Out of the Shadows (2017): A mediocre horror movie that has a 'cool demon'

By Sreejith Kamalanayanan

Rosemary's Baby released in 1968 was a watershed moment in the history of the horror film genre. It presented the disreputable genre of horror with a new direction and aesthetics.

The Roman Polansky masterpiece is about a pregnant woman who believes she conceived the baby of Satan. The subtext of the movie is obviously the inner conflicts a woman undergoes while pregnant.

A slew of other horror movies followed with a pregnant woman at the center of the narrative (There were some good films like 'Its Alive'). We are currently witnessing a new renaissance in the horror genre and many of them deals with a similar theme, which Rosemary's Baby effectively tackled.

Annabelle (2014) from the Conjuring series is a prime example. Out of the Shadows (2017), in that respect, is a mediocre movie that mixes Conjuring 2 and Rosemary's Baby to create horror.

In Out of the Shadows, there is a demon that is meant to scare us. But unlike The Conjuring 2, Out of the Shadows has a male demon. The demon's name Baal, however, resonates with The Conjuring 2's Valak. Baal is also known as the Hat Man as he appears wearing a hat.

The hat man comes to snatch babies 

Like Rosemary's Baby, we have a pregnant woman who is threatened by mysterious evil forces. However, in this movie, the baby is not the child of the Satan.

The lady is haunted by a demon that appears in the form of shadows. The aim of the demon is to take the soul of the first-born child of every woman. And this incident is not unprecedented.

The demon has a history of taking the newborns. Baal kills the mother and the baby in the womb. He then goes on to possess the father of the child and waits for his next victim. By that time the father would have been in prison for murdering his wife and baby. This is the demon's modus operandi.

The movie leads us to believe that it would culminate like the climax of the William Friedkin classic 'The Exorcist.' But when the demon presents itself the movie slightly shifts its tone as the demon is a 'cool villain' who speaks like a smart dude.

Baal smirks at the proceedings of the exorcism as though he already knows what would happen in the end. He takes on his enemies in a cool way forcing us to doubt whether the director of the movie is mocking at the exorcism.

Out of the Shadows is a mediocre effort in every way. But it is not a terrible movie. The movie is directed by Dee McLachlan. One of her earlier films, The Jammed had won critical praise in Australia. I really liked the way she introduced the demon Baaal in the climax of Out of the Shadows.