#dèmoni (1985)

[darktripz]

[framesdump]

Demons (Lamberto Bava, 1985)

[russianyoshkinaneko]

Dèmoni (1985)

[horror-aesthete]

Demons (Dèmoni), 1985, dir. Dario Argento

[malinkymax]

Dèmoni (1985)

[gimmeshelter]

favourite first watches of october :)

la rose de fer (jean rollin, 1973)

lisa frankenstein (zelda williams, 2024)

multiple maniacs (john waters, 1970)

the hunger (tony scott, 1983)

dèmoni (lamberto bava, 1985)

i walked with a zombie (jacques tourneur, 1943)

spider baby (jack hill, 1967)

vegas in space (phillip r. ford, 1991)

red spirit lake (charles pinion, 1993)

[sloshed-cinema]

Demons [Dèmoni] (1985)

When the movie starts on a scare the likes of which filmgoers hadn’t seen since “L’Arrivée d’un train en Gare de La Ciotat,” you know you’re in for a treat. Lamberto Bava’s pulpy gore-fest gets the scene-setting, if it could be called that, through quickly enough: folks show up at a new cinema in Berlin, and the shit hits the fan pronto. It’s easy to ridicule the film for a lack of interior logic or sense of continuity. For one thing, a quartet of punks exist solely to add to the already staggering body count, and because someone thought that the image of a person snorting coke out of a Coke can would be hilarious. And the late reveal of a helicopter crashing through the roof of the cursed cinema makes absolutely no goddamn sense until well after it’s happened and all is revealed that things have escalated to outright In the Mouth of Madness tier apocalypse outside these walls. But aside from stating the obvious (nobody gave a shit about silly little details like that during the production), it’s funny how on one level Demons is a jarringly stark commentary on society’s fundamental inability to respond to emergency situations. After they find themselves to be trapped in the cinema, all of the disposable stereotypes assembled almost immediately sign their own death certificates. General chaos is the rule of thumb, with everyone working against one another in their panic. Try to assert yourself and take control of the situation? Sorry, still gonna meet an ignominious end. Go into a state of catatonia? Not helping. The real trick is simply to ooze main character energy. Also having a sweet katana bequeathed to you by your dying friend and a motorcycle that is on exhibit and yet apparently totally gassed up certainly helps.

But let’s be real, this is about the gore. This earns top marks in its intent and, well, maybe we should grade on a curve for execution. The ideas, the sheer number of ways that people are horribly maimed and killed, are relentlessly creative and fucked up. Even if Dario Argento produced this, the effects more align themselves with father Mario Bava’s proto-slashers or Lucio Fulci’s depravity: eyes are gouged on multiple occasions, fingernails split and deformed, teeth displaced, demons sent bursting from distorted backs. But for all of the glorious cringes and winces it inspires, there are a few moments when… well, now her face looks mostly like plastic so I guess something fucked up is about to happen. At least they warned us. Now we just need a nice boyfriend to tell us when it’s safe to look back at the screen, and to promise he’s not lying.

THE RULES

SIP

A song starts.

Someone drinks Coke with a straw (or starts bumpin' that).

A named character dies.

BIG DRINK

The Metropol Theatre logo appears.

Silver mask features in a scene.

[retro-frikianos]

FRIKIANA ADICCIÓN: FRIKIVIDADES DE FIN DE AÑO (SAGAS)

DÈMONI aka DEMONS (1985). DÈMONI 2 … L'INCUBO RITORNA aka DEMONS 2: THE NIGHTMARE RETURNS (1987), DÈMONI 3 aka BLACK DEMONS (1991), LA CASA DELL'ORCO aka DEMONS 3 (1989), LA SETTA aka DEMONS IV: THE SECT aka THE DEVIL'S DAUGHTER (1991), LA MASCHERA DEL DEMONIO aka DEMONS 5: THE DEVIL'S VEIL (1989), IL GATTO NERO aka DEMONS 6: THE PROFUNDIS (1989)

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: Demons (1985)

Demons (Dèmoni) (1985)

Not rated

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2023/06/review-demons-1985.html>

Score: 3 out of 5

Demons is as simple as it gets. It's directed by Lamberto Bava, son of the '60s/'70s Italian horror master Mario Bava, and its four screenwriters include one of the other icons of that period of Italian horror, Dario Argento. There's not really much more to it than that, except the junior Bava's sense of style elevating what's otherwise a very rote zombie movie plot whose only unique characteristics after the first half-hour are its movie theater setting and the supernatural origin of its zombies. Its first act was building to some interesting ideas, but once the bodies start hitting the floor, all of that is cast aside in favor of the kind of movie you've probably seen at least a dozen of already, without many twists barring a dark ending. What saves it is its stylistic creativity, as Bava goes balls-out with spectacular gore effects, crazy stuntwork, and a hell of a score supplied by the longtime Argento collaborator Claudio Simonetti of the progressive rock band Goblin, all of them coming together to create a distinctly '80s Euro-punk take on the zombie genre. I wouldn't say it holds together as a movie, but as a cinematic experience of the kind that Popcorn Frights supplied last week, it did not disappoint.

We start the film with a mysterious man in a metallic, Phantom-style half-mask wandering the streets of West Berlin handing out tickets to a film screening at a theater called the Metropol. A bunch of people show up, including the university students Cheryl and Kathy, the preppy young men George and Ken, a bickering married couple, a pimp named Tony and his prostitutes, and a blind man and his daughter who acts as his guide. Right away, the film drops a bunch of tantalizing hints as to what the real purpose of this engagement is. The lobby hosts a striking display of a samurai riding a dirt bike, holding a mask that later shows up in the movie that's being screened, a horror flick about a group of young friends who stumble upon the tomb of Nostradamus. A mysterious redheaded young woman in a green-and-white suit (played by Nicoletta Elmi, best known for playing creepy kids in '70s gialli) works as the theater's usher, serving as a creepy presence throughout the first act. And because one of the patrons decided to play around with that samurai's mask before the movie started, she gets possessed and turned into a monstrous zombie, who promptly attacks the other patrons and spreads this demonic possession to them. The moviegoers try to escape the theater, only to find every exit bricked up.

And that's about where the plot of this movie ends. No, really. Not long after the mayhem starts, the film loses interest in the plot and becomes a story about a bunch of thinly-sketched characters fighting for survival against a zombie horde in a movie theater. Cheryl and George are the only ones who get anything even close to resembling an actual arc, and even then, only in the sense that they're the ones who the film pegs early on as the final girl and boy. We never learn what the deal is with the usher, who vanishes into the background before she gets unceremoniously killed like so many other characters. We learn the "how" of the zombies early on, but not the "why", as we never see how it's connected to the movie the characters were watching beyond superficial details. There's a length subplot involving a group of punks who break into the theater (which seemingly lets them enter in ominous fashion) in order to escape the cops, which goes absolutely nowhere and exists only to explain what happens in the last five minutes. The masked man who invited everyone to the theater returns towards the end, but only as a one-note antagonist for the remaining survivors to fight. It's a movie where you can tell a whole bunch of people worked on the script, probably had a whole bunch of conflicting ideas on where to take it, and ultimately decided to not even bother, such that all the setup in the first act, and the hints as to what might really be going on, adds up to nothing. An intriguing mystery is completely squandered in favor of a movie that most of us have already seen many times before.

It's fortunate, then, that the rest of this movie was giving us everything while the script was giving us nothing. Watching this, you can tell right away where Bava's real interest was: zombie mayhem delivered in a very period Italian B-movie style that looked, sounded, and felt so damn good. Bava made great use of the theater setting as a closed circle for a zombie apocalypse, whether it's emphasizing the building's old-fashioned feel (they used the real Metropol theater in West Berlin for establishing shots) to lend a sense that it might have dark secrets lurking within its walls or having the survivors smartly turn the upper balcony into their holdout. The gore effects are gross, disgusting, and put on fine display, a combination of the demonic nature of the zombies from The Evil Dead (including a creepy glowing eye effect) and body horror straight out of a David Cronenberg movie. The human survivors, too, get in some good licks, especially a climatic battle in the theater where that dirt bike and katana out front are put to use. Their dialogue is obviously dubbed into English from Italian, but given everything else happening on screen, you barely even notice. And through it all, the soundtrack rocks on, with both contemporary punk and metal tunes and Claudio Simonetti's score together lending the movie a vibe akin to a music video where the plot doesn't seem to matter nearly as much as the killer images on screen. It's a film that felt like it had at least one foot planted squarely in the '80s counterculture, a zombie bloodbath where nothing happening on screen really matters but you're too busy grooving to a feature-length music video to really care.

The Bottom Line

Demons is a film that's as stylish as it is vacuous. Don't go in expecting an actual plot, characters worth caring about, or much in the way of sense. Do, however, go in expecting a fun thrill ride that never lets up once it gets going.

[micolecciondepelis]

DÈMONI Lamberto Bava 🇮🇹 1985 Dos jóvenes deciden ir al preestreno de una película de terror y viven una auténtica pesadilla al quedarse atrapados en el cine con los demás espectadores.

[tawneybel]

Hi there :) Would you write an imagine for The Man in Black from Lamberto Bava’s Demons (1985), where he is giving a cinema movie ticket to the reader, who has some dirty thoughts about him, and after she escapes a demon pandemic in the cinema, she encounters him once more, but this time, even he has very dirty thoughts about her?

He’s handsome! I’m a sucker for masks! Demons looks good. I’ve liked most of the Italian horror or giallo movies I’ve watched so far. (Unrelated, but the the guy at :22 in the trailer looks like Jensen Ackles.)

[darktripz]

[facesofcinema]

Dèmoni (1985)

[russianyoshkinaneko]

Dèmoni (1985)

[horror-aesthete]

Demons (Dèmoni), 1985, dir. Dario Argento

[brokehorrorfan]

Demons and Demons 2 will be released together on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray on October 19 via Synapse Films. Each version is limited to 6,000 units. Juan Jose Saldarriaga and Chris MacGibbon designed the slipcase art above.

Known in its native Italian as Dèmoni, Demons is a 1985 horror film starring Urbano Barberini and Natasha Hovey. Demons 2 is its 1986 sequel starring David Knight, Nancy Brilli, Coralina Cataldi Tassoni, and Asia Argento.

Both films are directed by Lamberto Bava (Devil Fish) and produced by Dario Argento (Suspiria). Bava, Argento, Dardano Sacchetti (The Beyond), and Franco Ferrini (Phenomena) wrote the scripts.

The two discs are packaged together in a set that includes a replica of the Demons movie ticket, a Demons 2 party invitation, a fold-out poster with art by Wes Benscoter, reversible cover art, and a slipcase.

Two cuts of Demons are included: the original cut with uncompressed DTS-HD MA English and Italian 5.1 and 2.0 audio mixes from archival audio masters and the shorter U.S. cut with newly remastered uncompressed DTS-HD MA English 2.0 mono audio. It features newly translated subtitles.

Demons 2 features uncompressed DTS-HD MA English 5.1 and Italian 5.1 and 2.0 audio mixes from archival audio masters as well as newly remastered uncompressed DTS-HD MA English 2.0 stereo mix. It features newly translated subtitles.

Both films have been remastered in 4K. Special features are listed below, where you can also get a better look at the contents.

Demons special features:

Original cut of the film and shorter U.S. version

Audio commentary by film critics Kat Ellinger and Heather Drain (new)

Audio commentary by director Lamberto Bava, special effects artist Sergio Stivaletti, composer Claudio Simonetti, and actress Geretta Geretta

Produced by Dario Argento - Visual essay by film critic Michael Mackenzie (new)

Interview with writer/producer Dario Argento

Interview with composer Claudio Simonetti

Interview with frequent Argento collaborator Luigi Cozzi

Interview with stunt performer Ottaviano Dell’Acqua

Carnage at the Cinema: Lamberto Bava and His Splatter Masterpiece

Dario and Demons: Producing Monster Mayhem

Monstrous Memories: Luigi Cozzi on Demons

Profondo Jones: The Critical Perspective

2019 live Q&A with special effects artist Sergio Stivaletti

Italian and English international theatrical trailers

U.S. theatrical trailer

In Demons, a masked man offers tickets to a horror movie sneak preview at the mysterious Metropol cinema. When a patron is scratched by a prop displayed in the theatre lobby, she transforms into a flesh-ripping demon! One by one, the audience members mutate into horrible creatures hell-bent on destroying the world! Can anyone escape this gory orgy of terror?

Demons 2 special features:

Audio commentary by film critic Travis Crawford (new)

Interview with filmmaker Luigi Cozzi on the history of Italian horror

Interview with special effects artist Sergio Stivaletti

Demonic Influences: Federico Zampaglione Speaks

The ‘Demons’ Generation: Roy Bava discusses a legacy in lacerations

The New Blood of Italian Horror with Sergio Stivaletti

Screaming for a Sequel with filmmaker Lamberto Bava

Interview with composer Simon Boswell

Together and Apart - Visual essay on Demons and Demons 2 by film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

Original Italian and English theatrical trailers

The apocalyptic terror continues in Demons 2! A televised horror film spells doom for the residents of a luxury high-rise apartment, as demons are unleashed through the TV screen at a young girl’s birthday party. As more and more residents are infected and transformed into blood-thirsty demons, a young couple fights to survive as they try to escape Hell on Earth.