WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Neill Blomkamp's Demonic, currently in theaters and on VOD.
Christopher Nolan's Inception is one of modern pop culture's most iconic films, not just for its jaw-dropping visuals but the thought-provoking sci-fi concept of dream thieves. Leonardo DiCaprio stars in the movie as Dom Cobb, a man who makes his living stealing secrets from people's minds through their dreams. The tech he uses to do just that is remarkably similar to the gadgety in Demonic, enough so that Neill Blomkamp's sci-fi/horror film could've easily worked as an Inception sequel.
Now, in Inception, the tech is a small box with a tube running into people's arms. This allows the sedating fluid to enter their bodies for the dream sharing to occur. The subject creates the world with outsiders coming in and doing their best to source for information without being detected.
Similar to Inception's tech, Demonic's gadgetry involves hooking comatose patients up via wires to their head, which then map the person's brain waves. This creates a digital simulation that is really their subconscious building out the mindscape, much like entering the world of someone dreaming in Nolan's film.
Recalling Ariadne and Cobb's dream-sharing in Inception, Demonic's protagonist Carly uses this tech to enter the different "rooms" of her mother Angela's mind. This allows her to visit homes her mom had planned for the future, as well as the sanitarium where Angela was possessed years earlier. Notably, the doctors on the outside can hear and see inside this dream world, but the subjects inside can't hear or see them. Once again, it feels like Inception dream-probing, but this time, the shared dream can be projected onto a monitor for those in the outside world to monitor.
The technology in Demonic resembles a modified version of that from Inception -- one that's improved for cinematic effect and to allow voyeurs find clues and secrets from the outside. In the former's case, however, it's not about corporate secrets or planting ideas in people's minds; it's about studying the demon within Angela and allowing Carly to say good-bye to her dying mother.
To top it off, Angela's dream world breaks down when she senses Carly intruding, which is what happens in Inception as well, as they're considered an infection. In both cases, outsiders give the host an indicator they're not in control, causing the mind to want to expel them.
In Inception, the world physically breaks down as "citizens" in the dream attack the outsiders, whereas in Demonic, the matrix glitches and starts to defrag. Ultimately, while thieves use Inception's dream tech, Demonic's leads are a bunch of tech-priests who work at Therapol, a company funded by the Vatican. The tech serves the same purpose, but the groups behind them differ in terms of their spy-craft and intentions. Dom's crew are corporate pirates, while Carly's exorcists just want to send demons back to Hell.
Written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, Demonic is currently in theaters and on VOD.
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