel, Jordane Oudin
Stars:     Alexandre Aja, Christophe Gans, Jean-Jacques Bernard, Dave Alexander, Pauline Melies

Review Score:

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Summary:

Filmmakers and journalists discuss the lost silent film “Fury of the Demon,” whose curse is reportedly capable of driving an audience mad.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Museum director Gabriel Fouchard, French Film Library collections manager Pierre Levasseur, and film critic Philippe Rouyer detail the events of July 9th, 2012, when famed film collector Edgar Aaron Wallace arranged a private screening at Paris’ iconic Grevin wax museum. Invited guests were not told the title of the film in advance, which turned out to be “Fury of the Demon,” a rare, silent French film from the late 1800s by an unknown director long thought lost and rumored to be cursed.

Eyewitnesses including former museum employee Vincent Thepaut, journalist Christophe Lemaire, film theorist Benedicte Royer, and filmmakers Christophe Gans, Alexandre Aja, and Jean-Jacques Bernard recall the eruption of mass hysteria during the screening. Described as imagery of a horned devil turning men into monsters, the film inexplicably turned patrons suddenly violent, resulting in pandemonium and several casualties.

Police commissioner Paul Moreau describes the scene of shock when authorities arrived at the theater. Edgar Aaron Wallace was arrested, but the film reel mysteriously vanished. Wallace collaborator Randy Wellington provides background into Wallace’s lengthy research into and obsession with “Fury of the Demon.”

Journalist Sylvain Doreville mentions news reports of a similar incident at a film screening in November 1897 where three people died. Additional reports document panic at a carnival magician’s film screening. When noted newspaper Le Figaro reports on another screening devolving into a nightmare, the article does not identify the film, but cites Georges Melies as the film’s director. This leads to the popular theory that Melies’ film and “Fury of the Demon” might be one and the same.

Melies’ great-granddaughter Pauline Melies adds insight into the famed director’s legacy as a filmmaker. Rue Morgue editor Dave Alexander talks about Melies’ status as a genre innovator.

Author Frank Terwilliger details an incident from 1939. One year after Georges Melies’ death, rumor arose of a disturbing film playing before Tod Browning’s “Miracles for Sale” at The Virginia Theater in New York. Surviving spectator Maurice Goldberg recalls his own father turning violent at the screening. Six individuals died in a resulting fire, after which the film reel vanished and word circulated that the film was cursed.

In 2009, Croatian Audiovisual Center archivist Tomislav Antonovic participated in the recovery of four films kept by Nazis and lost in Russia. French National Film Archive director Jean-Philippe Lefebvre adds that three of the films were works by Georges Melies. The fourth was “Fury of the Demon,” furthering speculation that Melies did indeed create the film. Antonovic later recalls that Edgar Aaron Wallace mysteriously took possession of the film almost immediately, before archivists could analyze or authenticate it.

Spiritist literature specialist Suzanne Simonet offers background on Melies’ work as an illusionist who helped other dark artists learn his style. Melies’ fascination with occultism led to an association with Victor Sicarius, who claimed he could capture the spirits of the dead on film. Sicarius invited Melies to a séance and the two men soon became close friends and collaborators. Sicarius began making Melies-like films, leading to another theory that Sicarius is actually the person responsible for “Fury of the Demon.” Tomislav Antonovic adds credibility to this speculation by mentioning handwritten notes discovered with the copy of the film in 2009. These notes indicated that Melies lent his studio to Sicarius so that he could shoot a project titled “Fury.”

When Sicarius’ filmmaking experiments grew increasingly morbid, convincingly depicting the deaths of both animals and humans onscreen, Melies severed all ties with the man. Sicarius fell in love with Melies actress Juliette Andre and they began a romance. However, when Juliette mysteriously vanished in 1899, Sicarius fled Paris amidst rumors that he killed her. Juliette’s corpse was found mutilated in a cellar in 1905. Sicarius hanged himself a few months later.

Witchcraft expert Olivier Torignac speaks about curses, theorizing that perhaps Sicarius conjured Juliette Andre’s vindictive spirit as a paranormal experiment on film. Psychologist writer Marie-Helene Dache and psychiatrist Didier Gauthier discuss the phenomenon of mass hysteria in relation to what may have happened at the three confirmed screenings of “Fury of the Demon.” Early cinema theorist Andre Puiseux additionally posits the possibility of subliminal stimulus stemming from the imagery.

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Review:

“Silent Hill” director Christophe Gans and “Haute Tension” helmer Alexandre Aja were just two of the industry invitees on hand when a “real life” cinematic terror tore through Paris’ Grevin wax museum on July 9th, 2012.  That’s when the long-thought lost “Fury of the Demon,” a fabled French film from the 1800s, resurfaced for a surprise screening courtesy of noted film collector Edgar Aaron Wallace.

Believed by some to be a myth, believed by more to be a curse, “Fury of the Demon” saw the light of a projector for only the second time in a century.  Yet what should have been cause for celebration instead became an unexpected horror show.

Panicking patrons reportedly bubbled up with inexplicable aggression while a horned devil danced onscreen.  Violence erupted everywhere as hands clasped throats, gouged eyes, and furiously clawed at anyone nearby.

This unusual outbreak of sudden pandemonium might have been passed off as mass hysteria, food poisoning, or some other somewhat sensible excuse to explain outrageous en masse behavior.  Except the incident hauntingly mirrored a similar event from an ill-fated 1939 screening, where six people died and many more were trampled when fire put a premature end to the evening and the film reel disappeared without a trace.

This may be the first you’re hearing of “Fury of the Demon,” as well as the events above.  That’s because the movie doesn’t exist and none of this ever happened.  You’d never know it though, thanks to filmmaker Fabien Delage’s devilishly designed documentary with the same title.  This “Fury of the Demon” may be as fictional as its namesake, but it is completely convincing and creatively compelling from its first minute to its last.

Part of the hook behind the film within the film is that “La Rage du Demon,” I’ll use the French title to distinguish the faux silent film, is popularly believed to possibly be a work of famed French filmmaker Georges Melies (“A Trip to the Moon”).  Beyond giving “Fury of the Demon” more ground in reality, this lets the movie double as a cheekily disguised mini-biography of Melies himself.  The wink works so well that even Melies might consider this a fitting tribute to his own expert craftsmanship as an accomplished illusionist.

Just ask his great-granddaughter Pauline Melies, one of many participants selling the story with sometimes surprising sincerity.  To tell the truth, I have no idea which of the talking heads interviewed in “Fury of the Demon” are authentic and which are actors playing a part.  They may all in fact be real people, with some portraying alter egos of themselves.  A few minutes on Google could decipher who is who, except I don’t really want to know, because it doesn’t matter.

(I did look up Pauline Melies, simply to satisfy curiosity on whether she was imaginary too or a gleefully game descendant willingly in on the ruse.  It’s the latter, by the way.)

Incredibly realistic acting or real people taking convincing turns at fabricating a fabulous conspiracy, the line blurring fact and faction evaporates fully.  Suspension of disbelief is easy and I cannot imagine digging into details that might shatter such a masterfully realized mirage.  It’s like watching Copperfield vanish a landmark.  The feat is knowingly impossible, yet no less engaging as a spectacle of entertainment.

The only true obstacles to mockumentary perfection are some sketchy Photoshop touchups, such as pictures of film collector E.A. Wallace on the red carpet with Quentin Tarantino or sharing a stage with Steven Spielberg.  They look like those Hollywood Boulevard Polaroids of a tourist with an arm around a celebrity cutout, with Wallace being the cutout.  Mocked up newspaper headlines fare a bit better, as the production otherwise looks like any average hour pulled from PBS.

Speaking of an hour, “Fury of the Demon” runs just 60 minutes.  This fact compelled me to look up the required length of a standard feature film to verify if it even qualifies.  According to AMPAS, AFI, and the British Film Institute, it does, although SAG doubles the other institutions’ 40-minute minimum to 80.  It’s odd that “Fury of the Demon” runs short, although I respect that director Fabien Delage ensures a quality usage of that hour without buckling under any imposition to dilute it with padding.

Be it detailing a film collection captured by Nazis, a grisly murder in a Paris basement, or stage magicians dabbling in dark arts of occultism, furthering the mystique behind “La Rage du Demon” is always at the fore, and it is always fascinating to watch the fiction unfold.  Highly unique in conception, “Fury of the Demon” emerges as both an intelligently executed faux documentary and a fun footstep into the imagination and innovation of original cinematic grandmaster Georges Melies.

NOTE: The film’s French title is “La Rage du Demon.”

Review Score:  90

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