MovieChat Forums > Dèmoni (1986) Discussion > Man, this film falls apart halfway throu...

Man, this film falls apart halfway through

posted 8 years ago by I_am_legend_maker_still
6 replies | jump to latest

I know horror films are not exactly the most neatly plotted and structured worlds, and I'm willing to allow such things as instant walls covering doors as part of the evil paranormal elements, but really. It's like the screenwriter wrote about half the film, came to when everyone had barricaded themselves up on the balcony...and then just utterly and completely blanked and had absolutely no idea what to do next or how to resolve anything.

"Okay so they break through the wall and find some random rooms, but they lead nowhere and are CURSED, then some random punks somehow get inside so that one of them can get outside, then the demons just kill most everyone, then the two mains ride around slashing demons with a sword, then a helicopter falls through the roof and that guy from the start is there..."

Would it really have been that hard to make things flow together properly? It was pretty jarring.

[–] TheBeardedWonder 8 years ago

There's a big chunk of time between the barricade and the awesome ending where nothing really happens, I agree. I still love the flick despite this, but yeah the middle act is kind of lacking compared to the first and third.

[–] svalinanikola 8 years ago

Yeah, the ending is awesome, but I think when Tony the Pimp dies the movie gets worse and not as fun for some time. The bike scene is cool though.

[–] Cognoscente (2643) 4 years ago

It wouldn't surprise me if they filmed the beginning and closing acts first but then ran out of money when trying to complete the middle act.

[–] Strazdas (2472) 2 years ago

This film falls apart in the first 10 minutes.

[–] Aylmer (437) 19 hours ago

I just saw this in the theater (while Simonetti was playing alongside with his newest incarnation of the band "Goblin"). I hadn't seen it in over 20 years and my opinion on it didn't warm up too much. The live music just felt gimmicky and I just adjusted to it and forgot it was there after 15 minutes, kinda like seeing a 3D version of a movie you've seen before.

I've always had mixed feelings about the film since I first saw it as a teenager and big fan of Italian cult/horror movies. Lamberto Bava just didn't have the directing chops to handle an over-the-top hardcore crazy hard rock horror movie. Most of the rock songs are shoe-horned into the car scenes with the druggies and the overall soundtrack felt pretty underwhelming to me, even by 80's standards. Most unforgivably, the script is a mess which ties up very few loose ends and has nothing but banal dialog and cheesy scares that never really work.

One of the most embarrassing scenes has to be the air duct sequence where we get "faked out" to think that the boyfriend guy is going to turn into a demon and attack his girlfriend while we get this close-up of claws scraping. It turns out that SHE was the demon all along and attacks HIM! OMG! The problem though is that we see her non-demonic hands in all the wide shots and the big reveal falls totally flat, even ludicrous. There's other sloppy stuff like Barberini's reaction shot to his girlfriend turning at the very end. Supposedly they are in a moving jeep but there isn't even any wind blowing his hair.

The Italians were really trying to big "cool" and "with it" by throwing in a lot of rock, pop culture, and over-the-top zaniness (a samurai sword on a motorcycle) but were still hampered by being a dorky, lost-in-translation production complete with banal dialog, flat 2D characterizations, and bad dubbing. With all the limitations, the movie could only have worked as an over-the-top gore bonanza with a clever script. (CONTD)

[–] Aylmer (437) 18 hours ago

However the gore just isn't quite plentiful enough (outdone a couple years later by DEAD ALIVE) and the script just too sloppy and full of holes to connect, especially during the dry sections in the middle. Possibly a better director than Bava could have handled things. Argento wasn't well-suited, but maybe Soavi could have made a lot more out of it (as he proved with his films when he finally got into directing).