Demons (1985) / Demons 2 (1986)

After debuting Demons and Demons 2 on Blu-ray in an exclusive steelbook format, Synapse Films has released a slightly less collectible but equally spectacular looking pair of stand-alone editions that epitomize the gonzo ‘80s Italian horror aesthetic. Produced by Dario Argento (Suspiria) and directed by Lamberto Bava (son of Mario), you won’t find a more silly, sick and visually slick double feature of Euro-splatter anywhere!

Just don’t expect it to make any sense.

At this point in his career Argento had drifted into a pattern of disconnected imagery tied with the loosest of narrative threads, designed more like Fangoria photoplays than linear stories. And apparently he developed Demons and its sequel along the same lines, packaging both films with a prefabricated heavy metal soundtrack built around some outstanding make-up effects by Sergio Stivaletti. There’s a screenplay in here somewhere, but it’s practically non-essential.

Demons begins with a disfigured servant of Satan handing out flyers to a free movie, which attracts a motley group of teens, cheapskates, pimps and prostitutes. An innocent scratch on a death mask in the lobby turns one audience member into a snaggle-toothed, goo-spewing monster who promptly infects the rest of the theater. From there, it all escalates into one big Looney Tunes-style massacre leading up to an apocalyptic conclusion.

Rather than continue with that storyline, Demons 2 just hits the reset button and delivers more of the same in a new setting: a high-rise apartment building populated by an eclectic mix of potential victims. This time the demons are resurrected via a TV signal that broadcasts them back into reality (your guess is as good as mine, even if you haven’t seen the movie). Crashing a totally radical birthday party, they then proceed to claw their way from one floor to the next, sparing no one (not even kids or pets) along the way.

Demons 2 takes things up a notch, sometimes to a ridiculous degree, capped off by a Gremlins / Ghoulies monstrosity that bursts out of the family dog. Combine that with the bad ‘80s fashions, hilarious dialogue and random character cutaways (both films feature a car full of miscellaneous punks who serve no purpose other than to squeeze more tunes into the soundtrack) and you have a sequel that is more accidently amusing than the original. Bava’s directing style matches the material’s anything to entertain attitude, full of bright primary colors and in-your-face (quite literally) demon close-ups, getting his money’s worth out those stellar Stivaletti effects.

The steelbook editions (still available on the Synapse website) are full of extras. But the individual Blu-ray will serve most folks quite well, containing the same 1080p transfers from original vault materials with all new color correction. Few companies are as meticulous with their hi-def output; other than a brief camera-sourced jitter in Demons 2, one would be hard pressed to find a flaw on either release.