Retreating to and embracing the past in an effort to create a more idealistic and encouraging future is a powerful motivating factor of the new captivating sci-fi horror movie, Demonic. The drama marks the triumphant return of writer-director-producer Neill Blomkamp to low-budget, high-concept fare, after he made his feature film debut on the indie 2009 sci-fi action movie, District 9, and then went on to bigger studio projects, including 2013’s Elysium.

IFC Midnight is releasing Blomkamp’s latest thriller, which powerfully interweaves authentic human emotions with revolutionary new motion capture technology, in theaters and On Demand and digital today. The Academy Award-nominated screenwriter enthralling showcases how unexplained supernatural forces, combined with the latest revolutionary technology, can both drive a mother and daughter apart and eventually bring them back together, in the equally emotionally and visually spectacular movie.

Demonic follows Carly Spenser (Carly Pope), a young woman who’s struggling to survive on her own, as she learns that her estranged mother, Angela (Nathalie Boltt), has fallen into a coma. Upon receiving the news from her long-lost friend Martin (Chris William Martin), Carly reluctantly agrees to participate in an unsettling medical study for a mysterious research group called Therapol.

The doctors in charge of Angela’s case at Therapol, physician Michael (Michael J. Rogers) and neuroscientist Daniel (Terry Chen), inform Carly that her mother is one of several incarcerated felons who have been brought in for examination from correctional facilities across the country. After being convicted of multiple counts of murder nearly two decades ago, Angela began engaging in self-harm and violent incidents, which led to her suffer from a brain injury and fall into a coma.

Upon meeting Carly, Michael and Daniel ask her to participate in a cutting-edge therapy that will allow her to tap into Angela’s still-active brain and communicate with her. The two doctors observe her as she enters a harrowing simulation into Angela’s mind, where the mother has been seemingly asking for her daughter.

While in the simulation, Carly finds the powerful supernatural force that drove her mother to commit the violent crimes violence years earlier. After leaving the simulation, Carly begins being haunted by terrifying visions, which leads her to join forces with Martin as she desperately tries to fend off the titular demon before it can enter and inflict more pain and suffering on a new host.

Pope was perfectly cast as the multi-dimensional Carly in the drama, as the versatile actress was effortlessly able to bring the struggling protagonist to life as she continues to contend with the sins of her mother’s past and how they have affected her life.

The actress powerfully transformed her character throughout Demonic’s story; Carly went from being initially fiercely independent and resistant to reopening communication with Angela, Martin and anyone else in her life who hurt her, into realizing that she needs to accept her past, including the people in it, in order to survive.

Carly’s tough sense of self-reliance is slowly but surely deconstructed by her eventual willingness, after some hesitation, to help Michael and Daniel treat her mother by participating in their simulated analysis of Angela. The doctors’ medical study and therapy that allows Carly to enter her mother’s still-active brain and communicate with her was created by stunning volumetric video capture technology, which digitizes a three-dimensional space or object in real-time using an array of cameras set around a target.

Blomkamp proves yet again what a visionary, radical technical and visual filmmaker he is on Demonic, as the amount of volumetric capture included in the movie is the most ever seen in a feature. He expertly shows his fascination with the concept of using the brain as a computational device for external senses and a communicator with other sources through the animated, vivid simulation of Angela’s mind.

The scribe-helmer and the thriller’s cinematographer, Byron Kopman, enthralling highlight the physical pain Carly and Angela feel as they not only face each other after being estranged, but also the supernatural entity that’s targeting them, through the volumetric video capture technology. The cutting-edge new technology infuses the simulation with stunningly realistic picture quality. As a result, the avatars used for Carly and Angela are stunningly and emotionally authentic, and details of the supernatural entity the mother-daughter duo must fight are terrifyingly imaginative.

Blomkamp made a successful return to the low-budget, high-concept sci-fi action genre with his new horror thriller, Demonic. By combining cutting-edge technology with emotionally realistic characters who are powerfully portrayed by such skilled actresses as Pope and Boltt, the writer-director proves that innovative filmmakers can make memorable and creative independent sci-fi-action stories that truly engage audiences.

Here’s the trailer of the film.