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Poster for That Demon Within

That Demon Within

2014 · 1h 52m · N/A Crime, Thriller
Directed by Dante Lam Chiu-Yin

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Overview

By a strange twist of fate, dutiful Hong Kong policeman Dan saves the life of the leader of a violent gang of armed robbers. When they commit another crime, Dan is determined to put an end to their activities. He works with the leader, whom the gang had betrayed, to engineer a plan to wreak havoc within the gang and let the gangsters kill one another. But it becomes increasingly obvious to Dan and to his colleagues that Dan is suffering from a severe mental disorder, and Dan finds that instead of upholding the law as a righteous police officer, he has now become a fugitive wanted for murder.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
50%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Pulp done with passion can be its own reward, as the veteran Hong Kong filmmaker Dante Lam shows with his feverish cop thriller "That Demon Within."

Nicolas Rapold, New York Times
Rotten

[The] Stephen King-like angle is the richest material in "That Demon Within," which is otherwise another tale of gangsters turning against one another.

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times
Rotten

This Hong Kong import can't resist the urge to dumb down a fascinating premise for the sake of mass consumption.

Martin Tsai, Los Angeles Times
Rotten

There's a half-realized, half-haunting Hitchcockian psychodrama buried somewhere within "That Demon Within." What's on the surface plays more like Wong and Lam simply forgot to take their meds.

Ethan Gilsdorf, Boston Globe
Rotten

When "That Demon Within" finally burns down, all that's left is char and ash.

Mark Jenkins, Washington Post

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