8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well worth having., July 13, 2005
This review is from: Gift Set 2: Demons & Demons 2 (DVD)
Demons and Demons 2 were both directed by Lamberto Bava son of famous Italian horror director Mario Bava and not Dario Argento just to clear things up he did produce and has written the stories for both films. The first demons film takes place in a darkened theater where the film on screen is a horror film about demons, the cinema goers soon get traped inside and must fight for thier lives.
The characters included in this film are hilarious like a bunch of 80's punk teens with realy bad hairstyles and a pimp that likes to smack his hoes lol. The one thing that I really hated about this film was the awful dubbing but if you have seen a lot of italian horror films it wouldn't bother you, the film is a lot of fun to watch as the few surviving cast get to kill demons and one scene has a guy on a motorcycle in a movie theater gets to hack a few demons with his sword.
The gore and special fx were terrific as some of the demon transformations were pretty gruesome and you could tell that the film was made to appeal to a much wider market outside of Italy probably because of the soundtrack and it was made more like an american horror film, this film deffinently gets 5 stars.
Now the sequal was not so good and I thought it was average infact on its own I would have given it a rating of 3 out of 5 stars, the story this time takes place in a highrise appartment building and the demons seem to come out of their television sets.
The film has a slower pace and seems to drag along but some scenes were interesting I guess like the partying teens and the pregnant woman who is traped in her appartment trying to escape from the ugly demon child. Both films have trailers and a small feature behind the scene on make up fx but thats it.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Dead can Dance!, October 16, 2005
This review is from: Gift Set 2: Demons & Demons 2 (DVD)
Do you like carnage? Violence? High Sleaze?
Do you like the prospect of Demons chasing their hapless, screaming victims around in the dark, and tearing off huge chunks of flesh in the process?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, then check out Demons 1 and Demons 2, lovingly gathered together into this tasty deluxe edition.
Italian horror maestro Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava joined forces to produce two of the goriest, most merciless, most stylish, and arguably the best zombie films ever made: for my money, Demons and Demons2 are nectar of the Gods for gorehounds and horror movie fanatics.
Plot, character development, and pacing all take a backseat to the most important element of any zombie movie: brain-eating, bone-crunching, viscera-devouring goodness.
Both of the Demons movies deliver the goods in spades, and have the additional virtue of gorgeous and crisp cinematography, eerie and stylish lighting, and the highest splatter-to-running-time ratio of any horror movie ever made, with the possible exception of Peter Jackson's Dead/Alive.
Best of all, the "Demons" movies are utterly merciless: all of the more benevolent horror movie conventions are gleefully abandoned. SEE:
*Dewey-eyed adorable little children get mutated into flesh-devouring demons!
*One of the little demon children explode as it gives 'birth' to a yowling, screaming little imp!
*a fluffy, loyal family dog growl and bark at a pool of demon blood, only to be transformed into an insane and hungry monster, its snout rolling back up over its eyeballs as a new set of green 'eyes' grow out of its nose!
*a blind man get his eyes gouged out even as he begs for the demon to stop!
In short, both movies are sheer horror genius, a 7-course feast (with some nice 1987 Chateau LaTour thrown in) for the discriminating gorehound. It simply doesn't get any better than this, folks, and best of all, you can watch Demons/Demons2 again and again and never get tired of it. Can you honestly say that about "Night of the Living Dead"?
But let's dispense, quickly, with the plot: there is none.
Alright, I'm being a little glib: there is a plot, but don't expect either film to stick to it. Demons takes place in the Metropol, a haunted (but mysteriously refurbished) Berlin movie theater; patrons gather for a free screening of a new horror movie (about teenagers exploring an ancient cathedral who awaken---you guessed it---demons). One of the moviegoers, Rosemary the Harridan, scratches her cheek on a demonic mask in the lobby; the wound becomes infected (oh boy does it ever!) and begins to bubble and ache.
Rosemary excuses herself, and goes to the bathroom to tend to her now throbbing, pulsating cheek wound, and, after a deliciously gory transformation scene (in which gobbets of flesh, buckets of blood, and waterfalls of pus fly everywhere) becomes a demon.
Rosemary gets out and starts clawing and biting other patrons; people turn into demons; things get out of hand; and after a while Berlin has considerably more to worry about than the Soviets. The second movie offers more of the same, this time in a Berlin apartment building. Both films also inexplicably feature a subplot about a carload of ill-tempered punk rockers who spend roughly 75% of the film driving aimlessly around Berlin listening to new wave ditties, but don't worry---they get theirs. Oh yes indeed.
Both movies feature the aforementioned gobs of gore, stunning demon transformation scenes, and hip eighties soundtracks (featuring Motley Crue, Billy Idol, Dead Can Dance and The Cult). You get to see Berlin in all its old Cold War glory. And best of all, you have the sheer delight of two of the most shockingly gory zombie flicks ever put to film on a sleek, gorgeous DVD transfer!
Some have complained the acting in the film is atrocious, but what do you expect from a film which was originally shot in German and Italian, and then dubbed over into English---and not using good, expressive English voices, but folks who sound like their acting skills are sub-par, at best. Look, you can't have it all---and anyway, you get the winsome Fiore Argento in Demons and the tasty and plummish Asia Argento in Demons2 (Dario's daughters). Something this enjoyable shouldn't be legal, so take advantage of Demons/Demons2 while you can.
JSG
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Demoni: Euro-gore at its best., June 1, 2002
This review is from: Gift Set 2: Demons & Demons 2 (DVD)
This is one of my favorite horror films of all-time. I'm not a horror expert like others, but I enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed Jackson's DEAD ALIVE, Raimi's EVIL DEAD, Romero's DAY OF THE DEAD, and more than say...Fulci's THE BEYOND. Why?
*It's got great gross-out effects(man-made gore, none of that 'clean'-looking cgi gore), esp. the human-to-demon transformation scenes.
*It's fast-paced with good action. These demons move fast and are quick. After seeing this you won't feel sorry for hapless victims who can't outrun slow zombies or who are so clumsy that they bump into them.
*It has a sense of style. Visually impressive, with the movie-within-a-movie scenes and the part where the demons run in slo-mo down a hall with eyes glowing being standouts!
*Great music. Excellent Italian new wave electronic score opens and closes the credit sequences in the first film. 80's songs(these being 80's films) are present throughout both films and are a mixed bag(#2 ends with 'Rain' from the Cult...which is good).
True, the dubbing is bad, but if you dub SEVEN SAMURAI, SEVENTH SEAL, and CITIZEN CANE badly, they aren't gonna come across as great either. Besides, are you watching these expecting to see those types of films? Overall, if you liked one you'll like the other, but admittedly it will be a case of seen-that, been-there. But at least make it a priority to see the first. Plus, a few extras with a nice image transfer make this dvd a must buy(or at least a must see), esp. for those looking for an antidote to all those teen/cgi-fx/hollywood-type horror films. Don't take it too seriously, and you'll have a blast, get grossed out, and even scared...and that's what it's all about right?
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