Demonia (1990)** (out of 4) Five nuns are brutally murdered and five hundred years later their spirits get a chance for vengeance. Archaeologist team Professor Paul Evans (Brett Halsey) and his partner (Meg Register) begin to realize early on that something isn't right.DEMONIA is a later day Lucio Fulci film, which is actually slightly better than its reputation. By this time the Italian horror market was taking its last gasps of air so if you're expecting something that looks or feels like ZOMBIE or THE BEYOND then you're certainly going to be disappointed. With that said, if you've seen Fulci's later day films like THE GHOSTS OF SODOM then you'll be happy to see that this here is better than that.The biggest issue with DEMONIA is the same thing that haunted a lot of these films and that's the fact that there just wasn't enough money to pull everything off. The story here is an interesting one but it's never fully developed, which is really too bad. As I said, the budget was certainly very low here but Fulci still managed to build up a nice atmosphere and there's some minor gore, which his fans will enjoy. I also thought both Halsey and Register were good in their roles and they at least keep you interested in what's going on. Al Cliver (ZOMBIE) also appears briefly.DEMONIA certainly isn't a classic movie and if you're new to Fulci it's certainly not the place to start watching. With that said, there are a few interesting ideas and moments scattered throughout.

You know how they say that even bad sex is wonderful. Even a bad Fulci is worth the time to watch. The creator of such films as Zombie, The Senator Likes Women, and The Beyond can give us bad sex and we will never complain.Besides, this was set in Sicily, and that also makes it worth watching, even if it is 299 km from my grandfather's home.And, did I mention it is also a nunsploitation film? Liza Harris (Meg Register) had vision of nuns being killed in a séance, and now she is in the basement of a monastery in Sicily searching for ...what? She finds five crucified nuns in a sub-basement.There was a naked spirit using a spear-gun on Porter (Al Cliver). How does a ghost shoot a spear-gun. I rewound just to be sure. Yes, it was a ghost with a nice right tit.No ghost needed to take care of a couple of drunks looking for a party.Liza gets the story in flashback from a medium. Suffice it to say the nuns were naughty, and one (Paola Cozzo) had a baby, which they burned. The naughtiness was under covers, so we only get to see one right tit again. I wonder if it was the same one as the ghost.The medium gets the trademark Fulci treatment in a gruesome manner.But, the local butcher gets it bad, too, but neither gets it as bad as one of the archaeologists on the dig. Yech! The ending wasn't very clear, and probably the weakest part of the film.But, like I said, bad Fulci is still Fulci worth having.

In XVth century church group of nuns committed a religion blasphemy. All women preformed satanic rituals and wild orgies with strangers, who later vanished in a mysterious circumstances. Of course it had an effect. One of the nuns gave birth to a child, which was immediately burn. People who lived nearby church had enough and decided to crucify wicked nuns. A few centuries later group of archeologists started to do the research nearby ruins of church. This fact made locals very suspicious and unfriendly, because of superstition of murdered nun's revenge. It's question of time when sinner's ghosts came back to get their death toll.Fulci always goes from one extreme to another. Once his movies were full of suspense ["Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes "] or gore ["Zombie Flesh Eaters"]. Demonia is a try to mix these two. But, it's failed. Fulci tries all of his suspense tricks such as eye close-up, sudden zooms and creating orinirique atmosphere. But it makes this film worse. Close-up looks really poor and zooms are very annoying. Oh, we can't forget about music. Sometimes it honestly can build atmosphere but it's only one scene. In other ones, especially in ruins where we hear drunk organist's symphony it's driving insane. Gore also lets down. There are only two scenes, of which one is typical for Lucio (eyes scratched out by a cat)but second one - tearing man apart - really satisfied me. The biggest flop is main character and strictly speaking acting. Her looks brought me a lot of fun. For example, in scene where Paul (leader of archeologists) says to her that they must leave her look is wonderful! It's similar to kid's look when they are forbidden to eat sweets/play computer games/whatever. But all of these are nothing when we compare it to the ending! I have seen many bad movies, but it's first really PA-THE-TIC ending in my life. There is nothing better than view of burning nun in company of soap opera's music! As for me, it's probably top bottom of Lucio Fulci's movies and it's a little pity, because the plot is quite good.

I've seen most of Fulci's output (that's available in English anyway) and even I found this one in particular to be disappointing. It's dull, seems incredibly long (though isn't)and even the odd gore scene which aren't very frequent or impressive do little to relieve the boredom.This seems to be the work of someone running low on ideas and, I'm sorry to say, motivation. It's a similar situation with a few of his later works. I'd recommend House Of Clocks, Touch Of Death or Cat in the Brain for a taste of Fulci's later works.Go for one of his many other classics, ignore this unless you're a completist like me and have to have it all!