Dementer is a 2019 American horror film written and directed by Chad Crawford Kinkle. It stars Katie Groshong, Stephanie Kinkle, Brandy Edmiston, and Larry Fessenden. Groshong plays a cult survivor who takes a job at a care center for adults with developmental disabilities and becomes convinced that one of its residents is threatened by supernatural forces.
The film premiered at the Nashville Film Festival in October 2019 and was released on digital platforms by Dark Star Pictures in March 2021.
Plot Katie, a woman who has escaped from a violent cult, takes a job at a center for adults with developmental disabilities and becomes close to Stephanie, a woman with Down syndrome. When Stephanie becomes ill, Katie believes that forces connected to her former cult are threatening her and begins performing rituals to protect her.
Cast Katie Groshong as Katie Stephanie Kinkle as Stephanie Brandy Edmiston as Brandy Larry Fessenden as Larry Eller Hall as Eller Scott Hodges as Joey
Production Kinkle developed the film around his sister Stephanie, who has Down syndrome and appears in the film. He cited The Tribe and Lars von Trier's The Idiots as influences. He planned from the beginning to shoot Dementer handheld and in a cinéma vérité style. Shooting lasted fourteen days. Kinkle served as the sole camera operator and later edited the film himself.
Release Dementer had its world premiere at the Nashville Film Festival on October 10, 2019. It was also shown at the 2020 Chattanooga Film Festival. Kinkle later said that interest generated by the screening helped him secure distribution through Dark Star Pictures. Dark Star Pictures released the film on digital platforms on March 2, 2021. Arrow Video released it on Blu-ray on October 4, 2021, together with Kinkle's earlier film Jug Face.
Reception Noel Murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the everyday scenes at the care facility were handled in a matter-of-fact way and found that the film's plain style made its later violence more shocking. Phil Hoad of The Guardian gave the film three out of five stars. He found the care-facility scenes unusually convincing, but said the vagueness of Katie's past made the film "unsettling rather than frightening". Shelagh Rowan-Legg of ScreenAnarchy praised the film's portrayal of people with developmental disabilities, noting that they were neither ridiculed nor glamorized. Rich Cross of Starburst called Kinkle's approach to disability sensitive, but felt that the film's resolution was flawed.
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