Demons 2

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Andy and I finished up the pre-New Year's Eve Movie Marathon with the enjoyable sequel to the classic Demons. I've been pushing this a lot on here, but Demons is fucking great. Such a rare, perfect combination of intentional entertaining horror movie lunacy, and unintentional comedy.

Part Deux is not up to snuff with the first film, but it has it's merits. It's basically a rehash of the first movie, but with less amusingly awful dialogue (certainly it's less quotable) and also less violence (which I find confusing). Still, it has the same entertaining visual style, manic energy, fun special effects and the same kind of lunatic, nonsensical, fever dream of a plot.

Instead of an outbreak of demons at a movie theater, this time it happens in an apartment complex. Not quite as memorable, but still a good setting, opens up some new gimmicks, etc. I like the way the infected demon blood drips down from floor to floor and nails the unsuspecting inhabitants below.

One of my favorite parts of the original is what Andy and I refer to as the "Punks in a Car" motif. About halfway into Demons, the movie randomly cuts to a stolen car full of coke-snorting punks, miles away from the action. They all do some amazing overacting, with plenty of great-awful dialogue, and what's great is it's a total non-sequitor to cut from demons attacking people in a theater to a car full of punks doing jack shit. Ok, so you figure this is going somewhere. The punks do eventually show up at the theater, so maybe they will help fight off the demons, etc. But instead, once they end up at the theater, there is a scene of them being attacked and then they vanish from the film. Later, if you watch really closely and have seen the movie 4 or 5 times, you will notice that some of them are now in the background as demons.

I guess the point of the subplot is to explain how the demons get out into the real world, after one of the punks opens the door to the theater. I guess. It's still all completely asinine, and completely genius. And I bring this up, because part 2 out-asinines it in a way that makes me suspect that director Lamberto Bava is asinine like a fox. Because in Demons 2, we get another random car full of punks, who are on their way to the apartment building. It occasionally randomly cuts to them driving around, just like in part 1. Only this time, they get into a fender bender, and that's the last you see of them. They never actually make it to the apartment. They have nothing to do with the rest of the movie.

Bravo, Bava. Check and mate.

This was my 2nd time seeing Demons 2, it probably won't be my last, but I'm not going to watch it a million times like the original. Still, a good way to end our movie marathon. Good times.