Dèmoni

***
Lamberto Bava has always been in a rather peculiar position of having the prestige and burden of being the son of horror royalty, Mario Bava. In the 80s, Lamberto wasn't just directing films like Blade in the Dark or Delirium: Photos of Gioia. He turned loose his Demons films on us and two cult gore classicks were born.

Look, subtlety this film doesn't have, but what it does feature:

• plentiful demonic monsters, 
• yellow (or white) puked blood
• gnarly talons ripping apart flesh (no place on your body is safe: a blind man gets gouged (yikes, talking about life taking a shit on you) in the eyes, a disgruntled patron telling people to be quiet while the movie is going has hit throat torn apart, chests and faces are sliced open and bulging bubbles that burst yellow slime result)
• eyes discolored (of course)
• veins turning bright red across the face
• a helicopter falling through the roof of the setting (Berlin movie theatre featuring a horror film working off a mechanical projector seemingly operating itself!) with a grappling hook and wench (appropriate enough!) are able to save a young man and the college girl he was flirting with during the movie
• an enigmatic subway creep in a phantom of the opera silver mask handing out tickets to the theatre (Michele Soavi, also showing up in the movie screened, possessed by evil when a book of spells is read among a group of friends, turning homicidal with a butcher knife on them) later showing up to reveal a dark side when he hinders the heroes trying to escape
• a motorcycle ride through the theatre by the chief hero with sword prop in hand slashing and stabbing, leaving demons spitting out and squirting out their own brand of blood
• a group of survivors trying to find a way out, encountering an entrance that is all wall, looking for any exit, even breaking open a wall to find this hall of rooms yet still no exits.
• a gaggle of coke-fiends (sniffing from a Coca-Cola can!) seem to exist solely to make it to the theatre and be turned into demons.
• a film seemingly over, with credits rolling, pointing out that a heroine didn't escape that theatre without a scratch, turning into a demon, deposited from a jeep via shotgun blast unceremoniously, although her love interest was slashed on the shoulder, with wound exposed yet never appearing infected.
• the whole demon infestation starts with a nick to the chin by a silver devil mask prop hanging on the motorcycle handle in the theatre lobby. Perhaps the recited incantation from the movie did spark the possession into motion?
• the blind man's daughter--his eyes--is making out with this guy behind the curtains when the chief demon strangles them in mid-smooch with a rope!
• in a showstopping scene, a demon literally emerges from the back of a victim and scurries off!
• can't forget the pimp who barks orders to the rest of them, expecting them to follow his lead! 
• oh, and if you think you can crawl on the floor and escape the theatre...well, not in Metropol. It is almost a guarantee you have a clawed hand bursting through a seat to grab your ass. Or in the case of this one unfortunate patron...you get puked on. Not just spew, but a vomit waterfall!

Bava operates from a free-for-all, go-for-broke script written by like four people (including Argento, given a BIG PRODUCER CREDIT), and, credit to him, levies it all with a nice look that, along with the onslaught of graphic violence (quite effective and outrageously gratuitous), has given Demons (1985) a long-standing rep among its peers.

I won't lie: sometimes I like crazy. I prefer style and a sense of surrealism. But I groove on gore and madness, also, when I'm in the mood for it. I'm a practical effects guy, and I always will be. Give me this type of gory nonsense over CGI any day of the week. And this film doesn't even hide its desire to entertain you with its bludgeoningly overt assault-to-the-senses approach. Lamberto has been prolific over his career, directing a number of differing genre films (Blastfighter & Monster Shark), and perhaps, besides the okay giallo, aforementioned Blade, and the later Body Puzzle (with Joanna Pacula, which I rented back in like 2007 on VHS), Macabre (in my opinion, his best film), and Delirium, Demons and its sequel are perhaps his call to fame. Demons has this really amusing scene where a number of demon-turned theatre-goers are moving up a hall in unison, eyes glowing (???), ready to attack some more folks, and I must say it has a bit of flair to it, even though they look like something out of C.H.U.D.

If a film perseveres despite its bizarre content, there has to be something about it that appeals and keeps us returning to it. If not, Demons would just go away and die. 80s gore retains a significant fanbase because of the later restrictions imposed on horror as the 90s began to limit what filmmakers could do. But horror somehow emerges from any type of censorship, full-bore and as willing to shock as ever before. So Demons, following in the aftermath of Evil Dead and the later Night of the Demons hold their place in the human-possessed monsters department.