Demons A.K.A. “Dèmoni”
(1985) 88 Min.
Rated: Unrated (nudity, gore)
Country: Italy
Director: Lamberto Bava
Starring: Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny, Fiore Argento, Paola Cozzo, Geretta Geretta
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★☆☆
A group of people are trapped in a movie theater that becomes infected by demons who proceed to kill and posses the humans.
Synopsis:
A young woman named Cheryl (Hovey) gets off a train in a subway and is followed by a mysterious masked man who follows her and hands her a flyer. The paper is ticket to a free show at the Metropol at 6:00. She stops the man handing out tickets and requests another for a friend she’s meeting.
Later Cheryl meets up with her friend Kathy (Cozzo) and convinces her to go to the screening at the Metropol. At 6 the girls go to the Metropol which is already busy with people lining up to enter the theater after receiving their free tickets.
At the Metropol, all sorts of people show up to watch the movie. A blind man with his daughter, a quarreling married couple, a man and his two female escorts, two young lovers and also two young men who seem to have an interest in Cheryl and Kathy. Their names are George (Barberini) and Ken (Zinny) and they help retrieve a can of soda for Kathy.
Meanwhile, in the foyer, there is a large display of a figure riding a motorbike holding onto a sword in one hand and a mask in the other. A lady named Rosemary (Geretta Geretta) puts the mask on and plays with it, but when she pulls it off her face, her cheek is scratched.
As people enter the theater, the boys decide to sit next to Kathy and Cheryl.
The lights dim and the movie begins. It’s a horror film in which four teenagers are looking for the tomb of Nostradamus. Inside Nostradamus coffin they find a mask very similar to the one in the foyer and a book. One of the teens puts on the mask and cuts his cheek. The other teen warns him not to put the mask on as in the book it says that whoever puts the mask on becomes a demon.
In the audience, Rosemary notices that the cut on her cheek won’t stop bleeding and she leaves to go to the bathroom. In the bathroom she rubs at the mark, but instead it grows large into a pustule and bursts to Rosemary’s horror.
Rosemary’s friend Carmen soon goes to check on Rosemary, but instead comes upon a transformed demonic Rosemary who attacks Carmen and scratches her neck. Carmen runs out to get help.
Meanwhile in the film, the scratched teen has also turned demonic and goes on a killing spree. As the teen is about to slice open a tent in which another teen is hiding, Carmen slices through the silk screen on which the movie is being projected. She falls to the ground and scares the audience.
Of course, Carmen turns into a demon and attacks a random audience member. This sends everyone into a panic.
Soon the audience is running for any exit, but all exits are sealed and bricked up. There’s no escape. They try to stop the film by breaking the camera, but it doesn’t stop the demons from coming. Eventually they try to board themselves up on the balcony using the wooden seats to block off any entrance.
Three coked up punk kids try to run away from the police by sneaking inside the Metropol. Unfortunately as a door opens for them, a demon sneaks out. The three punks are each killed off by demons and so also become demons, spreading the demonic plague further.
The demons attack the balcony and ultimately the only people left are Cheryl and George. As Cheryl seems trapped in the theater, George comes in riding the motorbike and holding the sword from the foyer. He tells her to climb on and then he rides all over the theater, slashing down demons as 80’s rock music plays.
For no reason, a helicopter crashes through the ceiling of the theater with dead pilots. George and Cheryl use the helicopter blades to kill more demons and also to hitch a rope to the roof using a grappling hook inside the copter.
Cheryl and George are about to escape, when the man from the beginning of the movie with the mask tries to stop them. George fights with him and forces his eye on some broken rebar, killing him.
When the look around at the world outside the theater they begin to realize that it’s utter chaos. That the demon plague has taken hold on the world outside too. As they walk around they get rescued by an old man and his family in a jeep. The man says he’s decided to head west in hopes that they can find a place where they can start a new life.
The credits start to roll, but just as the camera pans to focus on the back of Cheryl’s head, she turns around to reveal she’s a demon. The little boy in the jeep blows her away with one shot and she lies in the street. George looks from the jeep as they drive away.
Review:
If you ever wanted to watch a film that really encapsulated not only the gore of 80’s horror but the clothing, the music and pure cheese, this might be the film. While it’s probably not very scary, it’s definitely got a lot of fun gore to satisfy.
The music. There’s lots of 80’s rock. Songs from Mötley Crüe, Rick Springfield, and Billy Idol just to name a few. And it plays often. Through scenes of driving, slaughter or mayhem. It definitely adds a touch of music from that era.
Though it’s kind of a lot of random juicy gore, it’s not extremely realistic and so it becomes a bit fun with demons spewing green goo from their mouths as they chase people around.
The film, though the premise seems a bit simple, is never boring. Even minor background characters get at least a little bit of development as the movie progresses.
This is an overall fun movie and definitely shouldn’t be missed. At the time of this writing it’s a bit hard to find on DVD and that’s unfortunate.
