Hey, it was my birthday weekend. I'm not slacking off...yet.
Anyway, let's dive right in. You may notice a trend with the past three days' worth of flicks.
For the day of my actual birth, I made the lazy decision to cheat. That, and I realized several things when deciding on what to include for this year. The first was that every time I've tried to include something from the year 1985 for the eleventh entry of this yearly marathon, my options were becoming a lot more limited. That might have been a glorious year for cinema, but in the realm of horror, I had seen damn near everything of importance. The second thing I noticed was that I had not sat down to watch Lamberto Bava's splatter classic Demons in nearly ten years. Hell, the receipt from when I purchased it was still inside of the case (side note: I apparently purchased Phantasm, Godzilla: Final Wars, and C.H.U.D. during the same transaction). Seeing as how I expected that most of the time during my birthday would either be spent working, having an expensive dinner, or drinking enough to kill an elephant, I felt like a cheat day was earned. It also means that I won't be fully required to write a lengthy explanation as to why you should not only watch Demons, but own it too.
As expected from most Italian horror cinema from yesteryear, Demons' plot is completely bizarre. A number of people receive mysterious invitations to attend an early screening for an unnamed movie. Without giving away too much, the actions of one of the patrons (Geretta Geretta of Shocking Dark fame) and some eerie, surrealistic moments in the feature itself leads to the crowd slowly, but violently turning into psychotic creatures hellbent on nothing but killing and "converting" anyone in their path. That strange premise carries over into the absolute madness that follows, and Lamberto Bava (son of famous Italian filmmaker Mario Bava) directs this wonderfully wacky bloodbath with a very "rock and roll" attitude by adding in as many shocking moments as he can while giving you a feeling that nothing is off limits. If you're a fan of practical effects and gore, especially of the absurd variety, I think it'd be very difficult to hate Demons. The sequences in which one theatergoer's teeth and nails begin to fall out or warp are pretty revolting in the best way possible. These absolutely horrendous moments are usually accompanied or preceded by a rollicking heavy metal-led soundtrack, which features cuts from acts like Saxon, Accept, Motley Crue, and some original compositions by Goblin's Claudio Simonetti. The inclusion of the latter is most likely due to his relationship with producer and coworker Dario Argento, who while primarily known for his giallo works, does seem to lend a hand in helping Demons feel like an otherworldly fever dream at times.
I've always found it difficult to nitpick pictures that I truly love, but I suppose that I should bring up something before I move on: Demons, despite its twisted, fun nature, does have a tendency to not make much sense at times or throw in some stuff that ultimately amounts to nothing. There's a very striking character who gives the audience a vibe that indicates there may be something sinister behind those eyes, but it turns out to be a red herring with no real answer given in the end. I'll also add that the very end of the flick is kind of a middle finger to the audience, but it doesn't detract from the overall experience.
Not sure what else I can add here (plus I do have two more films to cover below). Go watch Demons if you have a strong stomach and/or are in the mood for something fabulously zany. Grabbing a physical copy of this can be a bit of a pain (my DVD from Anchor Bay isn't too expensive though), as the Blu-Ray from Synapse Films is now out of print, and the Blu-Ray from Arrow Video won't work on most players available in the U.S. As luck would have it, streaming service Shudder has both Demons AND Demons 2 available to watch whenever you'd like, so hop on that if you don't feel like spending in the double digits.
Speaking of Demons 2, let's dive right into that one. And much like my review for Halloween 5, there may be a small amount of spoilers here if you haven't seen the prior picture.
Following the surprising success at the Italian box office (fun fact: Demons outgrossed A Nightmare on Elm Street that year in Italy), filming began on Demons 2 only seven months after the first flick's theatrical release. Striking while the iron is hot wasn't entirely surprising, but this is both the sequel's strength and weakness, because while not lacking in the areas which made the first picture so beloved, its flaws are a bit more glaring by the time the film is coming to a close. This time around, the story seems to indicate that the events of the first Demons were possibly fictionalized, as there are several occasions where characters are watching portions of it on television. During a party in an apartment building, a young woman named Sally is transfixed by footage of the movie, and it leads to a demon emerging from a television set to attack and transform her into one of them. Afterwards, she proceeds to slaughter and infect partygoers and we ostensibly get most of what we saw in the first Demons: people getting torn apart, weird shenanigans, gruesome transformation sequences, a rock-inspired soundtrack (this time primarily comprised of post-punk and gothic rock bands like The Cult, Fields of the Nephilim, Gene Loves Jezebel, and the Smiths), and a LOT of gore.
Watching Demons 2 made me realize something that perhaps I pushed aside too often in regards to the first film: the characters are, for the most part, pretty vanilla in both of these pictures. Actor Bobby Rhodes is arguably the best performer in both pieces (playing a different character in each movie), and he is such a glorified scene stealer that you can't help but smile every time he pops up on screen. I'm sure that transitioning from a smooth pimp to a gym instructor certainly takes some talent, and even if he's dubbed over, he's so naturally charismatic that it makes you sad he never became a bigger star outside of his native country. As for the rest of the cast though, they're a real mixed bag. A very young Asia Argento makes her acting debut here, but she serves no purpose and her inclusion feels more like nepotism on the part of her father serving yet again as producer and cowriter. Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni on the other hand is pretty dang great as unofficial demon leader Sally, and I look forward to seeing her pop up on here again should I ever get around to watching Dario Argento's Opera. Those three performers are about the only ones worth mentioning for this sequel, because the rest feel just like corpses with an expiration date that's coming sooner than later or underdeveloped protagonists.
Though it does feel like a cash grab and makes even less sense than the first film, Demons 2 is also fairly entertaining and watchable, if only for the gore alone. These two Lamberto Bava films could make for an ideal combination to put on in the background at a party (depending on how long you want it to last). As I stated above, this is also available for streaming on Shudder, though unlike its predecessor, a Blu-Ray seems to be easier to obtain this time around. I've heard very good things about Synapse's release of this piece, but I'm not willing to spend much on this one....for now.
Now, I'm well aware that Demons and Demons 2 were originally conceived to be part of a trilogy by producer Dario Argento, but the writer/director for the third entry felt that such a film should be treated with more respect and of higher quality. Ultimately, a trilogy never came about, and we ended up with 1989's cult favorite The Church.
I am not going to be reviewing The Church. That film will make its way onto the marathon some other time.
Instead, I had to stick with the word of the day and ventured into the realm of horror remakes that you and I most likely forgot existed.
I've reviewed all three of the Night of the Demons films over the course of several Unseen Terror marathons (links here, here, and here), and though I do share an affinity for all of them in some sort of capacity, I would never exactly call the franchise sacred or untouchable. Angela might be a very underrated horror villain, but she isn't Freddy Krueger or even Pamela Voorhees. So when I was reminded of this film's existence, I felt like there was some sort of moral obligation to add it to my queue. And as it turns out, the 2009 remake of Night of the Demons is.....serviceable?
Plot-wise most of this remake stays faithful to the original. A bunch of youngsters.....erm, youngish people.....alright fuck it, human beings decide to attend a Halloween party thrown by the boisterous and strange Angela Feld, who has rented out a seemingly haunted house with a dark history behind it. Police eventually arrive and break up the rather loud gathering, but after everyone disperses, a small group reenter the house to find one friend who has passed out. One of the guests, a drug dealer named Colin, needs help finding something that he left behind, so he and Angela make their way into the basement. While perusing, they stumble across a group of skeletons, with one seemingly biting Angela when she attempts to remove a gold tooth from its mouth. Thinking nothing of it, they head back upstairs, but Angela begins to feel rather groggy, and things eventually take a turn for the worse.
One thing the remake of Night of the Demons does surprisingly well is satisfying your taste for blood. Though some of the kills are littered with lackluster CGI and peppered with stock "demon" sound effects, they are undeniably creative. There's a glorious face-ripping sequence which follows a seductive dance set to Type O Negative (this film's version of the Bauhaus scene from the 1988 picture), and they somehow manage to outdo the original's infamous "lipstick" scene by adding in a truly bizarre twist. The designs of the monsters themselves are also fairly well crafted with every single one of them having a different look. They also had the common sense to cast Linnea Quigley for a small cameo, and even give her the dress that she wore back in 1988. Kudos guys.
The negatives can't be ignored however, and they unfortunately bring down the overall fun factor. Considering all of the adoration I have for the 1988 original, this also suffers from the same problem of becoming quite stagnant after things die down for a minute or two. The third act of original series director Kevin Tenney's movie felt stretched out and there were periods where seemingly nothing happened other than people running around and freaking out while demons threatened them from hundreds of feet away. They try to sprinkle in some backstory of why these demons are doing what they do to keep things interesting this around, but it just leaves you kind of bored and waiting for things to get exciting again. It's also kind of a shame that some of this cast just isn't powerful enough to carry weak material or liven things up when it's sorely needed. Edward Furlong of Terminator 2 fame (who, and I'm gonna be eloquent, looks like total garbage here) seems to be barely awake throughout the film's running time and American Pie's Shannon Elizabeth is criminally underutilized considering that she seems to be relishing playing a villain for once. Major props have to be given to the casting director on nabbing Monica Keena for the lead role though. I've always felt like she was a very underrated final girl. Hell, she's survived both Jason Voorhees AND Freddy Krueger for crying out loud! Still, as solid as she is, she never gets a chance to shine or do anything of note until the final ten minutes of the movie. Boo. This version of Night also sports a very cheap "Redbox" look to it, with some of the accompanying audio effects and poor editing not exactly helping to dispel that argument.
Though nowhere nearly as terrible as its reputation may be (and that 4.7 rating on imdb is unnecessarily brutal), I don't expect to be revisiting the Night of the Demons remake within the near future unless someone asks me to. I do feel rather bad knowing that it bombed TERRIBLY (failing to make even a tenth of its budget back), so if you're still curious or just want to see some blood and boobs like the average horny horror fan, you can snag a copy on Blu-Ray or rent it through Amazon Prime for a few bucks.
Tomorrow, I'm taking a break from my demons (hyuk hyuk) and diving into some Blu-Ray action from back in the day!
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