"The Epitome of 1980s Italian Horror"
Having done a fine job already bringing Lamberto Bava's DEMONS and DEMONS 2 to Blu-ray many years ago, Arrow are now going the extra mile to bring us both films on 4K and UHD.
In many ways, DEMONS is the archetypal Italian horror film, or at least it’s archetypal of a certain subgenre its obsessive fans will be only too familiar with. The plot makes no sense whatsoever, the acting and dubbing is indifferent, and the climax is a bit silly; and yet amongst all of this there are moments of such gobsmacking genius that you find yourself rewatching the entire film just in case you missed a vital point of earth-shattering brilliance to explain all the daft bits. (Don’t worry, you didn’t).
Most of the action of the first film takes place in a cinema in Berlin, where patrons, who have been given free tickets to an untitled premiere by a masked Michele Soavi, find themselves watching a horror film about the coming of demons. A bite or a scratch from one of these nasty creatures results in the victim turning into a demon themselves. Events in the film mimic events taking place in the cinema, and eventually the place is over-run with infected, clawed, fangy monsters drooling green froth. The hero and heroine escape by using a handy helicopter that crashes through the roof towards the end, only to find that the apocalypse has begun and the demons now overrun the earth.
The film is given a tremendous punch by its soundtrack, which is predominantly heavy metal based, but also features some fine synthesiser work by Claudio Simonetti, including a great main title theme that plays with riffs on Grieg and Bach.
Overall, then, DEMONS is an example of Italian horror cinema at its most frenzied, confusing, laughable, exhilarating, loud, intense, stylish and horrific. It does nothing by halves and takes no prisoners, laughing in the face of serious criticism just before tearing the eyes out of that face and transforming it into a green foam-drooling unstoppable killing machine. Whether or not you’ll enjoy it will depend on how much that previous paragraph sets your spine tingling or makes you laugh disdainfully.
Even though it may have been thought difficult to do so, Arrow’s new 4K transfer looks fantastic- even better than the previous Blu-ray release. Also, obsessive fans can now rejoice as Arrow have included the two different versions of the film - uncut and slightly cut but with a dubbing track that will be more familiar to fans of the old Avatar VHS release and DVD releases as well.
The new extra for DEMONS is a Kat Ellinger and Heather Drain commentary track while everything else has been ported over from the previous release, including the commentary track between Lamberto Bava, Sergio Stivaletti and journalist Loris Curci that was brought over from the old Anchor Bay US disc, as well as the newer one from Bava, Stivaletti, Claudio Simonetti and actress Geretta Geretta (Rosemary in the film). Other archival extras include two short featurette interviews, one with Simonetti and one with Dario Argento, and Luigi Cozzi’s Top Ten Italian Horror Films.
DEMONS was such a huge success that the inevitable sequel surfaced a year later, with the same basic technical personnel (including the same four screenwriters!) but a change of location to an apartment block, and a change of soundtrack from heavy metal to goth. DEMONI 2 L'INCUBO RITORNA isn’t a patch on the original but there are still moments that stand out. This time the demon plague comes out of a television set and spreads through the building, with the inevitable chaos ensuing. Less appealing characters and too many moments where the film veers into the outright laughable (a demon dog and some kind of terrible demon puppet thing that’s on screen for far too long are good examples) mean that DEMONS 2 does all fall to pieces as it goes on, and it’s probably only for very forgiving Italian horror enthusiasts.
Once again Arrow's 4K UHD is another splendid presentation. There's a new commentary track from Travis Crawford and a new featurette from Alexandra Heller-Nicholas on both films. Once again all the previous release's extras have been carried over, including the old Anchor Bay US DVD commentary with Lamberto Bava, Sergio Stivaletti and Loris Curci, a little featurette on the special effects, and Luigi Cozzi pops up again (why is he always sitting in the basement of that shop? He must have been there for ten years now) to discuss the history of Italian horror in Bava to Bava.
Exclusive to Arrow's limited edition set is a 60 page booklet featuring new writing on the film, a double-sided poster, one of the DEMONS movie tickets for those who haven't been lucky enough to get one at festival screenings and limited edition packaging with new artwork.
Lamberto Bava's DEMONS and DEMONS 2 are coming out on 4K Blu-ray and 4K UHD double disc sets on Monday 22nd February 2021
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