I actually watched this for the first time last night, mostly because I saw Synapse is releasing the limited edition Steelbooks of Demons/Demons 2, and wanted to make sure I wasn't going to miss out on anything.
I have to say, I'm not sure what most of you see in this film...
Maybe the nostalgia is blinding you from what this movie truly is - Eurotrash horror. Sure, it was entertaining '80s cheese, but since when does that make something a classic? Good '80s horror classics are ones like The Thing and A Nightmare On Elm Street. I would never consider this a classic. '80s Italian horror is the bane of my existence. Sure, there were a few masters like Mario Bava in the '60s and Argento in the '70s. But pretty much all Italian horror that came out in the '80s is pure garbage. Which is sad, considering that most of them have unique premises that had the potential to be remembered as something good, but then were completed trashed by inept filmmaking. Guys like Lucio Fulci and Lamberto Bava (God, the talent definitely was not passed down here) are complete hacks that made movies based around practical effects, which, while sometimes awesome and most times looked terrible, does not make for a legitimate film.
That being said, I thought the premise had a lot of potential and enjoyed the movie up until the two prostitutes started attacking everyone in the theater (I actually thought the first girl that turned into a demon in the bathroom was pretty damned freaky). The characters didn't seem like the typical morons found in most '80s Italian horror and the dubbing was surprisingly not completely terrible.
However, once the demons started attacking this movie fell apart in minutes. Like usual '80s Italian horror fashion, they didn't know where to go with the story and just had the characters running around the same set of stairs 20 times. There was no suspense and the movie merely just turned into a vehicle of having everyone ploddingly turn into a demon one by one so they could insert some gore. And they couldn't even be consistent about that aspect of the film! George gets scratched and is fine, Kathy seems to faint and that's reason enough to turn into a demon. Then we have random inserted scenes of a bunch of coked-out punks for 15 minutes just as a plot device to have demons be able to escape the theater... Why could they get in so easily and everyone else seemed to be incapable of finding another exit? Then of course the demons seem to find it convenient to randomly disappear whenever the characters needed moments of dialogue. If they're so bent on infecting the world, where the hell do they go to for 20 minutes at a time? And then the helicopter at the ending. Seriously?
I'm usually not a fan of remakes if a movie is a quality film beforehand. However, this movie is far from good and I think the premise deserved much better treatment then anything Bava gave it.
I think a remake (or a reimagining, it's not like the films in this series have any continuity and could easily enough fit in) taking place in a museum would work pretty well. A mysterious benefactor (could be something weird like the metal-faced man from the original, I like they didn't reveal much about him)donates a bunch of prized artifacts to a museum, and one of those items happens to be the demon mask. The mask certainly resembles real-life Asian demon masks or they could get some sort of African tribal mask. Little is known about the mask, but perhaps it could be briefly told that it was once used in ancient rituals to trap demons during exorcisms. The museum hosts a benefit gala for the new additions to the museum, someone accidentally cuts themselves on the demon mask and becomes "infected," cue the insanity.
Except this go around, a museum could provide much more differentiating locales that wouldn't have the characters running around in circles becoming boring within 10 minutes. It could even add in some more of the mysterious metal-faced man, having him lock in the patrons and briefly explain his goals (though still leaving something to the imagination). Perhaps throw in a side-story about a small group trying to perform a heist of a piece within the museum during the gala. ANYTHING to make the second half of the movie more interesting. Shoot, add in that contained beneath the museum's location is a gateway to hell or some other dimension that contains the demons and some secret society brought the mask to the museum for that purpose.
It could even have a nice international cast due to the museum plotline or a cast of known cult film actors that could bring some credibility to the table. Have one of the New French Extremity directors helm it. Someone like Alexandre Aja, Pascal Laugier or Gaspar Noe could bring the intensity, dream-like quality of GOOD Italian horror, and amazing directing to make a redo of demons a quality and scary endeavor that the original could have, but sorely lacked.
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