Anchor
Bay
The
first Lamberto Bava/Dario Argento collaboration
resulted in the hugely popular DEMONS (1985)
one of the great flicks of the mid-1980s
wave of gore and horror that drenched cinemas
with so much pre-CGI sticky goop. Sometimes
it's hard to believe that the days of venturing
to the local theatre and buying a ticket
to see the likes of DEMONS, DAY OF THE DEAD,
RE-ANIMATOR, EVIL DEAD 2, etc. aren't all
that long ago.
Centered around a group of
theatre patrons under siege from titular
demons that appear to have emerged from
the horror flick unspooling on-screen, the
original DEMONS (known as DEMONI in its
homeland) was easily one of the most memorable
and beloved examples of Eurotrash cinema
from the era.
So, why'd I wait so long to
catch up with the appropriately-titled sequel,
DEMONS 2? It reunites the one-two punch
of Argento and Bava, features another cheeseball
hair metal/goth soundtrack and even brings
back fan fave Bobby Rhodes as "Hank,"
a gym instructor fighting the hordes of
demonic attackers. (Rhodes starred as Tony,
a flashy pimp who led the fight against
the monstrous creatures in the original.)
Instead of the original's
movie theatre setting, the action in DEMONS
2 moves to The Towers, an apartment building
filled with horny chicks, pregnant chicks
and some unruly teens. All of whom are watching
a TV program that's either a sequel to the
original flick or some kind of news show
on that pesky demon attack... I honestly
couldn't tell what it was supposed to be!
In a near repeat of the first
flick, the demons emerge from the television
sets – foreshadowing THE RING –
and start picking off the tower's many residents,
resulting in demon partygoers, demon dogs,
demon bodybuilders, demon sauna people,
a demon kid and some kind of GREMLINS-esque
demon.
The fitness freaks retreat
to the building's garage where they fight
the multiplying hordes, blow some heads
off demons, and listen to Rhodes bark orders
at everybody. Hell, even when he's asking
questions it sound like he's yelling commands!
So why did the flick leave
me – and most everybody else I've talked
to – bored and unimpressed? Is it that
there are too many people to care/not care
about? Is it that the original was so captivating
that it'd be asking too much to recapture
that originality and flair?
While I give the filmmakers
credit for having the kid go demon on us
– in the US he would've survived and
been played by Jonathan Lipnicki –
the whole thing just never grabbed my interest.
