My Life in Horror 1985 – Demons

So for people who don’t know I’ve been putting out two Twitter polls containing four films from every year since I was born, the two winners would be watched and reviewed on here. The first 1985 winner was Fright Night a true classic, the second was Demons a film I’m not familiar with at all and I didn’t quite know what to expect apart from some gore.

Director – Lamberto Bava

Writers – Dardano Sacchetti(original story) Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, Dardano Sacchetti and Franco Ferrini(screenplay)

Stars – Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny, Paolo Cozzo and Fiore Argento

Run time – 88 minutes

Budget – $1.8 million estimated

Tagline – They will make cemeteries their cathedrals and the cities will be your tombs.

Trivia – The Playstation video game ‘Silent Hill’ pays homage to this film as a theater called ‘Metropol’ can be seen in the game, along with posters advertising this film at the box office.

Trivia – The building used for the exteriors of the Metropol theater still stands in Berlin. It’s a club called Goya that’s been host to several horror conventions thanks to its appearance in this film.

Cheryl nervously makes her way by train to meet her mate Kathy, on her way she meets a creepy bloke with a metal mask covering half his face, he hands her a leaflet for a screening of a movie. She takes it and when she eventually meets up with her mate and they decide to blow off their other plans and visit the screening of this film.

When they arrive we meet the various other characters as they begin to fill the screen, there’s a blind bloke accompanied by a woman who describes the film to him, there’s a couple who can’t keep their hands off each other, there’s a man who looks like a pimp with two hookers and he has the most amazing voice of all time.

Once inside we get the usual activities in a cinema, some making too much noise, some people tonguing each other and a strange woman dressed like Robin Hood checking on everyone by shining a torch around everywhere which would annoy me massively. Soon Cheryl and Kathy are joined by two goons who they met earlier. The film is a horror film and scares the precious little ladies luckily George and Ken are there to comfort them or attempt to.

For one of the hookers the film begins to mimmick her entrance into the movie, when a lead character cuts his face on a mask she realises that that happened to her as well. So off the bathroom she shoots. Now the fun begins as she turns into some kind of demon soon everyone is under threat as she begins to take people out. Much like a zombie virus every person the demon scratches comes back a demon themselves.

During the chaos there’s a bunch of punks making their way round town, eventually they end up at the theatre and get involved in the demon killing. People try to take charge as the group try to fight off the demons, realising they are trapped inside the theatre they begin to lose hope.

Slowly but surely and brutally people drop like flies leaving our heroes Cheryl and George to escape in a crazy over the top manner. Once outside they realise the true horror of what they’ve been through, I honestly believe the end of this film is one of the best I’ve seen in 80’s horror.

The Good

• So much gore, there’s vomiting, melting, eye gauging, limb ripping, stabbing, helicopter slashing, gun shots, knifing everything you could possibly want and it’s superbly done.
• George is a great character he goes from being a bit of a pervy letch into the hero of the film.
• I love the idea that the movie they are watching is somehow linked to the demon possessions.
• The pimp blokes voice is awesome, he’s like a living breathing Southpark character.
• The gore, I need to mention this again as it was so great.
• The ending, just immense and a bit of a twist.

The Bad

• Cheryl is pointless, I wish they’d given her some more guts to fight for herself instead of constantly being rescued.
• Not much character development.
• Some people might find it a bit too dated.

When I started watching I wasn’t expecting much at all but once I got used to the film being slightly dated I really began to enjoy it. I love it when I expect very little from a film and end up loving it. This is a real must watch for fans of 80’s horror and/or gore, I mentioned it twice as there were lots of urghhhh!!! moments with all the splatter and goop flying all over the place.

If you’ve got an hour and a half spare and want something to please your gore-meter for the day then this is the film for you, I really enjoyed it all the way through.

Overall Rating – 8/10

The other films I’ve review in the My Life in Horror Series……….

My Life In Horror 1981 – An American Werewolf In London

My Life In Horror 1981 – The Beyond

My Life in Horror 1982 – Poltergeist

My Life in Horror 1982 – Swamp Thing

My Life in Horror 1983 – Videodrome

My Life in Horror 1983 – Christine

My Life in Horror 1984 – A Nightmare on Elm Street

My Life in Horror 1984 – Firestarter

My Life in Horror 1985 – Fright Night