VividSimon Simply Perfect

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Leofwine_draca Cirio H. Santiago is a prolific Filipino director who churned out a string of exploitation movies throughout the '70s, '80s and '90s and is still going strong today. I'm sure his films always make money, for the simple reason that it costs about ten bucks to make them! DEMON OF PARADISE is a case in point, a cheesy re-run of the classic CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON with the absence of anything approaching a decent storyline, any notable actors or acting, and, most unforgivably, a serious shortage of creature action. Sure, in the last ten minutes the monster goes wild and on the rampage, but even then we don't get to see any gore or serious bloodshed. Fans of '80s monster movies will, I'm sure, know to expect and love some carnage from their rampaging beasties, but here there's nothing. Nada.I'll say this for Santiago: he always knows how to shoot a good-looking film on a low budget. Here, there are plenty of lush Filipino locations, from lakes to forests and beaches and more. Now, the film is supposed to be set in Hawaii, and an overcast, cloudy Philippines sure as hell doesn't look like Hawaii, but the locations are still the best part of the movie. Well, those and the music, which is of the cheap synthesiser variety but still pretty damn decent for a film of this ilk.As for the storyline, as I said before there isn't one; instead, it's like the writer took a load of elements from the JAWS movies and PIRANHA and other associated films and threw together a cheap monster flick as a result. Santiago shows his predilection for action with a few shoot-outs and plenty of cool explosions, which break up the monotony of the movie but are still few and far between. The high point of the film is a reprise of the 'helicopter attack' from JAWS 2; if you thought the scene in that film where the shark pulls a helicopter into the water couldn't get any cheesier, check out this film (let's just say a toy helicopter features heavily).Acting is rubbish from the entire cast, with Kathryn Witt as the female scientist being particularly bad. Wooden William Steis isn't much cop as the sheriff, either, and it's down to sometime scream-queen Leslie Scarborough to raise the male pulse with a nude swim that goes nowhere. The monster suit for the 'demon' is laughably bad as you'd expect and the ending is absolutely hilarious. Was there a sequel? Nope, but "have you ever pulled a lizard's tail off?".

Woodyanders A carnivorous reptilian humanoid brute of local legend (played by some poor zhlub in a laughably hokey and obvious rubbery suit) terrorizes a tropical resort after fishermen using dynamite awaken it from its many decades of slumber. It's up to fetching herpetologist Annie (an appealing turn by the fetching Kathyrn Witt) and skeptical no-nonsense sheriff Keefer (a likable performance by William Steis) to kill the bloodthirsty beastie. With fumbling (non)direction by Cirio H. Santiago, a plethora of dippy dialogue, a meandering narrative, poky pacing, infrequent and flatly staged monster attack set pieces, mild cheesy gore, zero tension or spooky atmosphere, loads of exotic local color tossed in as complete filler, and a priceless rousing conclusion with a commando unit of army guys opening up a king-sized barrel of raw hurtin' on the creature, this amusingly silly and schlocky piece of pure celluloid flotsam sure ain't remotely good, but still manages to be pretty enjoyable and occasionally quite sidesplitting in its hopelessly blatant ineptitude. The cast struggle gamely with the incredibly inane material, with especially admirable work by Laura Banks as bitchy and greedy resort owner Cahill, Frederick Bailey as obnoxious and opportunistic journalist Ike (Bailey also came up with the extremely asinine story), and striking blonde hottie Leslie Scarborough as vacuous pin-up model Gabby (the luscious Leslie removes her shirt and bares her beautifully bountiful breasts for the flick's yummy obligatory gratuitous topless scene). Ricardo Remias' bright cinematography gives this picture a slicker and more attractive look than it deserves (the effectively moody fog-shrouded nocturnal scenes are quite impressive). Ding Achacoso's shivery and syncopated score does the funky trick. A real tacky hoot.

HumanoidOfFlesh When I was a teenager I used to watch a lot of Cirio Santiago's war/action flicks like "Equalizer 2000","Nam Angels" or "Last Stand at Lang Mei".His cheaply made but highly energetic movies were popular during VHS revolution in Poland."Demon of Paradise" tells the story of Hawaiian fishing community terrorized by a man sized amphibious monster.I consider myself very tolerant when it comes to rating and reviewing Z-grade trash,unfortunately "Demon of Paradise" is simply dull.There is no gore and the bloodless killings are mostly off-screen.Admittedly Hawaiian landscapes are beautiful and the music is fine,but "Demon of Paradise" is a misfire.4 out of 10 for this low-budget monster dud.

callanvass laughable flick is kind of funny actually but has a lot of dull parts and just horrible acting and weak direction and a horrible premise the creature is downright laughable so because of all these flaws i cannot Recommend this even though i did have fun in a few parts * out of 5