The next time someone tells you that Fulci was a derivative hack, whereas
Argento and the Bava’s were brilliant artists, feel free to laugh in their face
for me. Demons
Plot:
A mysterious theater promotes its grand opening by giving away passes to an unknown film. The place is packed; a few of the patrons are disappointed to learn they’ll be viewing a horror movie concerning a cursed demon mask. Trouble is, the story may not be so fictional after all. The mask in the film bears a striking resemblance to one on display in the lobby, and one of the patrons who was handling it before is acting mighty peculiar…
Comments:
The next time someone tells you that Fulci was a derivative hack, whereas
Argento and the Bava’s were brilliant artists, feel free to laugh in their face
for me.
With ‘Demons’, Dario and Lamberto follow the time-tested philosophy behind Italian cinema. (See what’s big in American. Do a cheap carbon copy of it.) In this case the plagiarized party is dear old Sam Raimi, of ‘Evil Dead‘ fame of course. (Oh, and I think he did something once with spiders in it.)
The film starts out with a good vibe. The production practically screams 80’s, not that that’s a bad thing. Rather, it adds a lot of flavor to the proceedings. The whole movie within a movie thing is a nice gimmick, and it is realized pretty well. Unfortunately, when the carnage starts, everything falls apart. (And not in a good way.) Around the middle of the film the plot grinds to a halt as the survivors barricade themselves away from the possessed. It’s almost as if you can hear Argento and Bava turn to each other and say ”Oh crap! We’ve just got the whole cast sitting around on their asses! What the hell happens now?”. (Which is odd, because you’d figure they’d be speaking Italian.) In trots a particularly lame deus ex machina in the form of three coke-snorting street punks. They break into the theater; an event as unlikely as the newcomers are unlikable. The young pups have no purpose in the film and are quickly disposed of. They do nothing more than artificially lengthen the running time and add to the body count.
It’s not a good sign when halfway through the proceedings, it dawns on me that
I’d rather be watching the goofy slasher knockoff playing in the film than the
film itself. (Unless watching it would cause me to be attacked by
poorly-realized demons. In that case, just skip it.)
Unlike Raimi’s deadites, the titular fallen have no personality. When someone is possessed, the just grow a bad manicure, start snarling, and begin walking like Red Fox. (Interesting fact, everyone in Hell has lumbago!) Unfortunately, the living fare no better. Most of the characters are pretty shallow and none are terribly likable. (Especially a group of cookie-cutter black stereotypes. One thing you find about foreign cinema is that it is often even more prejudiced than its American counterpart.)
Urbano Barberini as George, more the default protagonist (in that he lives the longest) than the hero, tries desperately to be another Ash. However he just doesn’t have the charisma to cut the mustard, even while donning a torn blue shirt and riding around on a motorcycle decapitating host-bodies with a katana. (What? Was a chainsaw too expensive?)
Then again, whining about the plot in an Italian slasher flick is like
complaining about the lack of character development in a 
porno film. (Not that I
would know, mind you.) The only thing that matters is the direction. (In a
horror film, not in porno. Again, not that I would know.) As fitting with the
Bava legacy, the film posses some solid visuals, but it doesn’t quite live up to
its potential. While the requisite Italian gore is present, the possession
effects just aren’t very convincing. (Raimi managed to do much more with a
budget far smaller than ’Demons’, which should tell you a little something about
the value of imagination.) The film is further served poorly by its soundtrack,
consisting of excretory 80’s rock . Even if it didn’t suck, it still wouldn’t
properly match the tone the film is trying to craft.
Despite the overwhelming negativity of my observations, ‘Demons’ is not an awful film. However, due to the big names attached to it, it is often given the mantle of a minor classic. This it most assuredly is not. It’s a cute late night time waster, but don’t go out of your way to pick it up.
3.5