Dementer and Jug Face Review

3 stars of interestingly outside the box horror.

Dementer is the second feature film from the mind and pen of indie horror director, editor and writer Chad Crawford Kinkle. His first film Jug Face is also included as part of the Blu-ray package. Dementer is released on the alternative streaming service Arrow on 1st October 2021 and will be released on Limited Edition Blu-ray on 4th October 2021 courtesy of Arrow Video.

“The blood shows the devils the way.”

Dementer tells us the story of Katie (Katie Groshong – In the Dark, Soul), a tormented young woman who has recently escaped from a backwoods cult lead by the charismatic but scary Larry (Larry Fessenden – Jakob’s Wife, Habit). Badly scarred both mentally and physically she is determined to turn her life around and do something good.

To this end, she gets a job looking after people with disabilities at the “Skills Development Services” centre. Initially loving the job, she soon finds herself becoming obsessed with one of the clients, Stephanie (Stephanie Kinkle) who has Down’s Syndrome. She is becoming ill and Katie’s brainwashing soon kicks in as she reverts to strange demonic practices to try and help her out.

This is a very interesting concept for a film and it makes for an intense watching experience. It’s obviously an extremely personal project (Stephanie is played by Chad Crawford Kinkle’s sister) and as such feels a little bit voyeuristic. It also doesn’t seem to know whether it wants to be a horror film or a crash course on caring for the disabled, although it does feature plenty of gore. It most certainly serves as a cautionary tale about carrying out proper background checks.

Relying as it does on vague flashbacks and strange camera shots, unfortunately it gets more than a little confusing at times and feels very disjointed. It’s still a good idea though and deeply unsettling.

“May I go to The Pit? I’d like to pray on this.”

Also included with the Blu-ray is Jug Face. Made in 2013, this tells us the story of Ada (Lauren Ashley Carter – Imitation Girl, Artik), a young woman growing up in a small community in the woods. Due to some undetermined plague in the past, they have come to worship a pit in the ground, believing that if they make blood sacrifices to it, it will heal them.

The pit announces it’s chosen victims through The Potter Dawai (Sean Bridgers – Free State of Jones, The Woman) who makes a moonshine jug bearing the face of the next victim. When Ada sees the jug with her face on, she buries it in the woods to try and avoid her fate. This sets in motion a terrible chain of events.

Another very strange film, this low budget offering nevertheless manages to make an impression. You do doubt the intelligence of the characters a bit but the actors do well with what they are given and again there is lots of blood and guts. It’s also unnecessarily gross in places, with intimate scenes no-one really wants to see which add to the overall feeling of discomfort.

All in all this is a decent box set with two quite different but both interesting films which try out something completely new to the genre. I most definitely wouldn’t describe them as enjoyable, but they are worth a watch if you fancy something you’ve never seen before.

“It is an honour to be chosen to be within this world, you know that. For without the blood, the waters of The Pit would heal no-one.”

DEMENTER is released on the alternative streaming service ARROW, 1st October.

DEMENTER + JUG FACE Limited Edition Blu-ray is released by Arrow Video on October 4th.