The Three Acts:

The initial tableaux: In a poor rental building reside humans and demons. The humans are not aware of the demons, who feed off the misery of the humans.

On the human side, in one apartment are Frank and Lisa. Frank has rage issues and beats up Lisa now and then. In another apartment are 11 year old Sara, daughter of Jane. Jane is a chronic drunk who periodically passes out before sexually satisfying live-in boyfriend Andre, who is not Sara's father. Archie lives in a third apartment with Ruth, but treats his despair regarding his life with alcohol and Amber's attention on the side.

On the demon side, Tripp, Mace, and Helo are the same demon type and live together somewhat contentiously in one apartment. The bulky demon Ford is older and studies 'demon science' whatever that is, and spends a lot of time trying to manufacture good luck for himself. Cornelia lives by herself, is an 'interpreter', and has lots of paraphernalia for divination. Amber lives alone, and feeds off the despair of men when she has sex with them.

The protagonist is Atum Vine who appears as human to the humans; to them he's the super. The demons see him as a demon, and see him as the one who guarantees misery, or lacking that, some fresh drugs.

Delineation of conflicts: Very early in the film, Sara runs from Andre, who traps her in the basement. He is enraged that Jane has passed out, and threatens Sara with rape. Vine intervenes since this might disrupt the balance. Vine does not like the cops in his building, for one thing.

Unfortunately for the demons, the real reason that Vine intervened was that he felt compassion for Sara. That odd change in this demon heart breaks everything.

There is a lot of consternation over this, especially after Cornelia diagnoses that Vine is the problem. Then it hits the fan.

Resolution: Despite resistance from all other demon parties, Vine needs to create a new balance. Will he get any help on this?

Short version: this movie is a very enjoyable film noir, with an interesting mystery story, using demons as plot attributes. It's not a demon horror action movie.

Long version: First off, this movie is weird. Not just in the sense that it's about "weird" stuff like demons, but in that it's a movie trying to mix film noir, mystery, horror, and drama. As I started watching it, I was expecting it to be some crappy demon-horror B-movie, but I've not often been so surprised (and wrong in my initial judgment). I believe the reason for most bad reviews of this movie, is that people were expecting a radically different movie. The best I can describe it is as a film-noir mystery detective demon drama. If that sounds ridiculous to you (and I can't blame you), then you're probably better off watching something different. If instead you're intrigued by this seemingly random combination of genres, you might want to give it a try.

I found the script to be surprisingly intelligent, with pretty few plot holes, and after the first "what the f*ck is this?" moment passed, I really got into the story (which I will not spoil). Most of the movie is very bleak (although it has a somewhat happy ending), including domestic abuse, alcoholism, child rape (although that was thankfully only implied, but never shown), etc., so it's probably not suited for the faint hearted. I found the acting to be much better than I expected: not Oscar nomination material obviously, but it was adequate enough. Also the special effects, being mostly the demons' body prosthetics, were quite nice. At times it was clear they were just rubber masks and floppy prosthetics, but I found the designs very elegant and was impressed with the film's visual style. Overall I would say it's very entertaining to watch and very different from what you would expect from something called "Fire city: end of days". I also found it to be thematically intriguing, and most of all a very original combination of different genres. I would give it a solid 7/10, but it gets an extra 1 because it's really much better than the 5/10 it has now on IMDb.

If you're going to watch the movie, just keep in mind you'll actually have to pay attention to the story - otherwise it's just going to seem like a strange, confusing, meandering movie. But believe me, it actually does make sense in the end. Just think of it as a film noir that happens to feature demons, rather than a demon movie, and you'll know better what to expect.

I am warning you up front that the first 15 minutes of "Fire City: End of Days" is confusing--so confusing that I was ready to turn off the movie. Fortunately, I resisted the impulse and what followed was a surprisingly good film--with a very inventive plot and awfully good prosthetics and make-up. While the film isn't for everyone, it is quite good and worth your time.

When the film begins, you see a lot of things that simply don't make sense. Don't worry and don't try to understand...just keep watching. Soon you come to realize that some of the characters living in this sleazy world are not humans after all but are demons disguised as humans...demons who literally feed off our misery. Seeing humans suffer and destroy themselves is what these creatures live for...and helping them do so is their job. However, something strange slowly begins happening to one of them. Atum Vine is a demon unlike any others because for the first time one of these horrible creatures begins to feel sorry for one of the humans...a young girl who reaches out to him for help. While he should take glee in her pain, Vine feels pangs of compassion. What's next and how this affects the humans and demon world is very interesting...but you'll have to see this for yourself.

The biggest surprises for me were that I usually hate films like this as well as learning that the director is actually a special effects guy who is now directing his first feature. While the make- up and look of the demons is incredible, I kind of expected this with the background of Tom Woodruff, Jr.. But I didn't expect a relatively low budget film like this to work so well. Now it isn't perfect--I do wish the beginning of the film had been less confusing and a little more to the point. But it is still darned good and well worth your time. My only reservation, and frankly it should come as no surprise, is that the film is NOT family-friendly. After all, it's about evil demons...and it does have some very explicit nudity and language that would make this a film for an older audience. So don't ask your mother or Father O'Malley or your kids to watch it with you!