After Demons You'll Never Watch a Horror Movie in a Theater the Same Way Again.

Demons (aka Dèmoni) is a gory Italian horror classic with a straightforward name and an unbelievable horror pedigree that teaches you many things: don’t put on strange masks, don’t piss off a pimp, and, above all, don’t pick at that strange, festering, oozing cut on your face.

Written by BHM Contributor James “Crypticpsych” Lasome
October 7, 2008

Demons Horror Movie Trailer


Release: May 30, 1986 (USA)
Directed by: Lamberto Bava
Written by: Lamberto Bava, Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini and Dardano Sacchetti

Starring:
Urbano Barberini as George
Natasha Hovey as Cheryl
Karl Zinny as Ken
Fiore Argento as Hannah
Paola Cozzo as Kathy
Stelio Candelli as Frank
Nicole Tessier as Ruth
Geretta Giancarlo as Rosemary

“They will make cemeteries their cathedrals and tombs your cities.”

In 1985, years before Peter Jackson would bring us Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles and master splatter stroke Braindead), the son of the Italian gothic horror mastermind Mario Bava, Lamberto Bava, would unleash a madcap and manic vision of campy and gory meta-horror with the help of three men recognized as geniuses of the genre - Dario Argento (Suspiria, 1977, Inferno, 1980) produced and co-wrote, Sergio Stivaletti (Creepers, 1985, Cemetery Man, 1994) handled the gore and Claudio Simonetti (Argento’s unique go-to musical visionary) took care of original music.

Cheryl (Natasha Hovey), a student in West Berlin, is heading into town for a class with her friend Cathy (Paola Cozzo). Before she can meet up with Cathy, Cheryl is stalked by a strange man dressed in black and wearing a silver half-mask (Michele Soavi, before directing such works as the previously mentioned Cemetary Man). When he catches her, he simply hands her tickets to a film screening at the Metropol. The two girls decide to ditch class and head over to watch the flick.

At the theater they meet other people also there for the screening, including “The World’s Greatest and Most Hilarious Pimp” Tony (Bobby Rhodes), his two girls (one of whom, Rosemary, gets a little touchy-feely with a mask on display), two college-age guys who hit it off with our heroines (Urbano Barberini and Karl Zinny), an old blind man with his philandering wife Liz (Alex Serra and Enrica Maria Scrivano) and a bickering married couple (Stelio Candelli and Nicole Tessier). The movie begins and much to Cathy’s displeasure it is a horror flick. In it, four college kids go hunting in a cemetery for the tomb of Nostradamus. They find a book and a dusty silver mask wrapped in cloth like the one on display outside the theater. One of the guys puts on the mask and is cut on the face when he removes it just as happened to Rosemary in the lobby. As the character in the film notices the cut won’t stop bleeding, Rosemary does too.

Rosemary heads off to the bathroom to look at the cut and tries to stop the bleeding. The cut grows and pulses before exploding and spraying pus. Rosemary’s friend goes to check on her and finds that she has transformed into a hideous and bloodthirsty demon that chases her and slashes her throat. She ends up behind the movie screen yelling for help before ripping through the screen and falling onto the stage in a pool of blood. There, she transforms into a fanged hellspawn ready to take more lives (in an iconic and classic physical transformation scene. No CGI in this film folks). Pandemonium and chaos strike the theater as the demons begin to violently claim their victims, working to take over the theater and then the world.

While Demons admittedly starts slow, the actors are all likeable enough, interesting enough, or hilarious enough to hold our interest until we are blasted into the stratosphere when the demons attack. Of particular note: Rhodes as Tony the Pimp is spectacularly hammy as what is a walking pimp stereotype. Barberini as George, one of the college guy love interests, nails down the kind of personality transformation that Bruce Campbell would make famous two years later in Evil Dead 2. Finally, four cokeheads (that term has never been more literal or darkly hilarious) who arrive at the theater midway through the film while running from the cops, give a jacked-up performance so convincing you could swear they were actually snorting the snow. Peter Pitsch, Lino Salemme, Giuseppe Cruciano, and Bettina Ciampolini all play characters that aren’t totally necessary in the film yet simultaneously feel like the film would be lost without them (especially Ciampolini’s Nina. Cocaine and razorblades have never been sexier).

Demons is a product of its time. 80s fashion and hair are on display yet don’t feel out of place due to the quotable script, performances and fantastic score. Simonetti brings the discordant electronic rock he’s known for along with songs from Motley Crue, Rick Springfield, Scorpions, and others. Even “White Wedding” by Billy Idol makes a welcome appearance.

The film is dubbed because Bava, like other Italian horror filmmakers, was not making this film for a certain group but for everyone; the necessary language could be added later. This can be a bit off-putting at first, but ultimately fits with the zany, roller-coaster ride on the screen.

Most of all Demons is a showcase for FX creator Stivaletti’s specialty: blood, violence, and gore. This is but a short list of what you get: exploding blemishes, eye gouging, scalping, demons spawning from a person’s body, iconic tooth transformation, biting, ripping, tearing, and deaths by helicopter blade, samurai sword, and simultaneous strangulation. Make no mistake, Demons is a fantastic bloodbath of the highest order.

Demons would go on to spawn one official sequel (also directed by Bava) and one film considered a sequel (The Church, directed by Soavi), and this bloody classic about the horrors of watching an all-to-real horror movie is required viewing for anyone who likes their horror gory, gruesome, campy, and crazy.