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John's Horror Banana-nanza Episode Seventy Four : Demons 2
"Demons" was a neat little film that Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava worked on together. It had creatures coming out of movie screens, swords, motorcycles, 80's metal and 80's cokeheads. It was a neat little piece of history, and a gross, fun horror movie at the same time.
So, when Bava penned the script for "Demons 2", it made sense that he'd go back to the formula that worked so well previously. So what did he come up with?
Now some of you may be familiar with something called “Colorforms”. These were character cutouts that came with a background, in which you could create your own story. I’m pretty sure that Bava took his “Demons” Colorforms and moved them from a movie theatre setting to an apartment setting. Not only do we get most of the same characters, (the pimp from “Demons”, Bobby Rhodes, returns as a Gym Instructor, as well as a car full of hoodlums once again filling in space), but the plot is the same.
A group of people go to investigate the theatre where the original demons first ran amuck, and everyone in the apartment, including a girl who refuses to attend her own birthday party, is watching. A single demon comes alive, and then comes through the TV and attacks the girl, turning her into a demon, and she attacks the party, and…well, you get the idea.
There’s some really weird, questionable things going on in this movie. There’s a dog that turns into a demon, but quickly disappears. There’s a boy who, unlike most Italian horror child victims, is kind of likeable, but gets attacked anyway. His guts then give way to a creature that looks like something out of “Ghoulies”, which chases around a pregnant girl for a good half hour.
Meanwhile, you start to see things that remind you of the movie “REC”, with shots of infected people climbing the stairs of the apartment. It’s weird to think that a movie that stole so much was later stolen from again. But sometimes, that’s what happens in horror. It just keeps going to the well over and over.
The movie may have been intended to be seriously scary at first, but it quickly turns to comedy. Specifically when our pregnant heroin pulls out a bottle marked only with skulls and crossbones and filled with acid to attack the creature chasing her around. We also spend quite a bit of time with 80’s-clad fitness nuts fighting Lou Farigno look-alike demons in a parking garage, and our favorite horror pimp gets his package…well…damaged.
Some of the demons also look like creatures from “CHUD”, complete with glowing eyes. There is just so much chaos going on in this movie, it’s hard to get a grip on what’s happening. And that’s kind of the fault I find in it. It's never coherent. And the ending? Well…it just kind of ends. To me, that’s a bit disappointing, especially after the ending of the previous film.
Do I recommend it? Maybe to the people who loved the first film. And maybe to 80’s cheese/horror fans. But to anyone on the fringe of horror, or looking for highbrow stuff, you won’t find it here.