Demons (1985)

Cheryl is given an invitation to a movie sneak preview at the Metropol theater by a bizarre-looking fellow in a Mad Max-ian knight/post-apocalyptic warrior get-up, so she goes with her friend Kathy.

They are joined by an ecclectic cast of weirdos, including a bitter couple on their anniversary, a blind man and his helper, a pimp and his ladies, two fellas on the prowl, a carload of "punks," and so on. One of the pimp's women cuts herself on a strange metal mask - bum, bum, buuuummmm.

Her cut starts bleeding and pulsing until it bursts with pus all over her face. Nice. And then she turns into a kill-crazy demon and starts slaughtering everybody in reach in hideously gory fashion. Those who aren't utterly eviscerated turn into demons themselves and go on a rampage. This continues until the movie decides it's time to roll the closing credits.

Directed by Lamberto Bava (son of Mario). Produced by Dario Argento. You would think that would be a good sign. But objectively, Demons is a piece of shit.

The dialogue is atrocious, the dubbing is distractingly awful (which is often the case for these Italian horror movies, but this is extra-bad), the characters are ludicrous cliches, and the plot is a disjointed mess. There are some cool shots here and there, and the use of color is artistically applied (hello, Argento), but that's grasping at straws.

The only thing worth watching this for at all is the gore, of which there is plenty. Even the gore, all good old-fashioned practical effects, isn't as good as it should be. Often, the set-pieces like demons tearing someone's throat out or spilling their guts are shot so close up that the effect loses all context and, thus, its impact. The framing of these shots also lets you see that some of the effects look really fakey.

I remember liking this movie a lot more than I did this time around. The decent gore and occasional atmospheric shots can't overcome the movie's many, many problems. Still, if you don't mind bad dubbing and tearing flesh, then give it a go if you like. Just make sure you've seen the first-tier Italian gore flicks like Zombie and The Beyond before bothering with this unholy mess.