By the time I had seen this in the video store so many years ago, I had already become a bit jaded by video boxes and their false portrayals of shit that doesn't even go down in the fucking movie. Now I've seen some of the coolest ' artwork known to Man splashed across video slip cases and have immediately been compelled to rent or on the rarest of occasions, even BUY the fuckin' things right on the spot and more than a few times found my fingers burned and black as a result, so when I saw that groovy little dude doin' his thing on the cover of the Demons VHS, I was a bit hesitant to fork over the dough. Fortunately, for some reason I gave in and did just that and boy oh boy what a good fucking move on my part that was!!
The movie actually plods along slightly at first, which only heightened my concern and thus begun my cursing and muttering, motherfucking the guy at the videostore for letting me rent this piece of shit and then before you know it, BOOM!!! Rick Jame's lookalike-hooker-ho' get's zoinked into one of the Colgate dribbling demonic zombies from heck! Woah! What the fuck is THIS all about??!!
That's when all fucking hell broke loose. This was Fulci after an 8-ball of crack. There was no holding back. I was honestly shocked that this movie had went well beyond the promise of the cover shot. As if the green slime Rick James lookin' ass hooker from heck wasn't enough then we get to witness the lil' spic hooker friend of the superfreak slimeball hooker slowly transform in a scene that may very well pimpslap the notorious transformation scene in The Howling. Little rat teeth bloodily break through the pre-existing barrier, making way for a tongue that grabs Gene Simmons by the throat and tells him, in an alarmingly pleasant tone, to give it all up and walk away in shame, leaving Gene speechless and unceremoniously lick slapped across his snide and smug Jew mug .
Suffice to say that I was a total and unabashed fucking believer from that moment on. They even got some Italian rip off version of some Blaxploitation lookin' homey talkin' jive shit and the whole bit sayin' shit like " move out da way ". Hell yeah! Ahhh... I knew I was witnessing a classic unfold before my very eyes and I haven't even mentioned the soundtrack! (old) Motley Crue, Accept, Saxon and Claudio Simonetti of Goblin fame. Fuck, they even had some Billy Idol and Rick Springfield ( ? ) thrown in for good measure!
Demons actually plays more on the zombie side of the fence than supernatural thriller, which is fine by me. Demons seemed to usher in the new wave of Italian splatter cinema, a concept which seemingly died on it's feet before it had begun walking around. Don't get me wrong, there have been a few films here and there that had some bite , notably those directed by Argento protege Michele Soavi but the promised storm of new wave Italian splatter madness never came as the end of the golden age of gore began with the birth of the 90's . With the pace of a runaway train, Demons is more 'Death Metal' than it is 'Rock & Roll' and hasn't lost any of it's infectious bite in the 26 years since it's release. You really can't go wrong here unless you're one of those strange pussies that gets all creamy in the middle over anally ravaged homo fests like Office Space.
A 'Demons 2' came out a few years later and while not as shocking or compelling as the former, I daresay that it wasn't a bad little flick. It just unfortunately had some King Kong sized booties to fill. Somewhere after the first sequel things get a little sketchy and hard to follow .
I've heard throughout the years that Michele Soavi's The Church was actually Demons 3, which does bear some truth as it was originally intended to be the third entry of the series but Soavi eventually chose for his film to stand on its own. Then you have Lamberto Bava's ( the director of the first two films ) 'Demons 3 : The Ogre', which is apparently related in name only as well as a slew of unofficial sequels that have flown way under the radar. As it stands, I only pay mind to the first two films of the series in regards to what belongs, though Soavi's 'The Church' is damn good in it's own right but really has nothing to do with the Demons films .
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