Based in Berlin, The audience at the Metropol Theater are settling in for a mystery horror screening, tucking in to popcorn and coke, completely unaware that back stage, one of the patrons has just turned into a blood thirsty Demon. As the screen antics start playing out in real life, panic sets in and the theater goers find them selves trapped inside, fighting against vicious angry Demons. Sounds pretty much like a regular Saturday night at my local cinema.

Like Zombies, if your bitten or scratched by a demon, you will soon become one. However, Demons do not hunt for food, they live only to spread their contagion, and the poor people trapped inside the theater are slowly hunted and turned, in this awesome eighties cult classic known as Demons!
With glowing eyes and large sharp talons, the Demons are ugly, fast and “change your pants” scary . The Demons have a very unique look, with lots of veins and purplish faces. Let’s not forget about a mouthfull of teeth a Dentist would faint over. These crazy killers run around the theatre causing chaos, infecting the patrons and looking pretty mean doing it. As a nice twist in this film, the action starts when someone puts on a mask in the theater reception, scratching themselves and starting the spread of infection.

Demons came to life in the golden age of horror, the mid nineteen eighties, and it something quite special indeed. Collaborating in what i would say their best work, Lamberto Bava and Dario Argento brought this zombiesque slasher to life (or unlife?!), with a kicking rock soundtrack, moody sets and some real splatter gore. 

Messy Eaters

Demons is a real delight, to the ears, eyes and senses. It’s scary, gory and has a real kick ass rock movie track that’s hard not to like. Like a lot of Italian horror’s , it’s script and acting are a little on the poor side, with wooden characters and terrible lines. You never really ever connect with anyone, probably because there’s too many characters and too little time spent on anyone of them. Whilst the films heroine is the person your supposed to be routing for, the fan favorite character is a mean ass pimp by the name of Tony. Whenever he is in a scene, he manages to steal the it!  Actor Bobby Rhodes actually starred in a short film called “tony the Pimp” in 2011, revisiting his Demons character, and also returned in Demons 2 but as gym instructor called Hank. I love watching characters screaming at other people to do stuff, whilst standing around doing nothing, Tony being the biggest offender of this. It happens several times throughout the film, with other characters too, and it always makes me laugh.

The other characters which stand out, are the car punks, who’s cocaine infused shenanigans makes a for a nice change of scene. There all a bunch of idiots and it’s mindbogglingly just how stupid they are. From their awful lines, to their dodgy Eighties hair cuts, you’ll love them from the start. They are also the group that suffer the most from being out of synch with the audio. Watching them is like watching an old seventies Kung fu film.

Whilst the acting from all is pretty bad, it’s always fun and the character driven story works well with the set up. Even if the main characters are boring as hell!

We got a sequal?

It was common practice at this time to shoot without audio (called MOS), with the sound dubbed over in post production. Demons is no different. Undeniably, it’s what lets the film down the most. Some might find the mismatched audio dialogue a little off putting. I actually find it quite charming, a little relic of nineteen eighties, low budget, film making. Interestingly, There are several different dubs for Demons, my favorite being the original VHS release version. Although the uncut version is a vastly superior film, some of the dubbing is worse. Whether this was because the cut edition had more time spent on ADR or if the actors were just having a better day, the lines are presented better and are more fun. There are even some line changes that are dead give away to which version your watching. No matter which version you watch, some of the dialogue just never quite matches up.
Despite the poor dialogue, it does have an amazing score, with tracks by Billy idol, Saxon and Mötley Crüe, blaring out amongst all the chaos. It’s superb!

I saved money by having no lines!

If your looking for some gore, Demons servers up a variable feast. From the moment someone is bitten or scratched they are doomed to become a Demon, and the inevitable transformation is always disturbing and bloody. With puss and rouge literally exploding on screen. It’s a real treat. Carmen’s transformation is probably one of the best and worst bits. We see her nails split open to reveal sharp claws, and her teeth are pushed out by dripping fangs, that spout from her gums. Then, bizarrely, her tongue shoots out like some sort of lizard, in a moment that makes no sense and is never recreated again. There are lots of pretty cool moments, with eyes being popped and people being split open. It’s a really messy film.

There are a couple of pretty awful effects too, most notably, terrible prosthetic heads that look nothing like there actor counterpart. I guess a lot of the bad stuff is just due to the film ageing quite a bit. What might have been pretty horrific back in it’s day, is now laughable. It’s easy to forgive these rare moments though, considering the period it was made and how great the rest of film is. One overdone potato does not ruin a Sunday roast!

The ketchup bottle exploded!

Demons is a real gem. It has all that you could expect from a horror film and more, delivering cheesy lines and graphic violence all to the backdrop of classic eighties tunes and mood lighting.  It has dated quite badly, and it’s clearly a product of the eighties. Some of the effects are mindbogglingly bad and the actors are all terrible, but as a cheesy horror romp, it works out quite nicely. If your into zombie and a fan of cult horror, i’d highly recommend it to you. Demons is still one of my favorite horror films, and I first saw it at least twenty years ago. It’s scary, violent and filled with great moments through out. They simply do not make movies like this anymore!

Demons spawned a sequel “Demons 2” and an unofficial third film (prequal) “The Church”, which are both very good films and well worth a watch.