Demons 2 (1987)

Truly Dreadful Film

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Better than the first one by a hair but I'm still not a huge fan of the gratuitous 'action' sequences which are even MORE rampant in the sequel, so i'm giving it the same rating. This actually has more elements to the story and it's less confusing and jarring. I really enjoy the atmosphere at the beginning of the film. If you've seen the first and liked it be sure to watch this one as well, because although i wasn't the hugest fan of Demoni I definitely had a fun time with this.

This 1986 horror sequel is sort of a revamp of the original, but the terror unfolds from the TV rather than the big screen. It features random people in an apartment building viewing a demon-themed horror flick on TV which unleashes a demon coming into the real world. Soon, demonic possession spreads to most of the tenants and the remaining struggle to survive. This isn't bad, except for the poor dubbing like the original and one of the demon creatures is annoying as hell. It does have good, gory make-up effects and a couple cheesy ones as well. I'd still give this a view at least once if you're into horror.

All I could think of when I saw this was that it sullied the reputation of the first demon movie. While the first movie was full of plot holes, it was still quite enjoyable and for any fan of 80's horror, still watchable over and over. Demons 2 is just a confusing, painful mess.The story takes place in a new ultra-modern, (for the time), secure high-rise apartment block. One evening several residents are watching a documentary about the now deserted and completely walled city where the demon outbreak occurred in the first movie. Some teenagers scale the walls and go searching through the deserted city. They come across a demon corpse and one of the teens who cut themselves earlier, drips blood into the demons mouth. This somehow revives the demon who chases them off. Now this is where it gets weird and loses all common sense. A college student, Sally, is alone in her room depressed as her boyfriend didn't turn up to her birthday party. She's watching part of this demon documentary on her TV and is somehow noticed by the demon she is watching on screen via the camera that is filming it. So this indicates that the camera that is filming is somehow operating independently. The on-screen demon decides to enter into the real world by forcing it's way through the TV screen. Sally screams and turns away only to turn back to see the TV now just showing static. Thinking it was her imagination, she's about to rejoin her party friends when the demon attacks her. This demon is never seen again, but Sally slowly turns into a demon and begins attacking all her friends who in turn also turn into demons. The demon blood seems to be highly corrosive and begins to burn its way through the floors of the building shorting out the electrics. Being a secure building, everything gets shut down, so essentially everyone inside is now trapped. Lifts are shut down, phones are out and the windows can't open as air-con is ducted.What happens next is much the same as the first movie, it's a hide and seek gore-fest as the demons go floor by floor killing everyone they come across. The most notable scene is the stand off in the lower level car park between a bunch of bodybuilders and the remaining residents against the growing horde of demons. After a brief fight the demons gain the upper hand, turn all the people who weren't killed into demons and then go back up the building looking for more victims.Again there seems to be only 2 people remaining, a pregnant woman, Hannah, and her husband George who need to get somewhere safe as she is about to give birth prematurely. George lays a trap for all the demons making their way up the stairwell by rigging up a delayed explosion with a severed gas line. This kills all the demons except Sally, who is now blinded. George and Hannah make their way to the roof and then abseil down the side to the next building which looks like a TV studio. In one of the most hilarious scenes ever, a blind Sally is somehow abseiling down the side of the building after them, face first, and gets killed by George, and all of this is caught on camera. As Hannah gives birth, they notice Sally on the TV monitors running towards the screen. Somehow, George puts 2 and 2 together, as if demons popping out through TV's is a regular thing and proceeds to smash all the TV screens.This is really a stupid sequel that is best left ignored. They could have done so much more for a sequel, but demons coming out of the TV just never sat well with me and while some actors make a reappearance in this in other roles, it never flows properly and the sequence of events is quite pedestrian. While the acting in Demons 1 wasn't the best, it was a hell of a lot worse in this and the whole thing appears rushed. Stick with the first movie and pretend this doesn't exist.

Demons 2 (1986)** (out of 4) More demons are unleashed and this time it's the tenants of an apartment building who find themselves being clawed apart in Lamberto Bava's follow-up to his 1985 gore classic.DEMONS 2 has a lot of the crew of the previous film but sadly it just doesn't work as well. I've always thought that DEMONS was one of the best Italian gore movies ever made as the special effects were terrific and there was just so much goo and gore that you couldn't help but love it. This film here offers up perhaps more gore but it really doesn't help things because in the end this just feels like a lazy attempt to make money.Obviously the filmmakers knew the first film worked well so they just tried to capture it's success. The two plots are pretty much the same with this one here really not trying to do anything new or original. The biggest problem is that all the characters here are pretty poorly written and you don't care what happens to any of them. The performances are what you'd expect but it was nice seeing a young Asia Argento.As far as the gore goes, it's the film's only saving grace. There are some great gore shots and the transformation scenes are also pretty good. Trying to top the original we're given a child demon as well as a pretty effective sequence where a dog turns into one. Sadly, these scenes aren't enough to completely save DEMONS 2 but gore hounds will still want to check it out.