Demons (1985) Limited Edition 4K UHD & Blu-ray Review
Demons (1985) Limited Edition 4K UHD & Blu-ray Review
University student Cheryl (Natasha Hovey) is travelling by train alone on the West Berlin underground. She is on her way to meet her friend Kathy (Paola Cozzo). She gets freaked out when she realises she is not alone on the platform and that a sinister man (Michele Soavi, director of the marvellous Stagefright: Aquarius) wearing a freaky metal mask appears to be stalking her, the same creepy fella she glimpsed on the train even when he wasn’t even on it.
As he approaches she is relieved to find out that he is just handing out preview tickets for a movie showing that evening at the recently renovated Metropol. In fact so surprised is she that without knowing anything about the film, not even it’s title, she asks for another ticket for Kathy and convinces her friend to skip that evening’s class. The cinema in question had been closed for sometime however inside its all very plush looking and no one seems that bothered about buying noisy grub to eat during the performance. The audience in attendance is sparse and no one seems to notice that one of the characters in the film they are watching looks very similar, in fact identical to the masked man who would have handed them all out a ticket.
Kathy is appalled to find out they are watching a horror film but no fear there’s two young studs, George (Urbano Barberini) and Ken (Karl Zinny), on hand to keep both her and Cheryl company. The film they are watching sees two young couples find the grave of Nostradamus – well known by all for predicting things that never seem to happen, until now – and an ancient tome that predicts a demon apocalypse – monsters that “will make cemeteries their cathedrals and tombs, your cities.”. They uncover an old book (very The Evil Dead) and a demon mask not unlike that in the foyer.
Some in the audience take to watching the movie seriously whereas a pimp and his two female charges take to giggling and openly flaunting that they are smoking in a non-smoking cinema. One of the women, Rosemary (Geretta Giancarlo), had tried on a prop demon mask, similar to that worn by the creepy masked fella that spooked Cheryl, in the foyer for a laugh slightly scratching her face and guess what the same thing happens to a character in the movie (also played by Michele Soavi) they are watching with the same mask!!!! At the point her slight wound takes to bleeding and doesn’t seem to want to stop….just like in the horror film that is being screened. Now spooked she goes to the bathroom – nice decor! – and sees the slight cut take to bubbling up and popping like an unwanted zit on a teenager’s first date. If that wasn’t bad enough for the whore’s potential business opportunities after the screening she becomes a frenzied demon thingy with one thing on her mind to convert the rest of the cinema audience into the same.
As the film screening in the cinema continues it becomes increasingly violent just as events behind the scenes do the same. Rosemary’s friend Carmen (Fabiola Toledo) pops to the ladies to check on Rosemary only to find her a fanged monstrosity lurking in one of the cubicles. Carmen is attacked and flees ending up on the reverse side of the cinema screen as a knife is being used to off some innocent in the nameless flick. Carmen tears through the screen and falls in front of the preview audience.
As the startled throng look on Carmen transforms into a demon and panic and carnage ensue with each wounded patron fast becoming another of the ravenous demons. The uninfected do their best to escape and nameless characters are attacked and wounded and even barricading themselves in the balcony does little to stop the possessed from reaching them. Demons carries on nonsensically as the rather inappropriate rock song tie-in soundtrack album bludgeons the viewer as increasingly absurd situations unfold onscreen culminating in a helicopter crashing through the cinema theatre’s ceiling.
In the days before the internet became a prevalent force in all our lives finding out about new movies was restricted to what was promoted or shown at the local cinemas or by reading about them in magazines such as Film Review (there was no Empire or Total Film magazine on the market at this point), taking pot luck on an unknown title in your local video store or by catching a trailer for forthcoming releases on a title you’d bought or rented. In the case of Demons there was a neat, punchy trailer preceding the original rental release of the rather excellent Stagefright: Aquarius. With no explanation as to the plot, just a series of key images cut together to Claudio Simonetti’s very Eighties sounding score I was sold, and the title was then searched out in earnest from my local video store.
Director Lamberto Bava’s movie is quintessentially Eighties in terms of the young cast’s fashions, the obligatory tie-in soundtrack populated by forgettable tunes and in looking to appeal to the lowest common denominator to spawn a hit at whatever cost. With Dario Argento co-writing the screenplay, from an original story by Dardano Sacchetti, logic is quickly dispensed for quick thrills and of course the possibility of financing a follow-up if enough people pay to see this one. (They did as Demons 2, which Lamberto Bava returned to direct, was released soon after in 1986 with the plot pretty much repeated wholesale aside for a change in choice of location. There’s even the pimp and the lead street punk popping up for roles as side characters).
Lamberto Bava started working in the film industry assisting his famous father Mario on the likes of Planet of the Vampires as well as co-writing his father’s final film Shock. Lamberto took his first turn at directing with 1980’s Macabre (which most distributors tended to ruin the film’s big twist with by plonking a key image on the movie’s poster/cover). Prior to directing both Demons flicks Bava had directed another of my Eighties guilty pleasures A Blade in the Dark which also starred Michele Soavi who went on to direct the rather wonderful Stagefright.
Dario Argento had gone over-budget with Phenomena and despite it being a substantial financial success he was still asked to produce a movie geared to bring in more readies to compensate the overspend and Demons and Demons 2 were the product of that. In addition to co-writing the script and producing Demons Argento found room in the cast for his eldest daughter Fiore, one half of a young couple caught up in the nightmare. Fiore is not called upon to do too much other than run around and be scared and, of course, become a demon.
Elsewhere there’s a nod to Argento’s third film, a poster for Four Flies on Grey Velvet in the cinema foyer, Michele Soavi, an assistant director on several of films, also serving as an assistant director on Demons and appearing in two starring roles and Nicoletta Elmi, who plays the usherette Ingrid. Elmi most notably starred in Argento’s classic Deep Red (Profondo Rosso) and also featured in a small role in Lamberto Bava’s famous father Mario’s 1971 film Twitch of the Death Nerve. In Demons Elmi’s character serves as a red herring, all menacing glares and a persistent torch that would have had most people shouting for her to turn the fricking thing off. She all but disappears the moment demon bedlam breaks out and serves no other purpose other than to dupe the viewer into thinking she is in on what’s going on. She isn’t.
Demons was never intended to play as high art instead feasting richly on it plot absurdities all the while turning in an efficient, fun roller-coaster ride that sees a display motorbike suddenly started up by our hero George (where were the keys, why did it have fuel in it?) and zooming into the cinema auditorium slashing up chasing demons with a Samurai sword before a helicopter crashes through the ceiling.
Remember these are not zombies, they are people possessed by demons that just happen to lurch around and cause as much trouble as Romero’s undead – think Dawn of the Dead meets The Exorcist. The demons tend to dribble bright green goo that makes it seem as they have all overdosed on Mint Aero chocolates and are big on chuckling and taking great delight in flaying the unsuspecting punters in the preview cinema audience. Given the backlash the horror genre was experiencing in the Eighties Demons is a neat dig at all those that prattled on about how watching gory movies could turn you, your pets and your granny into homicidal maniacs.
The four punk characters are merely ciphers introduced to allow the bedlam taking place within the cinema to escape out into the bigger world. They snort Coke (from a Coke can of all things), drive around in a stolen car but rather oddly listen to tunes like Go West’s We Close Our Eyes hardly a drug taker’s music of choose. The choice of songs from Go West, Billy Idol amongst others takes precedent over a chilling score. But this is the mid Eighties and even horror icon Freddie Krueger had tie-in soundtracks to sell over the more traditional scoring.
Sergio Stivaletti provides the gore and make-up effects which do not always convince but then they never did at the time. It’s still fun to watch the transformations and there’s a particular grim hair pulling that goes the way of a bad scalping. Rosario Prestopino was responsible for the gloriously icky pustules that pulse and the wonderfully iconic moment as the demons shamble up the stairs eyes aglow came about from Stivaletti liking the same effect in Neil Jordan’s The Company of Wolves. Stivaletti gets a cameo towards the movie’s end as a possessed fella seen through a window as George and Cheryl escape via the cinema roof.
And for those usual naysayers that quibble on about the standard of acting the actors have been dubbed into English so it’s down to dubbing rather than original performance. And also it’s kind of churlish to expect decent acting from a movie designed to purely provide daft escapism for an hour and a half in turn for a decent return on its original $1.8million budget. Elsewhere there have been criticisms in respect there’s little or no background to any of our characters and why should there be? Do we really need to know the in’s and out’s of everyone attending the cinema? In real life you wouldn’t and besides this is about making a point about how violence influences viewers dressed up a lightweight, frothy fun concoction. It’s not about depth. As with the likes of successive Friday the 13th movies people are introduced for no other reason than to be seen dying a gruesome death. There’s no empathy here aside from one last moment shock as the end credits roll – a nice final touch.
What also adds to Demons’ guilty pleasure status are those little bits and pieces that make no sense at all. Why does everyone look at Cheryl as she steps from the train? She wasn’t acting odd and besides the abundance of dodgy hairdo’s afflicting most on the train would have stolen any attention. And what’s with a blind man (Alex Serra) going to watch a movie preview? Even Bava admits the very notion is comical. Film continuity is an amusing factor especially as Cheryl panics and moves quicker to flee the man in the mask. She appears to travel back in time. The clock behind her on the platform shows it has just gone 11.25. When we see the clock again it’s 11.20. And whilst we are still in the subway keep an eye out for Lamberto Bava as another departing the train along with Cheryl.
Demons was followed a year later by Demons 2 (also directed by Lamberto and produced by Argento) however all subsequent sequels were unofficial and made to capitalise on the established brand name. There was talk of making a third movie which fell apart in the later stages with the project being revamped and renamed as The Church, Michele Soavi’s directorial debut. Recently Arrow Films re-released Demons and Demons 2 for retail including with each one half of a specially commissioned comic book by Stefan Hutchison called….wait for it…Demons 3 presented as the original sequel. In the meantime if you’ve yet to see the original Demons what are you waiting for? It’s fun, nasty, and frothy and never lets up for a moment…enjoy!
Brand new 4K restorations of DEMONS 1&2 out 22nd Feb from Arrow Video. DEMONS 2 HAS BEEN REVIEWED SEPARATELY
