Film Review: Demons (1985)

There are fun movies and then there is 1985's Italian film DEMONS produced by Dario Argento and directed by Lamberto Bava, which is a bombastic tour de force of horror and gore goodness. Although the film is filled with nonsense and ludicrous plot holes the delight of the film lies in how much fun the proceedings are and just how much more gore you can stomach before being completely...well disgusted.

DEMONS finds a group of theatre goers at the opening of a movie theatre filled with exotic artifacts and oddities. When one of the patrons cuts themselves on a demon mask she finds herself infected turning into a demon herself. Her predicament is mirrored in the film on the big screen and soon the theatre is filled with infected movie-goers turned into blood thirsty demons. Now, the survivors of the initial onslaught must battle there way through a horde of the demonic kind while all the while trying to discover a way of escape from their living nightmare.

The film is a throwback to '80s American horror films with a touch of Italian gore made famous by such films as personified by directors Argento and Lucio Fulci. There is more blood on the screen that is ever humanly possible in the body but that's all in good fun as the film never takes itself too seriously and knows that it only wants its audience to have a good time. The makeup and special effects makeup are top notch and get progressively worse (in a good way) and even when you think the film can't get any more crazier Bava will pull another rabbit out of the hat (the sequence with the helicopter falling through the ceiling at the end is a major highlight). A good time indeed.