THE STORY: I always though that Necro meant "dead" and that a necromancer was a person that raised the dead or the spirits of the dead in order to gain information about the future. Like the Witch of Endor and the stuff from the bible. Oh well, I can imagine the film makers were trying to find a cool title for the movie and things like "Sorceress" or "Demon" were already taken.

The Necromancer in this movie is a woman that has a "revenge for hire business". Answering her newspaper ad are two college students, Julie and Frieda. Julie's been raped by a group of male students led by Paul. She was studying late at night in the campus theater when Paul and his goon squad broke in to steal answers to a test from a teachers desk. While committing the robbery they found a letter Julie had written to Prof. DeLong. You see, though Julie has a boyfriend named Eric now, she used to do the nasty with DeLong. Paul threatens to use the letter to get her in trouble if she tells anyone about the rape. So Frieda drags Julie over to the Necromancer and she casts a spell. A spell that will make the "demon of vengeance" get even for Julie.

"Demon of Vengeance"....I always thought that Ghost Rider was the Demon of vengeance. Oh well.

The demon dispatches Julie's enemies pretty easily. (and unspectacularly.) We don't really get to see the kills. The demon comes to them in the form of Julie only gussied up like a sex kitten. Then it changes to a rather lame monster and we hear the victim scream. There's no bodies or anything left either. The people just disappear.  That's inherently disappointing for a movie like this. I mean, if you want a horror movie that will really shake you up a bit you rent something like the Sixth Sense, or  the Exorcist. If you want a horror movie that's on the cheap side, but you want to see some blood and guts you should be able to say that this is the one for you. But there's no blood and guts and there's nothing really scary to shake you up.

Julie has a problem though. The demon doesn't just stop with the rapists. It kills anyone she's angry with at the time. The Demon almost kills Eric in the middle of the movie when Julie is upset with him, but she quickly calms down and unbeknownst to her at the time the demon vanishes before it can carry out its grisly task. There's a guy whose name I didn't write down so I'll call him "Dweeby Guy". He's a practitioner of black magic, but he doesn't look all that formidable. He's kind of a devil worshipping Pee Wee Herman. (He rides a bike! Seriously) Dweeby Guy wears a red T- shirt with a pentagram on it so we know he's in with the whole mystic thing. DG offers to help Julie because he knows the Necromancer is using her powers to kill. Julie, naturally needs some convincing. She doesn't fully believe all of this until she's blackmailed by Prof. DeLong. He threatens to fail her and screw up her scholarship if she doesn't play house with him. Julie at first gives in and goes to change into a nightie he got for her, but gets mad and begins to leave his house. On her way out she sees the demon in her form killing DeLong.

It gets worse. Eric finds out that Julie used to bump and grind with DeLong and is understandably pissed off. Julie rushes to his dorm in order to stop the demon from killing him. She arrives just in time to see the demon begin its attack. Despite the fact that the demon has magic powers Julie and the creature go toe to toe fighting over a magic knife that DG had given her. In the end one of them gets stabbed. Was it Julie or the Demon? I'm not sure and the movie doesn't really give us any answers. But don't despair. I'm sure there's little chance of a Necromancer II. (I'd better watch it...for all I know there is a Necromancer II!)

There've been poorer horror movies, but this one still won't hold your attention to much unless you're a die hard fan of low budget horror flicks. It had some interesting moments, but the problem is there's no payoff. When the demon kills we don't get to hear more than a few screams and there's no gore at all.

1.)  What happened to the security guard? There was a rentacop in the building while Julie was studying and Paul and his cronies were sneaking about. You mean to tell me this guy didn't hear her screams while she was being raped? Is he deaf? Julie led the attackers on a merry chase knocking over stuff and making a racket and when they rape her she's screaming her lungs out. I think someone would've heard in the next county.

2.)  Where the hell do these people go to college? Everyone with the exception of Eric and Julie has a house! Paul lives in a freaking mansion! Frieda has a house that she apparently lives in alone! I don't know anyone in college with that kinda money! I went to the wrong school!

3.)  When the necromancer starts killing the rapists, Julie gets all upset and says she wanted revenge but she didn't want anyone to die. Um, what did you expect would happen, girlfriend? If you wanted revenge you could have just told the [unwrite]ing police. I don't buy all of that "I'll lose my scholarship" jive either.

4.)  Each one of the rapists deserves to die, not because they raped Julie, but because they're too stupid to live. Now, raping her was just plain stupid and evil, but then when the necromancer comes for them in the form of a seductive Julie didn't one of these guys even think "How did Julie get in my house and why is she dressed like a penthouse pet?" or even "Why would Julie want to [unwrite] me after I viciously raped her and threatened her?". I know I damn sure would. I've never raped anyone but if an ex-girlfriend that I dumped in a bastard-like way appeared in my home with no warning and was dressed like a dominatrix I think my Spider-sense would start tingling.

NUDITY AND SEX:  Julie is raped. Julie's doppelganger seduces its victims. Julie's boobs are seen.

HUH? :  Dweeby guy doesn't understand why Julie keeps running away from him. Hmmm. Well, admittedly something horrific is going on right now with the Necromancer killing guys and all....but if he really wanted to help her you'd think he'd understand that a normal, average, everyday woman is not going to spend a lot of time talking to a weirdo with ugly glasses that rides a bike around following her. Especially when the weirdo has green highlights in his hair and wears the same red T-shirt with a pentagram drawn it everyday! Hell, I wouldn't want to talk to him!

The demon is one of the lamest monsters I've seen in awhile. I didn't expect an H.R. Giger design, but the CGI eyes on this thing just don't work. A dime store monster mask would've been more convincing. What were they thinking?

Apparently the demon isn't uber-strong since Julie goes hand to hand with it at the end and wins. So why didn't the men that it killed put up a better fight. I can't believe that Julie is stronger than any of them. (If she was she would have just kicked ass instead of being raped.) For that matter why didn't the demon use its gnarly powers on Julie? It can move things around and stuff. Why fight Julie hand to hand when it could have sent a chest of drawers smashing into her?

THE TALLY:  Lackluster, but watchable. This is one of those movies though that you'll only want as filler for a period of time when you're actually looking for something engaging. This is definitely the movie to get if you're compiling a few for a bad movie night.