Demons

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Year:	1985
Country of origin:	Italy
Director:	Lamberto Bava
Genre:	Demonic gore fest
Starring:	Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089013/
Tagline:	They will make cemeteries their cathedrals and the cities will be your tombs.
Favourite line:	N/A - Subtitled

One of my earliest horror memories is of going into my local videostore, and seeing the fantastically atmospheric video cover of this, possibly Lamberto Bava'a most well known film. Produced by the peerless Dario Argento (Tenebre, Phenomena, Suspiria), this is a low concept gore fest, which opts for excessive violence and screaming over stylised atmospherics.
But is it any good?
Well, it's a mixed bag.
The violence is effectively handled, centering around a cinema showing a new horror movie, where pretty soon the action on screen seems to be a little too close to what is happening in the real cinema for comfort.
Echoes of 'Stab' from Scream 2, then, and it has to be said it is vaguely post-ironic, making it quite ahead of it's time.
There's plenty of gore too, blood freaks, with throats being pulverised by Demons' nails left right and centre, eye-burstings and so on, which is always fun for all the family. The only problem, really, is the lack of genuine atmosphere, something Italian horror directors are generally very good at.
Oh, and the 'pimp' character, one of the most offensively stereotypical black characters I've seen in a while.
Those little gripes aside, this is an entertaining, if flawed, gore-ride.
Oh, and the soundtrack is great, featuring the mighty 'Fast as a Shark' by Accept amongst others.