Démons

My status as a film buff seems to exist in two separate states. On the one hand, I will wax lyrical about the subtle genius of Godard, Fassbinder, and Bertolucci. I'll watch pretentious European art-house cinema of the most stereotypical variety without even a hint of irony. I will regard Ingmar Bergman as a literal god-figure to worshiped in all of his glory. On the other hand, I will spend forty-plus dollars on a blu-ray of Dario Argento's Phenomena and gush over the sheer lunacy of B-movies. Demons (or Demoni, in its native Italy) is everything a geek like me could want. Gratuitous gore and violence, questionable dubbing, explosions, and a kick-ass eighties soundtrack. Co-written and produced by Italian horror maestro Dario Argento (Suspiria, Deep Red), Demons came from Argento's desire to create a purely commercial film after tasting such success with 1978's Dawn of the Dead. Thus, Demons is a film with little in the way of a coherent plot or deep characterization. And yet somehow it manages to be wholly appealing at the same time. The plot, which follows the spread of a zombie-like form of demonic possession spreading through a Berlin movie theater, exists solely to facilitate the numerous action and scare sequences. The score by Argento regular Claudio Simonetti (of Goblin fame) manages to be exciting, creepy, and perfectly suited to adrenaline-soaked visuals. This film is entertainment, pure and simple. To anyone looking to get into B-movies or Italian horror (or better yet, both) I highly recommend this film as it's a very accessible entry point into both genres. Just sit back, open a can of Coke, shut your brain off, and prepare to have the time of your life.

In West Berlin, a stranger wearing a mask randomly distributes tickets for the reopening of the Metropol movie theater on the streets for different persons, including a blind man. Cheryl (Natasha Hovey) gets two tickets in the subway and invites her friend Kathy (Paola Cozzo) to skip their music class and go to the movie theater to watch the film. The viewers come to the restored Metropol without having any information about the film they will see in the advance screening. While waiting for the beginning of the preview, a woman sees an exposed promotional mask of a demon and accidentally scratches her face with the object. When the film begins, the foregoing woman transforms in a monster in the same way it is happening on the screen with the characters of the film, in a kind of weird connection. She attacks the audience, and each viewer that is infected by a monster, is contaminated and transformed in another monster, threatening the rest of the defenseless persons. Sooner the survivors realize that they are trapped in the locked building.

The first time I saw "Demons" was in the mid 80's. I recall that it made me feel very uncomfortable. Then I saw this film many other times on VHS and today (04 November 2010) I have just seen it on DVD. This claustrophobic and sick film is a scary horror movie indeed. The story recalls "The Night of the Living Dead", only using gruesome demons instead of zombies. The disgusting make-up and special effects are excellent and compensate the weak performances of most of the cast. Bigas Luna used part of this idea in his 1987 "Angustia". The music score is awesome and this movie is only recommended for fans of trash-movies and is a classic in the genre. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Demons – Filhos das Trevas" ("Demons – Sons of the Darkness")

Michele Soavi as the man with the half human half metal face!!! Fun times. The plot is filled with holes, like why do some people take so long to turn when others it takes seconds, and what was up with thee usherette being so menacing..she did squat. Over 30 or so people get trapped inside a really creepy theater after they are all given free movie tickets. When a very annoying prostitute puts on a demonic mask on display in the lobby, within fifteen minutes later she has pus bubbles exploding from her face, and is attacking her other prostitute friends. One by one people are transformed, as gory as any italian horror movie can get. The direction is actually really good and Lamberto Bava goes all out on colors and angles (which horror italian director doesn't)and the soundtrack goes well with the eighties look. I also really had fun times with the 4 punks snorting coke outside the theatre, but they really added nothing to the plot and at times just seem to be there to fill time, without a doubt though the gore is the highlight of this flick. Throats getting ripped open, scalps getting teared off, puke and pus splatter continuously,a huge tongue sliding out one of the demons mouth, demons getting hacked with a sword, the most gruesome scene is definitely the blind man getting his empty eye sockets gouged out..HARSH. The characters are so hard to tell apart and we don't evn see some of the patrons faces. I don't remember any characters really except the coolest "pimp" Tony, the sexy usherette, the four punks and the "GEORGE" character (mainly only cause i recognized him from OPERA), but this movie obviously isn't meant for character development.

So all in all I give Demons **1/2 out of **** It's really cool, but only worth watching for cool visuals, soundtrack, and gore.

Demons (Demoni) is directed by Lamberto Bava and Bava co-writes the screenplay with Dario Argento, Dardano Sacchetti and Franco Ferrini. It stars Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny, Paola Cozzo, Fiore Argento and Geretta Giancarlo. Music is by Claudio Simonetti and cinematography by Gianlorenzo Battaglia.

A wonderfully nutty spiced Spaghetti Horror, plot has a group of people trapped in a Berlin movie theatre that suddenly comes under attack by ravenous demons.

It could reasonably be argued that Bava's movie has some cheeky narrative depth underneath the gloop and schlock, this is after all purposely set in a movie theatre and features a film that basically becomes real, sort of. But really it's a pic that's set up for like minded horror buffs to feast upon, to jump head first into its feverish horror comic book glee.

The script is as poor as the dubbing is, with a roll call of cardboard cut out characters and loose end scenarios jettisoned in readiness for the next plasmatic explosive sequence. Yet the care free abandon of the gruesome killings on show, and the rapid pace of it all, ensures it's a fun packed ride.

Even the musical score is schizo as it ranges from typical 1980s synth plods to heavy metal thunder - joyous. 7/10

Gruesome picture in acceptable budget plenty of chills , suspense , screams , lots of gore , blood and guts . This actually is a very terrifying and frightening film ; dealing with a demonic infection spreads people in modern cinema . Selected at random , people on the street are invited to an advance screen of a new horror movie . There a prostitute is bitten and becomes a drooling , fanged demon . In a killing rage , she tears apart other in the movie theater . As a group of people are trapped in a large movie theater in West Berlin that is infected by ravenous , clawed demons who proceed to kill and posse the humans one-by-one, transforming into bloody creatures who attack the remaining humans , thereby multiplying their numbers . When the members of the cinema attempt to getaway , they find themselves caught within .

This exciting picture contains thrills, chills , graphic violence , action-filled with fierce fights and loads of gore and guts. The horror and action moments are fast moving and compactly realized . This is an effective and simple movie ; it results to be an acceptable Italian horror , including functional special effects realized in traditional style , but also some plot elements are plain stupid . The creepy images of wide range from the genuinely horrifying to the bizarre along with scary and amazing frames . The flesh-eating demons appearance deliver the goods, plenty of screams, shocks and tension . The picture displays shocking and well-crafted transformation in charge of expert make-up artist Sergio Stivaletti . The make-up assistants create a truly horrible cannibal demons , zombies-alike . A poster for ¨4 flies on grey velvet¨ is visible in the lobby of the theatre: it's the title of writer/producer Dario Argento's third film ; there also appears other posters such as : ¨Nosferatu¨ , ¨Metropolis¨ and ¨Non Nukes¨ . Commercial musical score , full of hard rock and catching songs performed by known singers as Billy Idol and Rick Springfield . Good production design , as the building used for the exteriors of the Metropol theater still stands in Berlin ; it's a club called Goya that's been host to several horror conventions thanks to its appearance in this film.

The motion picture was compellingly directed by Lamberto Bava , he cites this as his personal favorite of the flicks he has filmed and in which he shows nice visual style . His father, Mario Bava (1914-1980), was a legendary filmmaker ; he entered the cinema as his father's personal assistant, starting with ¨Planet of horror ¨(1965). Bit by bit he gained experience from his father, who made him the assistant director for most of the rest of his films. He even co-wrote the screenplay for ¨Shock¨ (1977) . Lamberto enjoyed his best commercial success to date with this "Demons" , produced by Dario Argento, co-written by Dardano Sacchetti and filmed in West Berlin, Germany . This international hit smash allowed him to co-write, produce and direct a sequel, Demons II (1986) that was also successful and turned out to be an improvement on previous film . He also directed a remake of his father's "Black Sunday" (1960), which was titled "La Maschera del Demonio" or International title "Demons 5: The Devil's Veil¨ . He used the pseudonym of "John Old Jr." , which was a tribute to his father Mario, who often used the pseudonym "John M. Old" . Lamberto has directed films about all kind of genres such as : ¨Blastfighter¨ , ¨A blade in the dark¨ , ¨Shark: red on the ocean¨, and ¨Macabro¨ that achieved critical fame in some quarters ; however , today Bava Jr. only directs television movies : ¨Fantaghiro¨ and sequels , ¨Caribbean pirates¨ , among others . Rating : Acceptable and passable atmospheric film-making from genre master Bava's son that achieved great acclaim among gore buffs . A must see for horror fans .