Chad Crawford Kinkle’s second film after his superb debut Jug Face has been a long time coming and is much more experimental, both visually and audibly.

Katie (Katie Groshong) takes up a job caring for special needs adults. She lies about where she’s living – she sleeps in her car and washes in gas station toilets – and is clearly trying to escape a disturbing past. We’re shown through flashbacks that she was a victim of some kind of occult group (led by Larry Fessenden), and bears the scars to prove it. She develops a bond with one of the clients in the home, Stephanie (played by the director’s sister), who has Down Syndrome. When Stephanie falls ill, Katie becomes convinced something evil is behind it and attempts to help her with incantations.

There’s a documentary feel to the care home scenes, with the clients and workers essentially playing themselves. These moments are shot with care, and there’s never a feeling of exploitation of the people in the home, but more that they enjoyed being a part of something fun. The satanic story crafted around these scenes is discomforting and alarming and has a surreal quality.

Dementer is full of discordant chimes, ominously hushed voiceovers and screeching violins that add to the sense of unease more than the fractured visuals ever could.

Kinkle’s sophomore film is a difficult watch, and won’t be for everyone. As the movie builds to its climax, the nightmarish imagery and sound design take over. As a coherent narrative feature, Dementer doesn’t entirely succeed, coming across instead as a disturbing art piece.

Dementer is released on Blu-ray from Arrow Video (with Jug Face) on October 4th.