Customer Reviews

Black Demons

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

cool italian zombie film from the early 90's made in the spirit of the late 70's/early 80's gore heyday.these particular zombies are former black slaves,which is a different spin in this genre.i really liked the make up and atmosphere of their scenes.on the other hand,most of the "acting" is atrocious(not unique to italian horror by any means),thus the 3 star rating.if you are an established italian horror film fan,add one star and consider this for your collection.

the horrid acting from 95% of the cast would have destroyed this film if it didn't have anything else going for it but UMBERTO LENZI is the director so i promise u its worth your while! Lenzi gives us some really spooky atmosphere & score/some errie visions/some classic gore scenes/some Lenzi'ish good artistic camera direction/ & most of all some very original creepy looking ZOMBIES! i mean it when i say original & unique these zombies stalk there prey like a slasher killer. they don't want brains they don't even want to eat humans period these zombies are on a personel murder mission & believe me they pretty much suceed!!!!! anway i love this cheezzy good/bad zombie flick simpley because i love the cannibal god himself UMBERTO LENZI & his unique/fun take on zombies!!! p.s. fellow horror fans if u find this flick any fun u will love UMBERTO LENZI'S "NIGHTMARE CITY" he says its not supposed to be a ZOMBIE flick but us true zombie heads have taken it in as another great unique take on an everlasting genre!!!!!!!!!!! later on fellow horror fans!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unlike everyone else I actually thought this was rather a good, spooky little film, almost a fable. The resurrected slaves thirsting for revenge are disturbing and there are quite a few tense moments as they (very very slowly) pursue our hapless protagonists round a secluded plantation house. The Macumba backdrop and Brazilian setting are effective and atmospheric, and the ritual music sounded very authentic to me. The film has a somewhat dreamlike aspect, (though this is mainly due to inert pacing). There are a good few minuses in addition to the poor pacing: the zombies are dispatched with desultory ease in the last reel; the acting is generally very poor - tho it might have been better if Mr Lenzi had allowed his actors a second take in scenes where they fluffed their lines! - and the gore effects are also poor and unimaginative. Or I should say 'effect', singular - an unconvincing eyeball-gouging done to a very rubbery fake head in extreme close up. And why do the (blinded) slaves stop at one eye each time? The characters display little commonsense at any point in the narrative; even when one of the girls is confronted by an axe-wielding zombie (having wandered off into the forest 'for a walk'), the others refuse to take their plight seriously: 'Perhaps you just imagined it,' they suggest to her after she has returned, implausibly. The dialogue is annoyingly muffled and far back in the mix, and then the music blares out very loudly indeed, making it an unsatisfactory late-night watch if you have thin walls & don't like annoying the neighbours, though on the plus side, the widescreen transfer is good-quality. But still, for all its shortcomings, I thought it had an atmosphere in common not so much with Romero et al as with earlier (and rather better) Voodoo-themed movies such as White Zombie and I Walked With A Zombie.

The movie is a great concept, but had poor execution. Three tourists are vacationing in Brazil, one of which is interested in its voodoo practices. He records a ceremony and later plays it at a cemetery at a plantation where they are subsequently stranded. The slaves who were hung by their masters come back to life and seek vengeance. The reanimated corpses are very well preserved for having been dead for so long.

The acting was on par with other Italian zombie movies, which means it was bad. The vehicle had a distributor cap problem which means sometimes the vehicle worked sometimes it didn't. Normally you can fix that problem by drying out the inside of a crack cap, cleaning the contacts and gluing the cracks, otherwise you end up with a situation where the vehicle only works when the writer of the script wants it to.

No f-bombs, no sex, very brief nudity (dancer).

Umberto Lenzi is a fine director. He made some excellent movies that
I would put high on the list of italian movies and grade b movies.
Some of them are even classics like 'milano rovente" , "almost human"
"eyeball" ,
"seven blood stained orchids" , and the "cynic , the rat and the fist"
his cannibal movies and even all cannibal movies are a acquired taste but his were among the best. But by the late 80's he had fallen on hard times. This movie is not very good and it is slow paced but it's not the worst movie ever made. I can barely recommend this one for lenzi fans and zombie completist fans. But I can't understand why shriek show media blasters would do this movie before a great giallo classic like lenzi's
"Eyeball" or his many crime movies from the seventies. THose were all great flicks. This one though can be added to the many bad zombie flicks out there. One thing in lenzi's defense at this time he had a hard time getting any financing for movies and had to do what he could. But many good directors make subpar efforts and this is one of those. Just give lenzi a chance on some of his other movies. I enjoyed this movie because I like most bad horror movies , good ones are more fun though, but lenzi's "nightmare city" is a good zombie movie , it shows a director
who can deliver and this movie showcases the fall of a good director. He needs to come out of retirement and make a solid giallo again or something. And shriek show needs to put out 'eyeball" to make up for putting this out first.

The title of this movie would be considered "politically incorrect" today. Technonlogy has advanced so much since this movie was made. This movie is actually entertaining. It has several elements that I always like: a limited cast, a remote location, a simple plot and limited killing. I could have done without the eye gouging.It was unnecesssary. The bombing of the zombies was so fake, yet the movie never failed to keep my attention. I, being a hopeless romantic, love it when a "Jack and Jill" couple survive after going through "the storm". This is a solid 3-star movie with a good story. No one will argue that this movie desrves an Oscar for anything, but it is not a waste.

i had read countless reveiws of black demons before i bought it. the bad bad reviews made it sound really bad, the good reviews made it sound really good. after ordering it i eagerly awaited its arival.i remember the day i came home and saw the white box inside my mail box. i ran inside, grabed a knife and cut the sucker open. i pulled the shiny case out and admired the interesting artwork. i ran into my bedroom and threw the dvd into my player. i pushed play and began watching. 90 minutes later i had decided that i should have stabbed my self with the knife rather than used it to open the box containing what is the most boring and pointless movie ive ever seen. boy oh boy i should have listened to those bad reveiws instead of spending $14 on this crapfest. all you need to know about the plot is that the corpses of slaves come back to life due to some voodoo spell and seek revenge. trust me, sfter 40 of bordom all youll want to know about this films plot is when it ends. black demons feels like an american tv movie. the only good thing about black demons 3 slightly enjoyable gore scenes. i expected much better, especially from umberto lenzi who has never dissapointed before except with cannibal ferox. black demons is a boring, tedius, and down right stupid movie. avoid at all costs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

While I'm far from an expert on Umberto Lenzi, Black Demons is the 4th film by him I have seen. I wouldn't say he is a great filmmaker, but he does know how to make an enjoyable movie that has enough gore and or sleaze to make up for any shortcomings he has as a filmmaker.

Black Demons though in my opinion was pretty much a waste. While it did have the so bad its good moments, as a whole it was just bad. I knew what kind of movie I was getting, but based on what I have seen from Umberto Lenzi I was expecting a mindless gorefest, but sadly that's not what I got well besides the mindless part.

The screenplay written by Olga Pehar was simply horrible; the horror genre may not always be known for the scripts, but this was just bad. The dialogue is cringe worthy. The characters were terrible; while the concept was fairly decent I suppose nothing in the screenplay works at all. The dialogue is just idiotic everything is well idiotic.

Umberto Lenzi is unable to build up much tension or atmosphere. The scenes are poorly paced and lack any tension through out. Black Demons runs at about 90-min, but quite honestly it feel a hell of a lot longer than that. Umberto Lenzi can craft a sleazy fun time, but here he just falls flat. The biggest problem is the lack of action. The longer the movie goes without any the more boring it gets.

The acting was weak, which is to be expected but I have seen worse, but Philip Murray has to rate as one of the very worst actors I have ever seen. From the way he delivers his lines, to his movements and facial expressions he was just bad. But with that said he does help the movie in ways and helps it have the so bad its good moments. Without Phillip Murray's terrible acting Black Demons would have been a complete waste of time.

The scariest thing about Black Demons is the rest of the actors come across as fairly decent when compared to Phillip Murray. I wasn't expecting Oscar worthy acting, but this one was pretty damn bad as far as acting goes.

Black Demons released in 1991 in many ways is the last of the 80s horror film. The movie really does look like something out of the 80s, but also what people have to remember is even though the decade ends it normally takes a year or 2 before films begin to change.

Despite the title Black Demons this is a zombie flick and like Lenzi's Nightmare City he likes to mix things up. In many ways this is sort of a slasher flick meets a zombie flick. There is a scene with one zombie stalking one of the characters and when there is a knock at the door the zombie backs off. Also the zombies prefer to use weapons as well.

Black Demons also goes under the title of Demons 3, which makes people think this was a sequel to Lamberto Bava's Demons flicks. Black Demons is not a sequel. So do not go in expecting anything like those flicks. Black Demons was billed as Demons 3 for marketing reasons.

Bottom line is Black Demons is a very poor movie; it's too slow paced at times and when there is action it really doesn't help much. The couple of gore scenes are fairly decent, but cannot save the movie. As much as I love Italian horror by this time it was clear the horror industry in Italy was pretty much dead except for a couple of filmmakers who were able to make some good movies.

In closing I cannot honestly think of anything really good to say about Black Demons. It's too slow paced, not enough action the little gore we get is decent, but nothing to get excited about.

Lenzi's only good movie is Nightmare City. Watching this giant bore makes you realize the comparitively greater talent of directors such as Fulci and Romero. A boring film: lackluster acting, plot, and zombies.

Italian horror films are either really good or really bad, and the really bad ones are really entertaining for laughs or just painful to watch. This is one of the worst of the bad. Not even good to laugh at. Its more poor acting, more poor special effects, and more poor directing. This was released as Demoni 3 in Italy (a supposed sequel to Lamberto Bava's Demoni and Demoni 2), but don't let that trick you into buying this garbage. Only for the most die hard Italian Horror fanatic.