Directed by Lamberto Bava
Demons is an Italian horror movie by Lamberto Bava with a producer credit from the famous Dario Argento. In full transparency, I have seen this movie before. So the 4K release by Synapse Films is not my first exposure to the film. Picking up my copy, I noticed that the packaging and inserts are very cool. In an early scene, people are given golden tickets to a theater and Synapse included a reproduction of that ticket inside the case, which was a nice touch. It also comes with two versions of the film, the original (with English or Italian audio) or a shorter U.S. Version. It has been remastered in 4K from the original negatives and the audio is uncompressed sourced from the original audio masters.
When I started the movie, the first thing I noticed was how good it looked on a 4K TV. The opening scene is a young women walking through a deserted subway station when a masked man starts to follow her. It is a tense scene that builds up to a false jump scare. The man just hands her an invitation to a theater for a special event. The plot is simple. A theater full of people watching a horror movie are attacked by demons. The demon possession seems to spread like an infection which gives the movie somewhat of a zombie movie feel, especially once the humans start barricading themselves in the balcony. The special effects are very good and some of the imagery is crazy. I do not want to spoil too much of the movie, but it is one of the more ambitious Italian horror films I’ve seen including a samurai sword wielding motorcycle rider, a crashing helicopter, and more. The movie has a killer soundtrack that adds to the party atmosphere in the appropriate scenes but turns sinister once the violence starts. Additionally, the actors do a good job of actually making you root for them, as opposed to many horror movies with a cast you can’t wait to see killed off.
The special features are plenty. It has an audio commentary with film critics and a separate audio commentary with the director, special effects supervisor, composer, and one of the actresses. There are multiple featurettes such as an interview with Dario Argento, Argento’s history as a producer, a Q&A with the SFX supervisor at a film festival, interview with the composer, and a whole lot more. Demons has been a favorite of mine since the first time I watched it and I am very pleased that Synapse gave it such a packed, quality release. This one is a must-buy for any horror fan’s collection.