‘Demons’ is a ridiculously entertaining piece of atmospheric gory
schlock with a cheesy B movie charm and a very smart premise making it impossible for most
hardened horror fans to ignore. Many of that said fandom hail the film as
Lamberto Bava’s masterpiece, which really is not saying much looking over the
director’s body of work. However, credit is due where credit is due and this is
the one the son of legendary auteur Mario Bava will be remembered for - a
somewhat bright spot that shines out of his filmography that is eclipsed by his
late great father’s shadow. While by far no way the great example of genre cinema
that its fanbase would have you believe, it is easy to see why it has garnered
such a loyal strong following that has given it its cult classic status.
Randomly chosen a load of people is invited
to a free movie screening at a newly renovated theatre. The film turns out to
be a horror about people becoming demons and just as this happens onscreen, the
audience starts to turn into horrifying demonic creatures themselves.
Set in Germany the movie opens on a moving underground train in
Berlin where we are introduced to one of the story’s protagonists female lead Cheryl
(Natasha Hovey). Seeing the reflection of a half metal masked man (Michele Soavi) staring at
her from the window opposite her seat as the train goes
through a tunnel she becomes understandably agitated especially considering he
is nowhere on board. Getting off at her destination, she finds that the
mysterious man with the half mask indeed exists and is seemingly stalking her. When
Cheryl gets to the top of the escalator, he meets her
but to her relief he hands her a complementary cinema ticket for a showing that
very night at a recently renovated theatre The Metropol. After getting another
ticket off him assuming that his costume is part of the film’s
promotion she meets her friend Kathy (Paola Cozzo) outside the station and the
two students decide to ditch the class they were due to attend to go to the free
screening.
When they get there, we meet the rest of the audience in the
theatre’s lobby that are a diverse assortment of characters. There is a tough
guy pimp accompanied by two of his prostitutes, a blind man and his niece,
an emotionally abusive husband and his suffering wife, a pair of young lovers and
Cheryal and Kathy meet George and Ken (Urbano Barberini & Karl Zinny
respectively). George is the male lead here taking a liking to Cheryl with his
friend Ken keen on Kathy.
There is testament to some shoddy writing here and during the
following sequence depicting the screening of the movie, as emphasis is put
upon the theatre’s suspicious looking usherette (Nicoletta Elmi). It is obvious
that the screenplay written by Bava Jr., Dario Argento (also the producer here), Franco Ferrini and
Dardano Sacchetti was setting up this character to be a major antagonist in
being behind it all with the camera focusing on her knowing facial expressions
in her reactions to the unsuspecting cinemagoers. Although after her appearance
during the film’s showing this is all immediately forgotten about. It could perhaps
be a possible red herring to give the viewer something to think about but in
the end, it is just pointless and adds nothing of worth to the screen time.
One of the pimp’s lady workers Rosemary (Geretta Geretta) takes off
the lobby’s display of props a similar but whole metal mask to that of Cheryl’s
train stalker which is hanging off the foot of a suit of armour sitting on a
motorcycle. Trying it on something inside the mask scratches her face when she
takes it off. Inside the darkened auditorium, the movie shown is a horror
feature itself telling the story of the misfortunes of two young couples that
discover the grave of the prophet Nostradamus after breaking into a cemetery. The
grave is actually empty though except for a book written by the seer himself
and the exact same mask that Rosemary had put on. As one of the young men
(Soavi again) tries on the mask the other man of the group reads from the book
about whoever puts on the mask becomes a demon. As Michele Soavi’s character
takes off the mask he cuts himself just as Rosemary did and just as this happens
on screen her own cut begins to bleed.
Feeling ill, she goes out back to the ladies room where the scratch
bursts and out comes horrible green pus and she transforms into a ghastly
fanged demon. When her friend fellow hooker Carman (Fabiola Toledo) comes in to
see if she is okay Rosemary attacks her and affects her as well. Eventually
getting away from Rosemary, Carmen rips through the cinema screen transforming
into a demonic creature before the very eyes of everyone. So begins a night of
bloodthirsty terror as many more become infected and the uninfected try to find
a way out now that suddenly all the exits have been bricked up. There is a
sub-plot injected into the proceedings as a gang of punks run into a bit of
bother with police outside. Coming across The Metropol, they break in to escape
and unknowingly let out one of the infected after they go inside only to become
infected themselves. These scenes only serve the purpose to set up the
ending.
‘Demons’ was an obvious attempt to break into the American horror film market with its on sleeve influence of Sam Raimi’s superior ‘The Evil Dead’ and its ill-fitting 80’s rock soundtrack with a touch of the questionable choice of Go West added into the mix. Yet Lamberto Bava opts for an unknown badly dubbed Italian cast instead of known American actors portraying characters about as deep as a kiddies swimming pool delivering lines of clunky dialogue that either falls into the groan inducing category or the so bad it is good cheesefest kind that makes us unintentionally laugh out loud. The pimp Tony (Bobby Rhodes) has a bunch of gold nuggets including -
“Come on grab her legs and help me throw her over the stall!
Come on what you waiting for?”
George replies: “I won't
give you a hand! Christ she's dead... Leave her alone!”
Tony comes back with: “You ain't
worth shit! How do you know she's really dead?”
Although these expected Italian horror shortcomings are heavily on
display - bad acting, wafer thin characterization, dialogue so bad that it
becomes hilarious with the equally poor dubbing, the usual lack of logic - it
is very hard not to like Bava Jr.’s most famous directorial achievement. It is
the signature stamp of horror from the boot shaped country to favour atmosphere
and gore over everything else. Lamberto Bava might not be the masterful
executer of stylistic mood as his father was but he still manages to build an
effective dreaded atmosphere to emphasize upon the helplessness of the
survivors’ plight against the horde of the demonised.
It also lacks the soul that went into making ‘The Evil Dead’ but
the movie has a clever life imitating art premise aided by Bava Jr. showing off
dynamic techniques behind the camera harking back to his giallo roots with fast
cutting between the filtered cinematography of inspired camera angles. Of
course, the main showcase here is the gallons of gore expertly poured out by
the excellent SFX work. I will leave these set-pieces spoiler free for anybody
who has yet to see the film but I will just say that ‘Demons’ is one of the
ultimate experiences in fulfilling gorehound’s fantasises. Claudio Simonetti’s infectious
musical score, which starts out upbeat but descends into eeriness by the end of
the movie makes up for the lousy rock soundtrack to which we are also subjected
to. Although to be fair these songs of 80’s tackiness just add to the party
mood of the film but just seem out of place in certain scenes.
Despite its flaws ‘Demons’ is a delightful beer n' pizza flick and
its DVD case should make for a permanent beer mat at the end of your well-worn
in sofa.
*** out of ****
Dave J. Wilson
©2012
Cinematic Shocks, Dave J. Wilson - All work is the property of the credited
author and may not be reprinted or reproduced elsewhere without permission.
Bravo! Great fucking article my fiend. That was some excellent reading... though, may I say, that any reading about Demons is well worth it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, mate. It is a good time flick.
ReplyDeleteGood review! I agree with you 100%. As a movie its terrible but it has entertainment value.
ReplyDeleteSwing by my page
http://grimmreviewz.blogspot.com/
Thanks, mate. I rate 'Demons' as one of the very best guilty pleasures in horror. And will do.
ReplyDeleteMan, this was a fun movie to watch. I actually remember seeing the box in a video store when I was a kid, and it freaking me out. I wish I could go back and tell my child-self that it turns out it's a comedy.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zombiehall.com/2012/03/demons.html
Good stuff.
Thanks, mate. It is one helluva good time.
ReplyDelete