Director: Lamberto Bava
Year: 1985
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Dèmoni
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Receiving tickets to a movie premiere, a group of friends arrive at the theater where they find out that it's for a horror film, but as the movie continues several participants turn into demons inspired by those in the film and try to find a way to completely take the demons out.
Review:
This is one of the best Italian horror films around. One of the best features here is the fact that it uses one of the oldest tricks in the genre, trapping a bunch of people in an isolated location with a terrifying threat and knocking them off one-by-one. This is made all the better by the ingenuity used to make such a part workable as well as allowing for enough to keep it interesting. The idea of being forced into the movie theater through happenstance and then coming upon the possessed demon beings makes for a fun turn and starts this one off like most great genre efforts with the people being trapped inside with no way out. The fact that they come into the film fairly early on is the big plus, since it's almost non-stop from there on and intensifies giving this one a really great feel.
Also noteworthy in the film is it's incredibly high action content. This one is really packed with tons of outstanding action scenes which get really entertaining and do a lot of good for the film. The first assault, when the demons break loose as the sight of them emerging from the screens, is simply chilling, and once the realization sinks in the panic is incredible, the scenes of creatures popping up to attack people out of the blue inside the balcony or chasing them around the various auditoriums creates quite a fun time overall. There's also the spectacular scene in the theater when one of the survivors grabs a promotional sword and a motorbike and drives in circles slashing up the demons, using the walk-ways to the advantage while a pounding metal song plays in the background. It's fun, bloody and one of the best which is coupled with the other great action scenes in here.
The other big plus here is the demons themselves. Their transformations are top-notch, being done slowly and pay attention to detail, as the nails slowly split open to reveal the claws and the teeth are slowly pushed out by the fangs coming in. The eyes change and the body starts to transform, making them look impressive and quite intimidating. The sight of them coming up the theater with the blue back-light and glowing eyes is memorable and really packs a punch. The gore here is plain spectacular, as this one has plenty of juicy moments to allow for some fantastic gore to come out. There's a leg bitten into, down to the muscle, having both eyes scratched completely out, bite wounds on practically every limb possible, including a couple meaty ones on the face, arms, shoulder and back, one has the top half of their head peeled off and numerous slashes and scratches. Along with the fact that the movie that was playing in the theater wasn't that bad
There isn't a whole lot here that doesn't work. The fact that it feels very 80s in it's cheese and overall tone might not be appreciated by some as it's really heavy with both of these items. From the music to the clothes to the type of action on display to the explanation for their appearance to the special effects of the demon transformations, this one really reeks of an 80s cheese-fest. The fact that the demons constantly speak in incredibly fake deep voices is a minor complaint, as it's a vocal tone used often and really makes them feel completely nonthreatening. The last flaw is that there's too much time in between the big action scene in the theater to the final escape at the end, these here are all that don't work.
Overview: **** 1/2/5
This one doesn't have a whole lot of flaws, and those are really not that damaging to the film overall with all way too many positives that really hold this one up rather nicely. This one is highly recommended to fans of Euro-Horror, the production team or over-the-top fun fests, while only those who aren't that high on the cheese won't find much here.
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