AKA Demoni

Tag Line : Their cities will be your tombs.

The film takes place in an old cinema, where all the patrons attending have been given free tickets to celebrate the theatres grand re-opening by a disfigured man wearing a mask.

Apart from a few young couples, most of the people attending appear to be the seediest bunch of misfits ever assembled, including an old couple who do nothing but bitch profusely at each other, a pimp with his two young "tarts", a blind man that appears to know much more than he's letting on, accompanied by his daughter (who promptly goes of to shag some guy in the wings), plus a gang of punk rockers who dart into the theatre just after the film starts to avoid the police.

The featured movie is a brutal stalk-and-slash horror film about a youth that turns into a demon after trying on an old mask, then goes onto brutally murder his companions. Many of the cinema goers are disgusted by the film and decide to leave, only to find the main doors locked.

Then one of the girls in the cinema tries on a mask, which is being displayed in the foyer and is an exact replica of the one in the film. She accidentally cuts herself in the process and whilst the rest of the cinema goers look for another way out, the girl starts to undergo a hideous transformation into one of the snarling demons from the featured movie.

She then attacks her companions and spreads the infection to them. The rest of the cinema goers then have to fight for their lives, as they find themselves trapped in the cinema with the demons, that are attempting to overrun them and take over.

There's some really cool scene's during some of the battles, particularly where one of the young lads grabs a motorbike and samurai sword from the display in the foyer, then rides around the theatre decapitating the demon creatures.

Directed by Lamberto Bava and produced by the Infamous Italian horror maestro Dario Argento, this is a slick, low budget, rollercoaster ride of a horror film that proved highly successful when released onto tape in the UK back in the early 80's.

The film features an 80's style soundtrack which is kind of fun to listen to. This includes such period pop groups as Go West and also features such 80's style rock acts like Billy Idol, Saxon, Motley Crue and Accept which adds nicely to the feel of the movie. Overall this is a really fun film, there's action, fear, tension, suspense and plenty of gore. If you can get hold of a copy, get it!

Overall Marks 7/10.

Other Information.

• Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava teamed up again for the sequel, Demons 2, which was also excellent. Bava also made a third film without Argento, called "Demons 3 : The Ogre", which is extremely dodgy!

• One of the lead characters, Hanna, was actually played by Dario Argento's eldest daughter Fiore. Director Lamberto Bava also makes a brief appearance as one of the train passengers.

• The masked man seen giving away the movie tickets at the start of the film was actually played by the assistant director Michele Soavi, who also worked with Argento on "The Church".

• Lamberto Bava also worked on Ruggero Deadato's infamous "Cannibal Holocaust", and is the son of cult Italian director "Mario Bava". Dario Argento, who is well known for producing stylish low budget horror pics, has also worked on such other cult hits as Suspiria, Opera, and Inferno.

• The soundtrack was by Claudio Simoneti of the "Goblins" group, who scored many other Argento horror pics and the European version of "Dawn of the Dead".

• In case you were wondering, the lad with the shotgun in the white jeep at the films ending was indeed young Giovanni Frezza, who also played the young lad in Lucio Fulci's "House by the Cemetery".

• The initial UK video release suffered 1.05s of cuts by the BBFC. The uncut version was resubmitted in 2000, and passed with only a few seconds of cuts, which edited the scene of one of the punks scraping cocaine off his girlfriends breast with a razor blade. The film was later passed fully uncut in 2004.

Cast & Crew.

Buy the UK DVD (Pt 1&2 spec ed).

Buy the UK DVD (Pt 1&2 spec ed).

Buy the US DVD (Pt 1&2 spec ed).

Notes on affiliate sites.
 

Other films in the series.

Contemporary Classics.

Reviews A-Z.

Reviews index. Home. Menu.