Demons (1985)

1985
Directed by Lamberto Bava
Starring Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Fiore Argento, Geretta Geretta and Michele Soavi

We're back to the well of Dario Argento this week.  Demons may not have been directed by the guy, but it has his influence all over it, as it's structured just like an Argento flick, it has the same kind of incomprehensible narrative, an the characters are by and large inconsequential compared to the atmosphere of sheer WTF-ness that the flick manages to achieve.  That's not to say that it's totally incomprehensible.  Lamberto Bava, son of the legendary Mario Bava and the other half of the Italian horror Legacy All-Stars along with Dario, was more than game when it came to the task of crafting a nice little creepy story here.  Unfortunately, I've got a whole decade's worth of bias built up when it came to my enjoyment of this movie that had been hyped up to me for what seemed like eons.

Man...I just really wish had seen this movie ten years ago, because for all intents and purposes, we're dealing with a zombie film.  It may be called Demons, and the plot may deal with some spooky Christian dark angels on the warpath, but they're zombies all the same regardless of what anyone says.  They feast on people and they infect other people like a virus, and that makes them the z-word in my book.  The word "zombie" is practically a dirty word with this reporter, as I'm so sick of the plot device that I still refuse to watch a single episode of Walking Dead no matter how many non-horror fans in my daily life wax about how awesome it is.  That unpleasantness out of the way, there actually is some stuff to admire with this flick, so let's get to it.

Characters?  Exposition?  Surely you're following the wrong guy if you're in the market for a movie connected to Dario Argento, because this is a movie with almost none of either.  Here's your setup: young college student Cheryl (Hovey) in Berlin is followed on the subway by a creepy-looking dude with a Kano-style metallic facial implant.  His mision: to get her to attend a screening of a horror film.  Because when humanoid clones of Metallo want you to go to a movie, of course, you jump at the opportunity.  Dragging her best friend Kathy (Paolo Cazza) along to the screening, they watch the opening chapters of the movie involving college students who wander into a mysterious crypt.  Cue evilness.

You see, a friendly prostitute (don't ask) cut herself on an ornate mask on the way in to the theater, and it's this cut that launches the plot of the movie forward.  Before the first act of the movie is over, she is transformed into a demon right before our very eyes (complete with some excellent pus photography - seriously, a good 23% of this movie's running time is dedicated to various disgusting body liquids).  You know how almost every zombie movie involves the transfer of the virus via bites?  Well, here, it's scratches.  Soon, Prostitute Demon has infected various other people within the theater, the denizens of which are mysteriously bricked inside.  So we've got the isolation aspect that it apes from countless zombie movies in addition to its basic villain setup.

More than any other aspect of the film, Demons is fantastic in one regard: it has amazing gore and makeup effects.  Argento was known as a guy who liked to push the envelope when it came to onscreen violence, and Bava downright puts his father to shame when ti comes to red stuff flying around in this flick.  There's more than one scene that will stick with you when it come sto sheer visceral power.  We also get some great '80s heavy metal underscoring the film, with "Save Our Souls" by Motley Crue being the real highlight.  And we've also got that trademark pre-Opera Argento atmosphere, even if the guy isn't sitting behind the chair himself.

But we've also got some weaknesses.  There is one segment in particular that drags to the point of suicide, as we're introduced to a group of punk rockers who had no connection to any of the characters in the theater.  We spend about ten minutes with them, watch them be jerks, do cocaine, argue with each other, expose the token female's breasts...you know, all quality stuff.  And then they're pretty much all killed off just to establish that the zombie (demon) infection has spread beyond the original location.  The acting range of these guys (and gal) takes us to a new low.  This part of the movie enters Friday V territory of "get this annoying face off the screen."  There's also a couple cool dudes inside the theater who made it their point to try to get with Cheryl and Kathy, with one of them inexplicably becoming the movie's main good guy by the end of the brisk 88-minute running time.  The lead guy, played by Urbano Barberini, looks cool with a sword.  That's about it when it comes to this guy.

And, for the second and third acts, it's a zombie film.

You can call me biased, and you're correct, but it severely hampered what I got out of Demons.  That's a shame, because there are sequences in the movie that are nothing short of classic.  The finale in particular, with a helicopter crashing into the theater, a tense scene involving trying to winch up to the roof, and a motorcycle sword massacre being the highlights.  The movie that the characters watch is also creepy in its own way, with mentions of the prophet Nostradamus and a nice modern Gothic feel heightening the air of mystery around just what the hell is going on.  So the movie is far from a total washout in that regard.  Unfortunately, I just can't call it the unrivaled classic that so many other online reviewers have heaped on it.

*** out of ****.  Overly familiar in this day and age of zombie apocalypse stories, but it's horrifying in enough aspects to be able to recommend if you can find it cheaper than I did.  And I paid $12.75 for the most recent DVD edition.