The Demons (Les demons)

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Introduction and Q&A with director Philippe Lesage!

A hit at Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma and at the San Sebastien Film Festival, the narrative-feature debut from documentary filmmaker Philippe Lesage (The Heart That Beats) is an atmospheric thriller about the heightened anxieties of a young boy in 1980s suburban Montreal. Nine-year-old Felix (Édouard Tremblay-Grenier) is terrified of almost everything — a terror fuelled by his isolation from the adult world as his parents deal with their own dramas. (Convinced at one point that he has contracted HIV, Felix hides in his closet for hours until his older sister intervenes.) Set during a sleepy late summer, THE DEMONS somehow suggests both surface calm and a hazy sense of menace that starts to enclose the film as rumors of unsolved child abductions creep into its hero’s fraught consciousness. Inspired by Lesage’s own childhood, the character of Felix is akin to the lost kids of Sleeping Giant and Closet Monster.

• Country Canada
• Language in French with English subtitles
• Running Time 118 minutes
• Director Philippe Lesage

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.