Solemplex
To me, this movie is perfection.
Plustown
A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
Stephan Hammond
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Lachlan Coulson
This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.
hellholehorror
This is tacky Italian horror. It is one of the better Italian horror films although still sat down near the bottom of films in general. It just suffers badly from a god-awful production value. It also felt like they just shot as much as possible and then botched a film together with their footage. The scripting is terrible. On the plus side it is nice and gory. Not particularly engaging. At times it was comical and at others dull. If it wasn't gory then this would be totally pointless. Mercifully fast pacing holds attention.
Paul Magne Haakonsen
I watched "Demons" (aka "Dèmoni") in the late 1980's and I remembered it as being a good and scary movie back then. So I sat down to watch it again in 2016. And I must admit that I might have been more easily impressed back in my teens."Demons" is about a group of people invited to a night screening of a movie in an old theater building in West Berlin. However, the events in the movie much resembles what happens in the theater, as a woman puts on a demonic mask on display and cuts herself when taking it off. Soon after, a demonic entity takes over her body, possessing her and starts to kill the other people in the theater. Fleeing the theater in panic, the people find themselves trapped and walled in, having to fight a desperate fight in order to stay alive and not be turned into a ravenous demon.Sure, the storyline was adequate, albeit generic and stereotypical. And it definitely had that mid-Eighties feel to it. However, "Demons" was not a particularly outstanding movie, especially not by comparison of horror movies by today's standards. Of course, a comparison with 30 years in between is hardly fair, but I mean that "Demons" just doesn't leave a lasting impression.The effects were adequate, taking into consideration that the movie is from 1985. And I do remember that I found the effects great and somewhat disturbing back in the late 1980's when I watched the movie.However, the acting in the movie was less than mediocre, and that was a shame, because the movie did suffer from that.The ending of the movie was really one that didn't sit well with me. While the concept of the ending would be great on paper and in idea, sure I can relate to that, but it just was a bit too much. But of course, it is a matter of personal preference."Demons" is not a major movie in the horror library, but if you grew up with horror movies in the 1980's and 1990's (in particular the Italian horror movies), like I did, then "Demons" is most likely a movie that would have crossed your path.
Fella_shibby
Co-written by Dario Argento, produced by William Lustig (director of Maniac) and directed by Lamberto Bava (son of horror legend Mario). Some might argue that Bava Junior doesn't have the talents of Bava Senior. I saw this for the first time in the late 80's. Ten rupees rental man. It was hilarious, the demons were funny looking, the picture was too dark and the acting was atrocious. Love the scene at the end where the guy is on the motorcycle swinging the sword at all the demons chopping them up and decapitating them. The nihilistic ending sees the remaining survivors escaping the theater, only to discover the city over-run by demons. This movie has everything; violence, blood, action, 80's metal, and all kinds of other things. This is about people who get invited to a theater to see a horror flick, but it turns out to be a movie from hell.
Mr_Ectoplasma
A group of various people wind up at an apparently newly renovated movie theater in West Berlin in the 1980s for a movie premiere— a horror film, apparently. There are strange metallic demon masks in the lobby. Promotional material, perhaps? As the film starts, the screams on screen become a reality, as it seems that audience members are becoming possessed by demons one-by-one. Even more unfortunate is the fact that someone has sealed all potential exits.It took me years to get around to seeing this film, though I've heard it lauded for years. While there are certainly better genre films out there, "Demons" is a solid and incessantly entertaining zombie flick. Backed by a script co-written by maestro Dario Argento and with fluid direction from Lamberto Bava, there is a hell of a lot of fun to be had here; think, "Evil Dead" in a movie theater, except with a killer '80s soundtrack. There are some remarkable special effects on display, which may be a highlight for many people. The pace is rather quick and there are few dull moments, although there is a nice establishment of atmosphere in the old-fashioned cinema house that becomes increasingly claustrophobic once our characters realize they've been walled in. Aesthetically, the film is quite dated, and shows its eighties colors rather extravagantly (Euro punks in leather jackets driving around to Billy Idol), but if you can appreciate the extravagance of the period, you can definitely appreciate the extravagance of the bloody disaster of an auditorium that you get here. At the end of the day, this is simply a fun film, and one that cinephiles will especially appreciate given the self-reflexive cinema overtones. Eighties kitsch does not a bad film make. 8/10.