TAG LINE - They will make cemeteries their cathedrals and the cities will be your tombs.
An 1985 Italian horror classic filmed in West Berlin, produced by DARIO ARGENTO and directed by LAMBERTO BAVA.
Some of the film stars are Fiore Argento (Dario's other quite hot daughter) and Urbano Barberini (of CASINO ROYALE & tv drama STRATHBLAIR - I kid you not!)
Referred to by DESTROY ALL MOVIES (the ultimate PUNK movie guide) as containing every componant of Italian cult Horror DEMONS is indeed Classic although the scene with punks in a stolen car rocking out to GO WEST does make me laugh.
It involves the idea of life imitating Art whereas the 'victims' are lured to a cinema to watch a preview of a new film (the film within the film). In fact this whole project could be argued as Art imitating life imitating art.
The horror begins when one of the cinemagoers decides to mess around with the display of the film props in the foyer - a demon mask, which cuts her face.
During the screening of the mystery movie - which seems to contain a bizarre cross section of the public - a pimp and his two whores, a old married couple, a blind man(!) and his niece, and then the standard group of young teens, the film they watch starts to slowly resemble what is happening to the filmgoer with the scratch on her face.....
Some may argue that the some of the plot is totally barmy, for example riding a motorbike up and down the aisles of the cinema, the doors of the cinema being bricked up (by whom and why?) within a hour or two, or the helicopter falling out of the sky into the middle of the cinema - but for me this lack of logic resembles a nightmare type quality.
Even after all this time the film contains some highly gross gore scenes i.e. one of the demons tearing someone's scalp off, a blind man having his eyeballs gorged out, etc.
What really works for me is the sense of entrapment and claustrophobia within the cinema (Itself a gorgeous art deco cinema in west berlin called the Metropol) and the menace of anyone scratched, bitten or gouged by a demon turning into a demon themselves in short order. This leads uncertainty as to who will 'get it next'...a great suspense tool.
Although the action takes place in the cinema there is a constant subtext that the outside world is going to hell in the same way, confirmation of which arrives in the form of the aforementioned helecopter dropping through the cinema roof.
As the film draws to a close, our two remaining heroes escape the cinema but are no better off in the outside world...this leads me to think there was a sequel mooted which is not DEMONS 2 which has nothing to do with the first one and is, frankly, a bit of a let down.
The film was unsuprisingly cut on its original UK release in the 80s, but supprisingly not due to its gore scenes, but for one scene which has a punk girl spill some cocaine on her boobs and her Punk boyfriend runs a razorblade up and down her breast to retrieve the spilled coke (Obviously a big no no for the UK film censors)! Personally I'd have licked it off....but I digress.
The film is a bit dated now, what with its movie soundtrack containing such artists as Go West and Billy Idol, but some of the other bands i.e. Saxon and Motley Crue, their songs are in keeping with the general tone of the movie.
All in all highly recommended!
Oh and stay tuned to the film during the end credits....
5 beers out of 5 (or 5 evil demon masks out of 5!)
An 1985 Italian horror classic filmed in West Berlin, produced by DARIO ARGENTO and directed by LAMBERTO BAVA.
Some of the film stars are Fiore Argento (Dario's other quite hot daughter) and Urbano Barberini (of CASINO ROYALE & tv drama STRATHBLAIR - I kid you not!)
Referred to by DESTROY ALL MOVIES (the ultimate PUNK movie guide) as containing every componant of Italian cult Horror DEMONS is indeed Classic although the scene with punks in a stolen car rocking out to GO WEST does make me laugh.
It involves the idea of life imitating Art whereas the 'victims' are lured to a cinema to watch a preview of a new film (the film within the film). In fact this whole project could be argued as Art imitating life imitating art.
The horror begins when one of the cinemagoers decides to mess around with the display of the film props in the foyer - a demon mask, which cuts her face.
During the screening of the mystery movie - which seems to contain a bizarre cross section of the public - a pimp and his two whores, a old married couple, a blind man(!) and his niece, and then the standard group of young teens, the film they watch starts to slowly resemble what is happening to the filmgoer with the scratch on her face.....
Some may argue that the some of the plot is totally barmy, for example riding a motorbike up and down the aisles of the cinema, the doors of the cinema being bricked up (by whom and why?) within a hour or two, or the helicopter falling out of the sky into the middle of the cinema - but for me this lack of logic resembles a nightmare type quality.
Even after all this time the film contains some highly gross gore scenes i.e. one of the demons tearing someone's scalp off, a blind man having his eyeballs gorged out, etc.
What really works for me is the sense of entrapment and claustrophobia within the cinema (Itself a gorgeous art deco cinema in west berlin called the Metropol) and the menace of anyone scratched, bitten or gouged by a demon turning into a demon themselves in short order. This leads uncertainty as to who will 'get it next'...a great suspense tool.
Although the action takes place in the cinema there is a constant subtext that the outside world is going to hell in the same way, confirmation of which arrives in the form of the aforementioned helecopter dropping through the cinema roof.
As the film draws to a close, our two remaining heroes escape the cinema but are no better off in the outside world...this leads me to think there was a sequel mooted which is not DEMONS 2 which has nothing to do with the first one and is, frankly, a bit of a let down.
The film was unsuprisingly cut on its original UK release in the 80s, but supprisingly not due to its gore scenes, but for one scene which has a punk girl spill some cocaine on her boobs and her Punk boyfriend runs a razorblade up and down her breast to retrieve the spilled coke (Obviously a big no no for the UK film censors)! Personally I'd have licked it off....but I digress.
The film is a bit dated now, what with its movie soundtrack containing such artists as Go West and Billy Idol, but some of the other bands i.e. Saxon and Motley Crue, their songs are in keeping with the general tone of the movie.
All in all highly recommended!
Oh and stay tuned to the film during the end credits....
5 beers out of 5 (or 5 evil demon masks out of 5!)
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