Demons (1985)

Lamberto Bava (son of the pioneering Italian genre director Mario Bava) made Demons in 1985 with producer Dario Argento, who was then still trading on the considerable prestige of Suspiria and Inferno and brought his characteristic visual sensibility to bear on the project as co-writer. The film was shot largely in West Berlin, a city whose literal encirclement by the Wall gave any horror premise set there an extra layer of claustrophobic plausibility, and was produced by DACFILM Rome on a budget of around 1.8 million dollars, modest by Hollywood standards but relatively ambitious for Italian genre cinema of the period. It arrived during the mid-1980s home-video boom, which transformed the economics of horror production across Europe and allowed films like this one to find large international audiences outside traditional theatrical distribution. The result was successful enough to generate a direct sequel the following year, again with Bava and Argento collaborating.

Demons is absurd, sticky, vaguely offensive, and impossible to stop watching once you’ve started. Directed by Lamberto Bava (son of Mario Bava, which explains some of the flair) and produced by Dario Argento (the legend), this film is less a horror movie and more a fever dream where everyone’s main motivation is to see how much glitter they can shove into a demon’s costume. The demon mask looks like someone glued raccoon fur to a mannequin’s face and told it to scream forever. The gore is syringes of fake blood sprayed at the camera like it’s confetti. A neck explosion midway through the film defies the laws of physics. The acting is so over the top it's hilarious. Toni the Pimp is a classic all-time character for me and my friends now. A group of strangers get lured into a cinema to watch a mysterious horror film called Demons (meta!), only to realize they’re now in the movie and slowly transforming into literal demons. Why? Who cares! It’s just an excuse to set the chaos loose with people clawing their own faces off, a guy getting his throat torn out, and a finale where the cinema explodes into a neon-soaked inferno while a synth-heavy ‘80s rock anthem blares. Absolutely not scary. Weirdly entertaining. Demons is the kind of film you watch with a group of mates, pausing every five minutes to laugh. It’s so bad it’s good to the point of becoming a ritual

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 1985  | Watched: 2025-06-30

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Lamberto Bava: Demons 2 (1986)
More from Italy: Nightmare City (1980) · Cemetery Man (1994) · One Way or Another (1975) · Chicken for Linda! (2023)
More from the 1980s: Nightmare City (1980) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Style Wars (1983) · Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)