Director Neill Blomkamp’s Demonic has failed to win over critics, proving that the long-awaited sequel District 10 is arriving too late to recreate the impact of the original. District 9 landed in cinemas to rave reviews back in 2009, with the action-thriller/sci-fi satire proving a strong calling card for helmer Blomkamp. However, in the years since, the helmer has been unable to recreate his early success, meaning the movie’s long-awaited follow-up should stay in development hell where the project has languished for over a decade.
Recently, Blomkamp provided an update on his District 9 sequel plans, and the helmer confirmed the follow-up film would not be a direct sequel to the original. However, he also conceded that a dozen years elapsed between the first entry and the sequel because he never felt the need to follow up District 9. This is a telling comment and one that underlines the main issue with District 9’s long-awaited sequel.
When viewers first encountered its imaginative mockumentary setting over a decade ago, District 9 was a breath of fresh air. The sci-fi satire tackled xenophobia, social segregation, and cultural division by depicting Sharlto Copley’s casually bigoted protagonist gradually turning into one of the aliens he so despises and turning against his oppressive employers in the process. However, over a decade on - especially after Blomkamp's many disappointing follow-ups, such as the ambitious but thematically muddled Chappie which failed to spawn a sequel - District 9 now feels better off as a one-off movie whose impact would only be compromised by a follow-up. The brutal critical response to his new film Demonic only seems to highlight that the spark the director brought to his debut seems to have fizzled out, and simply retreating familiar territory is likely the last thing that Blomkamp’s oeuvre needs.
Why District 10 Has Taken So Long
When District 9 arrived to mostly rave reviews and stellar box office receipts in 2009, there was plenty of excitement to see where the story would head next. However, this excitement also meant more opportunities for the movie’s director, and inevitably, Blomkamp went on to other projects before putting together a sequel to his first film. While Elysium fared fine with critics, 2015’s Chappie was a misfire (so much that Blomkamp jokingly said his Alien 5 plans were canceled as a result of the movie’s failure). Due to the middling response to Blomkamp’s subsequent movies, interest gradually diminished in the prospect of a District 9 sequel. To make matters worse, original star Copley went on to enjoy an impressive career as a supporting star in numerous Hollywood productions which, while well-deserved, made him less available for a potential sequel.
Blomkamp Has Never Topped District 9
Elysium failed to impress critics as much as District 9, and the movie’s satire of income inequality was not as widely appreciated as the social commentary featured in District 9’s depictions of segregation. Meanwhile, although Chappie has its defenders, the film was far less popular with critics than the already mixed response to Elysium, meaning again Blomkamp’s career took on a decidedly downward trajectory in terms of critical consensus. This is not always a problem for filmmakers, as proven by director M Night Shyamalan enjoying a successful career despite never quite rediscovering the critical success that greeted his breakthrough The Sixth Sense.
However, until the recent release Demonic, Blomkamp’s movies have all followed a similar formula built on the success of his debut. Both Elysium and Chappie combined on-the-nose but effective political satire with gory sci-fi action and dark humor, a strange cocktail perfected by District 9's but never properly recaptured by Blomkamp’s subsequent outings in the years since. Sticking to this script means that Blomkamp’s failure to find a follow-up as (or more successful) as his first film is more galling and unfortunate. Meanwhile, the critical failure of Demonic means that branching out into new territory has also not helped Blomkamp’s standing with reviewers, making a return to his first film even more misguided.
The Response To Demonic Shows It's Too Late For District 10
Chappie received poor reviews but still fared somewhat better with audiences, who were more forgiving of the movie’s many quirks and ambition. Blomkamp is an inventive filmmaker and on occasion his vision lands better with fans than it does with reviewers, meaning critical reception alone can’t be the benchmark by which his work is measured. However, that being said, Demonic is by far the worst received of the director’s efforts so far, and the consensus among critics is that the movie proves Blomkamp is out of ideas. Like the upcoming Children of the Corn reboot, Demonic boasted the ostensibly impressive achievement of being filmed during COVID-19 lockdowns, but this does not appear to have assisted the movie’s performance with critics, proving that playful experimentation and risk-taking do not always pay off for Blomkamp. As such, returning to the mockumentary world of District 9 is likely a bad idea for Blomkamp, whose recent failure proves that his projects need more than invention and verve to succeed with critics.
Demonic, which was filmed in relative secrecy, was the first project in some time that allowed Blomkamp total creative control, so the fact that the sci-fi horror is receiving even worse reviews than his last two movies does not bode well for the chances of a District 9 sequel working. Further exacerbating the issue of District 9’s long-awaited sequel in the question of budget, scope, and scale, which Blomkamp has identified as one of the major issues with his later movies. According to Blomkamp, he is more comfortable with a lower budget and will strive to keep District 10 smaller in scale than the more expansive likes of Elysium and Chappie. This may have been exciting news before Demonic’s failure, but now that the latest movie from Neill Blomkamp has received largely bad reviews, it is evident that a big budget was not the only issue with his recent releases. As such, tentative fans are unlikely to receive much reassurance from this promise, and the odds of District 9’s sequel recapturing the success of the original in the wake of Demonic’s failure look less likely than ever before.