Demons / Demons 2

Epitomizing the gonzo ‘80s Italian horror aesthetic, Synapse gave Demons and Demons 2 their due on a 4K Ultra-HD double-feature that was tempting at any price point.  Now they're making it a little more affordable to choose your favorite by releasing each title individually.  But no matter which  you choose, you won’t find a more silly, sick and visually slick example of Euro-splatter anywhere!


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.  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.

 

Few companies are as meticulous with their hi-def output as Synapse; and one would be hard pressed to find a flaw on either release (even a brief camera-sourced jitter in Demons 2 has been smoothed out).  Both films received new 4K restorations from the original negatives, boosting the colors and beefing up those realistic blacks thanks to the Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) technology.  Extras have all been ported over from the previous releases, but there’s also a new audio commentary from critics Kat Ellinger and Heather Drain on the original and Travis Crawford on the sequel.  Oh, and if you’re not yet 4K capable, Blu-ray editions are sold separately too.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tormented

Image
The west coast always struggled to create a creepy atmosphere on screen.  All that southern California sunshine just doesn’t lend itself to ghostly apparitions or gothic castles.  But  Tormented  (1960) gives it a good try, staging its opening scene in an abandoned lighthouse where blackmail turns into murder - and one cover up leads to another.  Director Bert I. Gordon, better known for his giant-sized - but low-budget - monster movies, works well at this level, turning in a film that delivers small scares but perhaps his most  professional finished product. Tom Stewart (played by genre regular Richard Carlson) is a fairly successful jazz pianist whose impending marriage to Meg Hubbard (Susan Gordon) will put him in an entirely new tax bracket.  Trouble is his old flame, Vi (Juli Reding), isn’t taking this lying down.  After  allowing  her to fall to her death in the opening scene, Tom is haunted by disembodied visions of his ex-lover who refuses to go quietly into the afterlife.  And
Read more

All Ladies Do It / Frivolous Lola

Image
Every semi-professional review of erotica probably starts off with the same question:  what’s the difference between porn and art?  The internet age has essentially done away with foreplay; sex is merely the act of completion itself, minus the threat of any malware or suspicious browser activity.  But the work of Italian director Tinto Brass, for all its leering upskirt shots of derrieres and pubic hair, still communicates something that websites like Pornhub never will:  the art of seduction.  All Ladies Do It  (1992), a breezy sexual adventure, follows Diana (Claudia Koll) whose marriage is threatened by her fantasies of dalliances with other men, stories her husband believes are nothing more than exciting role play.  But her loose definition of adultery inspires plenty of promiscuous hook-ups, taking advantage of any (ahem)  loophole  that provides a quick thrill.   Flirting with some hardcore sequences (there is an abundance of fully erect fake penises and female genitalia on displ
Read more

The Cat and the Canary

Image
My favorite directors have always been showoffs:  Hitchcock, DePalma, Spielberg (when he’s feeling frisky) and gonzo auteurs like Sam Raimi.  There’s just something about their cinematic ambition, constantly reminding the audience that, yes, there actually  is  someone behind the camera calling the shots.  And that directorial discontent shines through even in the early days of the medium, such as Paul Leni’s 1927 adaptation of  The Cat and the Canary .  While the rest of the industry was still learning the basics of visual language, Leni fills his frame with tracking shots, POVs and dramatic lighting that set the standard for every spook show to come!  Gathered for the reading of the last will and testament of eccentric recluse Cyrus West,  the potential heirs meet up in his decrepit mansion to discover who will inherit the estate and family jewels.  Predictably there is some petty jealousy when young Annabelle West is named the sole beneficiary…that is, if she can be proved sane afte
Read more