I watched both "Demons" and "Demons 2" (aka "Dèmoni 2... l'incubo ritorna") when I was a teenager, and remember then both fondly as being fairly scary movies. But having just seen "Demons" (the 1985 movie) the other night, I was sorely disappointed as the movie was not as great as I had remembered it. But still, I sat down to watch "Demons 2" again, just to check if it was as good as I remembered it.Wow, seriously? What was the purpose of this movie. It was most definitely not a continuation of the first movie. This was essentially just a remake of the movie that was made just one year before this second movie. It was the exact same story, just taking place in an apartment complex instead of an old theater. And even many of the actors and actresses were also from the first movie. Seriously? What were they thinking when they set out to make this movie and opted for the exact same story with many of the same acting talents? It just makes no sense to me.Sure, "Demons 2" was as enjoyable as "Demons", as an individual movie. Both of them should be seen as individual movies, albeit of the very same story and events. Don't watch them as being sequels, as I did, because that only leads to disappointment and confusion.If you have seen the first "Demons" movie, then there is very little reason to watch "Demons 2", and vice versa.The effects are on the same level in "Demons 2" as they were in "Demons", and they were practical effects that served their purpose well enough. Of course, take into consideration that this is a movie from 1986, so it is not really matching up to today's standards."Demons 2" wasn't all as good as I remembered it. Sure, it was adequate entertainment and good enough for a mid-Eightees horror movie. Just keep in mind that this is an Italian produced movie, and they had a certain atmosphere to them.

The names Argento and Bava alone are enough to cause the average gore-hound to salivate, and fans of over-the-top splattery were treated to an exercise in excess with the Argento-produced, Bava- directed Demons in 1985. While I still felt the film sucked despite the talent behind the camera (although this is Lamberto Bava, not his legendary father Mario), there was still enough bone-gnawing and blood- spraying to enjoy amidst the terrible 80's fashions and soap opera-level dialogue. For the follow-up, the horror maestros inexplicably took out the bite and accentuated the goofiness, and the result is a clumsy, camp and somewhat annoying mess of atrocious acting and even worse film-making.The film begins with what looks to be a documentary based on the events of the first movie, with a bunch of disposable teens trespassing into an quarantined city deserted following the demon outbreak. It turns out to be a film-within-a-film, with 'reality' taking place in an apartment block as loathsome teenage brat Sally Day (Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni) locks herself in a room during a birthday party tantrum to watch the movie on her television. Thankfully, a demon quickly bursts through the screen to turn her into a poster-girl for tooth decay and drip bile through the various floors, turning many of its residents into blue-skinned monsters. Amongst the many archetypes fighting for survival, douchebag George (David Edwin Knight) must get back to his apartment to rescue his pregnant wife and badass gym instructor Hank (Bobby Rhodes) leads his group of oiled-up bodybuilders into battle.It all sounds like a lot of fun, and it really should be. An apartment building is the perfect setting to induce feelings of claustrophobia, with a vast labyrinth of corridors and narrow vents for our heroes to fight their way out of. Instead, Bava ignores the need for any resemblance of atmosphere or tension in favour of a never-ending stream of badly executed set-pieces, where grisly attacks tend to take place away from view. There's also the matter of the ending making little sense and a scene in which an unexplained demon monster thingy that looks like a discarded prop from Troll bursts out of the chest of an infected young boy, in a special effect so bad you wonder why on Earth the film-makers left it in. Only the antics of Hank (a winning combination of Fred Williamson and Mr. Motivator) and a terrific British new wave soundtrack gloss over the abominable acting and frankly unprofessional direction.

For the most part if you've seen the original Demons from 1985 you know the plot. This movie substitutes a television for a movie screen and an apartment complex for the theater. Personally, these are always my favorite type of horror films. A group of people trapped somewhere, facing insurmountable odds against demons, zombies, psychopaths, etc. and the odds are not looking good for the cast of Demons 2.I'd say simply enough that if you are a fan of horror cinema, you should check this one out. The constant darkness and flickering lights add some nice atmosphere. The special effects and makeup look extraordinary even if the Venus flytrap looking demon is kind of goofy. There are some scenes that look very similar to modern horror efforts such as REC or 28 Weeks Later, so the movie feels a bit ahead of it's time. Asia Argento turns in an emotional performance in her film debut. Although used rather sparsely, her talents are just a notch below the great child actors like a Corey Feldman or a Drew Barrymore. All the other actors involved also manage to turn in decent performances. Although we don't really get to know these characters too well, we hope people such as the two stuck in the elevator or the pregnant woman or toy ray gun brandishing boy make it through the ordeal. Meanwhile, the most annoying character gets killed off first and the entire party, along with the viewers cheer.From giallo horror to zombies to infection/demon films like this one, I've always felt the Italians did a better job at horror cinema than anybody else and a movie like Demons 2 just proves my point. It's a film that was probably rushed and wasn't given much thought outside of the plot lines of the original movie, yet it manages to be amazingly entertaining. Although not always the case with Italian cinema, this movie gets right down to business and keeps up the terror and the action until the very end. More brutal and heartless than gory and since the Italians don't always do happy endings you wonder who will win in the end, the demon hoards or humanity...

A documentary is shown on TV of group of teens who investigate the legendary forbidden zone, in which a Demon infestation once took place.When finding a lifeless corpse of a demon, one of the teens causes the resurrection of it, by spilling some of their blood and the demon makes it's way into the nearby world by TV-broadcast.An unlucky girl, having her birthday-party at that time, gets possessed by the demon while watching the documentary and soon the entire building in which she lives turns into a living nightmare....It's exactly the same as the first one, only this time its set in an apartment block, ad a dog and a child get demonised.It's still slickly made, and of course the dubbing is truly awful, especially when you know half of the cast are talking English, but we watch these films for the sheer audacity of the whole proceedings.We have oiled body builders in a car park, one of the most boring birthday parties going,and some really weird little gremlin chasing after a pregnant woman.The main problem with the film is that it's just not scary, and the make up isn't as good as the first movie, but it's still watchable, just not memorable.But it does feature the most inappropriate music to accompany a birth scene I have ever heard, and that alone is worth watching the film for...