Demons (1986)

You won't be disappointed!

Just perfect...

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Warts and all, I have great fondness for this insane '80s splatterfest about demons running amok in a movie theatre, and I think a lot of its appeal is due to the setting, and the stylish gothic cinema where all the violent action takes place in this has a lot of cool retro visual flair to it, and it made for an inspired arena for horror once the fun really begins! I love the way it plays up to the movie-within-a-movie theme, I think it's done a lot more cleverly than the movie is given credit for, most of all in the excellent early sequence where the girl is screaming her head off behind the cinema curtain as the camera pans back and forth between her and the shocked audience, and the screaming character in the movie that they were watching! That tense hectic scene was brilliantly put together and was probably the most memorable one in the movie. This picture and its lesser but still fun sequel have a trashy, campy vibe which is something you can't really miss, but I wonder how much of that is down to the monstrous voice-dubbing job that made everyone sound like complete idiots, it's probably a quite different viewing experience in its original language.. For how over the top and cheesy a lot of it is, to me there's also something genuinely nightmarish in its atmosphere that gets to me a little, although none of them look quite as terrifying as Rosemary, the vicious crazed demons and all the frantic terror they bring is scary and the flick does have some genuine frights in its favor amid all the cheese. One of my favourite scenes is when the guy and his girlfriend are crawling through the spooky vent and they can hear the claws of a demon somewhere close by scraping against the metal but they can't tell where until it's suddenly revealed that it's actually his girlfriend who's been infected and has transformed right in front of him! it's a very eerie and effective little scene. Once the demonic chaos is really unleashed it all feels pretty hopeless and the patrons are completely doomed...unless of course there happens to be a spare katana and a working motorcycle handy! The famous motorbike demon slaughtering scene alone gives the rest of the movie a free pass, it's one of the most draw-dropping what-the-heck-am-I-watching sequences to be found in all of '80 horror and is both epically ridiculous and ridiculously epic!!! Effects-wise I love what they did with the mysterious and creepily alluring man who works as the herald of the demons and hands out the free cinema tickets of certain doom! His design is very striking, the metallic chrome half of his face looks like something that's grafted into his flesh rather than appearing like something that's just stuck on him, he looks amazing. And out of all the many and varied poor unfortunates who meet their demise down at the Metropol, my favourite is the big bald and black 70s disco pimp complete with hookers, he's so hilarious and entertaining to watch in action, and I really think they missed out by not having him be the film's main hero! The only thing I really do dislike is the everything with the completely unnecessary grimy gang of no good crackhead street punks who unwittingly let loose the plague of the demons upon the rest of the world in what must have been one very rapid apocalypse! A lot of the Italian dubbed horror flicks of yesteryear like most giallos that I've ever seen are so trippy and vague that they're kinda beyond me, but there ain't nothing deep about Demons, as a movie it demands nothing more from its audience other than that they hopefully have a fun macabre blast with it, and for me it's always worked just fine on that level. So while it isn't perfect by any means it is consistently entertaining, a little scary at points, and just so much fun that is earns itself a special place in my heart. Gotta love Demons, it's a classic x.

I've been watching 'Demons' since the eighties. It's an Italian film that panders to us English speakers by kindly dubbing its natives with American voice actors. Ever since it was released it's been labelled as 'Night of the Living Dead in a cinema' and – yeah – I can't really sum it up any better. It's a zombie film, only with 'demons' rather than zombies. This means that the nasties can sort of run (nearly twenty years before 28 Days Later wowed us with the prospect of a 'running zombie!') and aren't so much interested in eating their victims as they are in just turning them into more demons through scratches/bites. But, let's face it, they're still zombies by another name.The story follows a group of people who go to watch a free horror film in a creepy cinema, only to find that life really does imitate art and the demons spread from the big screen to the popcorn stalls (so to speak). Now, you may be thinking that if you were trapped in your local multiplex with a load of flesh-eaters, you'd just kind of run out. Good point. And our on-screen heroes do try their best. However, where as most zombie films follow the rules of reality (if you count corpses coming back to life and attacking the living 'reality') Demons adds various plot devices which don't really get explained. Let's just say that random things happen that ensure the humans never can find a way out of a building little bigger than any cinema you've ever been in.This is where I say the film is either genius or terrible – I've never really worked out which. Random things happen which could be argued that subvert the typical Hollywood narrative structure. However, another line of thinking is that the writers had no idea what they were doing – plots go nowhere, as do scenes and the balance of characters is all over the place. Sometimes you think some characters know more than they do and are going to play a greater part, only to have them killed at random parts.But, no matter what you think of the story, the special effects are pretty special – especially for the time. The demons themselves really are pretty nasty and I always found them a lot more creepy than your standard shuffling zombie. The demons really seem to take genuine satisfaction in spreading their plague and are motivated by a deep evil, rather than the zombies' need to feed alone. Demons may be laughed at by today's standards – it hasn't got the characters of The Walking Dead, nor the coherent story of any recent zombie film, but it does have a weird feel about it and is definitely worth watching if you're a fan of the genre (and like eighties music). I find it a weird hypnotic classic that I watch regularly. Bobby Rhodes is an absolute legend in this.

I watched "Demons" (aka "Dèmoni") in the late 1980's and I remembered it as being a good and scary movie back then. So I sat down to watch it again in 2016. And I must admit that I might have been more easily impressed back in my teens."Demons" is about a group of people invited to a night screening of a movie in an old theater building in West Berlin. However, the events in the movie much resembles what happens in the theater, as a woman puts on a demonic mask on display and cuts herself when taking it off. Soon after, a demonic entity takes over her body, possessing her and starts to kill the other people in the theater. Fleeing the theater in panic, the people find themselves trapped and walled in, having to fight a desperate fight in order to stay alive and not be turned into a ravenous demon.Sure, the storyline was adequate, albeit generic and stereotypical. And it definitely had that mid-Eighties feel to it. However, "Demons" was not a particularly outstanding movie, especially not by comparison of horror movies by today's standards. Of course, a comparison with 30 years in between is hardly fair, but I mean that "Demons" just doesn't leave a lasting impression.The effects were adequate, taking into consideration that the movie is from 1985. And I do remember that I found the effects great and somewhat disturbing back in the late 1980's when I watched the movie.However, the acting in the movie was less than mediocre, and that was a shame, because the movie did suffer from that.The ending of the movie was really one that didn't sit well with me. While the concept of the ending would be great on paper and in idea, sure I can relate to that, but it just was a bit too much. But of course, it is a matter of personal preference."Demons" is not a major movie in the horror library, but if you grew up with horror movies in the 1980's and 1990's (in particular the Italian horror movies), like I did, then "Demons" is most likely a movie that would have crossed your path.

I first time saw this movie when I was a teenager and honestly, I liked it. But at that time I had no idea of how original this movie is. It's not zombies, it's not witches, it's not aliens, it's not superhuman killers but demons. Demons with a mysterious origin that is as obscure as how absurd this movie is. There are many things I really like about this movie, the special-effects, the gore, the absurdity, the irony, the coal black humor, the music and the atmosphere. Firstly, it has an absurd story. Almost as if psychotic, people gather inside a cinema to watch a movie because they got invited. Among them, a black woman, cuts herself with a creepy and mysterious mask. Unknowing to her and the people around her the mask turns humans into murdering demons. When her transformation completed, it didn't take long before there are a lot demons loose in the cinema. The people can't escape because the exits were walled with concrete, with no logical explanation. That is absurd, but the story isn't the most important here, it is mostly a special-effects movie. With the demons, comes along a fest of practical special-effects, violence and gore. Secondly, the special-effects are still impressive, also disgusting and that's the reason why practical special-effects are still better than CGI.We see normal, human teeth coming off, replaced by what appears to be more like shark teeth. We also see human nails replaced with claws, flesh being torn and lots of blood. All done with practical special-effects. The special-effects seemed quite demanding and hard to execute, but it went so well I still find them convincing to this day. Thinking about it gives me a little nausea. But amid-st the gore, violence and absurdity of all, the movie has sense of humor and irony. For example, the people trapped inside the cinema blames the movie for what is happening. Yes that is illogical (and funny) but it has a strong reflection on reality, with censors and people often blaming movies for promoting violence and making people violent. That is absurd. More of the humor bits is the blind man who went to the cinema, oh the irony! How about the coke inside the Coca Cola can? Hilarious! The music is quite exotic, adding to the absurdity of the movie. Also the atmosphere, the atmosphere is so absurd the movie feels more like a nightmare. It is almost like a comic book. Which I like a lot. I love movies with atmosphere. Like I wrote earlier, this is quite original. Unlike most movies you'll see today or of yesterday. I didn't realize that as a teenager but now I do. I actually like it more than I did as a teenager. This movie is pure cult movie gold. 9/10