THE HAGSTONE DEMON

Rosemary’s cool uncle

By JONATHAN DONALDSON

del.ico.us | digg it! | reddit!

print | email | 0 Comments

''In the ever-crowded world of horror movies, rarely does one break through with both a character-driven plot and an emphasis on reinventing te genre. Yet writer/director Jon Springer manages to do just that.

The Hagstone Demon tells the story of Douglas Elmore (Mark Borchardt), the new caretaker at the Hagstone Apartment Building. Aside from being an unholy dump on its way to condemnation, the Hagstone also seems to be a hotbed of other unsavory activities. A mentally ill homeless hooker, a fat man and his witch porn, and an ugly little Manx cat that likes to lick fish heads are just the beginning. The Hagstone is also host to various other health code violations, such as mysterious and gruesome murders, resurrections of the living dead and arcane Satanic sex rituals. It's enough to make you think that the single mom and her little boy who just moved in ought to move right back out.

At the center of all of this is Elmore, who—though we'd like to believe is this Douglas Elmore character—is nothing short of Borchardt just playing himself. We've already met the real Mark Borchardt. You might remember him as the charismatic centerpiece of the 1999 Sundance hit American Movie, which documents the making of Borchardt's own low-budget horror-short, Coven. His protagonist here is in many ways a mirror image of the archetypal Fangoria disciple: long, scraggly hair and beard, dragon tattoo; a drifter, a boozehound, polite but brooding, almost catatonically calm.

Borchardt's Minnesotan gas-huffer temperament even comes across as an odd choice for a caretaker whose tenants keep dying off. "Borchardt does the deadpan, understated persona so well," says Springer. "And this banality sort of catches you off guard when you start to realize that there is some really disturbing stuff going on with this guy." Our protagonist is an ex-Satanist whose wife committed suicide following a botched ritual and is now some sort of succubus demon bent on destroying him. Some people have baggage and some people have baggage. Or as our hero puts it: "Nothing in this world could come between two people in love; not even a fucking grave."

While Hagstone Demon's script and acting come across with B-movie stiffness and earnestness at times, the film never seeks to push any of the cliché horror movie buttons. Rather than startle you or hold you in suspense, Springer seeks to simply show you things that are truly complex and twisted, such as rituals, symbols and erotic overtones that don't make sense. Says Springer: "What I wanted to capture more than anything in terms of the nudity in the film was not so much a fear of sexuality, but the banality of sexuality, which is in a lot of ways more disturbing." As Hagstone builds to its visually stunning climax, Springer ratchets up the dreamlike confusion and psychological ambivalence with creepy, almost psychedelic cinematography, sound and imagery.

How Hagstone Demon manages to be such a wild film, yet one that has you thinking about your ordinary life, is the greatest trick of all. "The best films put you in a dream state," says Springer. "They allow you access to a self-enclosed world."

THE HAGSTONE DEMON

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

FRIDAY 10.23.09

THU 10.29.09–SUN 11.1.09

465 HUNTINGTON AVE.

BOSTON

617.267.9300

$10, $8 STUDENTS

MFA.ORG

THEHAGSTONEDEMON.COM