Demons

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🎙️ EPISODE 578: 10.18.22 Let me say right away that I forgot to mention the incredible Claudio Simonetti (Goblin) soundtrack during the podcast review and that was a major oversight because it is a banger! That dude rules. Now, let's talk about Demons! Do you like demons? I hope you like demons. Because when the demons come out in this one (1985's Demons), holy shit it's fucking demon city up in here! This is one of the most relentless horror movies I've ever seen. I think these demons act and function more like zombies than demons, but that's already putting WAY too much thought into what is a wonderfully formless and wholly plotless, yet somehow BEAUTIFUL mess.

Natasha Hovey is an actress and she is in this. Don't worry about concepts like "main characters" or even "characters" for that matter. All of the performers in this are merely fodder for the endless demon action after the mindless fifteen minutes of setup. The movie begins with her on the Berlin subway. When she exits, she's handed a free ticket for a movie by a guy wearing a chrome "Phantom of the Opera"-ass mask on, played by Michele Soavi, the director of The Church, a sort of continuation / Part 3 to this (the Italian horror scene is incredibly incestuous; the director here, Lamberto Baba, is son of the "Master of Horror," the great Mario Bava). She's one of several dozens of seemingly random people who have gotten this invite and as movie logic goes: when an incredibly creepy man hands you a free ticket for a show, you go - no questions asked.

And that's really it as far as plot goes. There's really nothing here! When it's demon time, it's just demon time FULL STOP, and that's it. No explanations, no deeper conflict, no character development, and barely any resolution. They start watching the movie-with-the-movie about — you guessed it! — demons and this one lady who randomly tried on a creepy mask in the lobby (OK, sure) is the first to get infected with the demon curse and she turns into a demon. At first they think it's the movie itself that is causing everyone to turn into demons. So they break into the projector room and smash up it up, but that ain't it. Someone suggests it's the theater itself — the gorgeous Metropol — and that's a little closer to whatever the reality is supposed to be, I guess (because all the exits have become magically walled off). But in the end, it's simply demon time and you must accept that to get anything out of this immensely fun and impossibly stupid film. I recommend checking it out for yourself, but if I'm not selling it for you on my words alone, well here's some gifs and clips to whet your appetite....

...for DEMONS!

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 577 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 579 ⫸

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Demons (Italian: Dèmoni) is a 1985 Italian horror film directed by Lamberto Bava, produced by Dario Argento, and starring Urbano Barberini and Natasha Hovey. Its plot follows two female university students who, along with a number of random people, are given complimentary tickets to a mysterious movie screening, where they soon find themselves trapped in the theater with a horde of ravenous demons. It was released on October 5, 1985.