Review #1,079: 'Demons 2' (1986)

The names Argento and Bava alone are enough to cause the average gore-hound to salivate, and fans of over-the-top splattery were treated to an exercise in excess with the Argento-produced, Bava-directed Demons in 1985. While I still felt the film sucked despite the talent behind the camera (although this is Lamberto Bava, not his legendary father Mario), there was still enough bone-gnawing and blood-spraying to enjoy amidst the terrible 80's fashions and soap opera-level dialogue. For the follow-up, the horror maestros inexplicably took out the bite and accentuated the goofiness, and the result is a clumsy, camp and somewhat annoying mess of atrocious acting and even worse film-making.

The film begins with what looks to be a documentary based on the events of the first movie, with a bunch of disposable teens trespassing into an quarantined city deserted following the demon outbreak. It turns out to be a film-within-a-film, with 'reality' taking place in an apartment block as loathsome teenage brat Sally Day (Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni) locks herself in a room during a birthday party tantrum to watch the movie on her television. Thankfully, a demon quickly bursts through the screen to turn her into a poster-girl for tooth decay and drip bile through the various floors, turning many of its residents into blue-skinned monsters. Amongst the many archetypes fighting for survival, douchebag George (David Edwin Knight) must get back to his apartment to rescue his pregnant wife and badass gym instructor Hank (Bobby Rhodes) leads his group of oiled-up bodybuilders into battle.

It all sounds like a lot of fun, and it really should be. An apartment building is the perfect setting to induce feelings of claustrophobia, with a vast labyrinth of corridors and narrow vents for our heroes to fight their way out of. Instead, Bava ignores the need for any resemblance of atmosphere or tension in favour of a never-ending stream of badly executed set-pieces, where grisly attacks tend to take place away from view. There's also the matter of the ending making little sense and a scene in which an unexplained demon monster thingy that looks like a discarded prop from Troll bursts out of the chest of an infected young boy, in a special effect so bad you wonder why on Earth the film-makers left it in. Only the antics of Hank (a winning combination of Fred Williamson and Mr. Motivator) and a terrific British new wave soundtrack gloss over the abominable acting and frankly unprofessional direction.


Directed by: Lamberto Bava
Starring: David Edwin Knight, Nancy Brilli, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Bobby Rhodes
Country: Italy

Rating: *

Tom Gillespie

Review #99: 'Demons' (1985)

In a subway, university student Cheryl (Natasha Hovey) is pursued by a strange looking man wearing metallic clothes and a bizarre mask. Thinking he is going to her hurt her, she flees only for the man to pursue her. He eventually catches up to her, only to give her a leaflet for a local cinema. Relieved, she hooks up with some friends and they go to catch a movie there. At the cinema, another girl scratches her face on an out-of-place looking statue whilst trying to wear the mask that the statue holds. Feeling unwell, the girl goes to the toilet only for the scratch to ooze pus and turn her into a demented demon, thirsty for blood. The other cinema viewers soon find themselves overrun by these strange demons, and must find an exit before they are all killed.

For a horror film with a title as definitive as Demons, and coming from the son of a giallo master and director of comic book masterpiece Danger: Diabolik (1986), I expected much better. It's harder to fuck this up than to get it right. Mario Bava's son Lamberto doesn't seem to have been genetically passed his father's skills (although this is the only film of his I've seen, so perhaps I'm being judgemental), as he fumbles through this film, failing to deliver a decent set-piece or a memorable moment of gore or special effects. In fact I find it hard to find anything remotely memorable about this film. Seriously, with a title like Demons, an 80's synth-horror feel, and the names Bava and Argento (as producer) on the crew list, this is a huge disappointment. And now I have to sit through the sequel!

Directed by: Lamberto Bava

Starring: Urbano Barnerini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny

Country: Italy

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie