Demoni 3

After a strange amulet is stolen during a voodoo ceremony, the mouldering corpses of dead slaves arise in the Brazilian coffee fields. This almost reminds me of some of the high profile Italian gore films of the late '70's or early '80's. Director Lenzi shows that, after 30 years of film-making, he hasn't lost his touch for creating memorable horror films. A very good film which will keep you on the edge of your seat.

This film is supposedly the second sequel to Lamberto Bava's fun eighties trash flick 'Demons', although I'd say it's more like a lacklustre version of Lucio Fulci's zombie masterpiece 'Zombie Flesh-Eaters'. Umberto Lenzi is undoubtedly one of Italy's most diverse and interesting directors, but like many of the best; his career took a downfall towards the end of the eighties, and it's hard to believe that the same man who directed such cult classics as Seven Blood-Stained Orchids and Almost Human also directed this film. The fact that this film is touted to be the third entry in the series started by Lamberto Bava is forgotten about when it comes to the plot, as the film really has nothing to do with the earlier series entries; and this is shown again by the fact that Lambero Bava's own 'The Ogre' is also known as Demons 3! The story here follows three kids who travel to Brazil. One of them is into voodoo, and uses his knowledge of the art to raise a load of dead black slaves. It's not long before the three kids and some other people in the vicinity have a big, flesh eating, problem on their hands!

The problem with this film is that it doesn't have anything in the way of surprises, and while there's some nice gore (including some good gory Fulci style eye gouging), the film is seriously lacking. If you're tuning in for gore only (as you probably should be), you're also likely to be disappointed as the gore isn't relentless, and there are only really a couple of memorable scenes. Bad acting is something you have to expect from a film like this, but with Black Demons; Umberto Lenzi has taken that expectation to a whole new level, with some truly diabolical performances from all concerned. The film starts off slowly, which puts itself on the back foot; as I was already starting to get bored of it before the gore even showed up. One thing that the film does do well, however, is hark back to the classic style of filming. The production values are a little better than Fulci's 1979 classic, but the basics of the film are the same. I can't say many good things about the zombie make-up, and they're nothing like the demons in Lamberto Bava's film. Overall, this movie isn't very good; but it's fairly fun at times, and I preferred it to Demons 2 at least.

Here is a movie that could have been a lot more. Released in 1991 under the title Demoni 3 (has nothing to do with the Demons series) and directed by the infamous Umberto Lenzi, the story takes off with a brother and sister and her boyfriend. Her brother becomes possessed by some black magic during a voodoo ritual and later on brings back to life 6 "Black Demons" to kill 6 white people to get revenge for their enslavement when they were alive. This movie moves very slow (as do a lot of Lenzi's films) and is acted quite badly. But then again, the actors didn't have much of a script to go off of. Unlike Lenzi's other classics like Cannibal Ferox or Nightmare City, this movie really doesn't hold your interest at all. With Nightmare City the gore was silly and the acting stupid but it was entertaining because the movie didn't stop, and the same goes for Cannibal Ferox. This movie, on the other hand, had may be 3 decent scenes of gore (most of which had someone getting an eye poked out) and the rest of the film is talking filled with bad background music. The only thing that kept my interest at all was the costuming for the demons/zombies. They looked genuinely kind of creepy. Besides that, the movie is to slow and that is really my main issue. 5\10 stars

A bad movie almost bad enough to be good, but not quite bad enough to be worth recommending.

Sonia is missing. Her boyfriend Jose thinks that maybe she went to town, but when she doesn't come back, he's pretty sure something bad happened.

But then Jose finds... one of Sonia's shoes! Now he knows something has happened to her.

"Maybe she changed her shoes," suggests Kevin, a cooler head.

They go to her room, and find another pair of her shoes.

"You see!" Jose exclaims. "These are the only other shoes she had! Are you convinced now?"

"Yeah," Kevin says. "She wouldn't have gone to the village barefooted."

These utterly ridiculous, idiotic scenes are meant to be taken seriously. That's the sort of movie you're in for -- accidental comedy. If you can appreciate a film on that level, this is the film for you.

Worse than the dialogue is the pacing. The movie is as slow as the stumbling zombies of the film -- and these zombies have chains around their ankles. Everything is very predictable, and we're left waiting around for the next moment of gore to show up.

The actors are constantly flubbing their lines -- but not in a particularly interesting way. Just stuttering slightly as they deliver ridiculous, stilted dialogue.

For a horror movie, there isn't much blood. Or fear. Or tension. Or horror. Or movie.

Why not bring director Umberto Lenzi in to direct a DEMONS movie? Sure, why not? Just remember this is not a DEMONS movie. It was just named that to try and cash in on the success of the earlier films.

Here two American siblings Dick (Joe Balogh) and Jessica (Sonia Curtis) along with her English boyfriend Kevin (Keith Van Hoven) are on a vacation in Brazil. Along the way Dick witnesses a black magic ritual. He records it on his tape recorder. The three of them are stranded, but luckily two strangers named Jose (Philip Murray) and Sonia (Juliana Teixeira) take them back to their house. It is here Dick replays the tape and revives the dead. Oopsy daisy.

Big problem I had with this movie was it became a little too dialogue happy. Too much yakkin' and not enough action. For gorehounds the death scenes are graphic and gory. Not worth it really.