This movie stuck with me from my first viewing as a 14 year old, purely through it's originality of style and setting. Even as a 14 year old I thought it was good stuff, and it stuck in my memory. Watching it again at 45 years old I was pleasantly surprised at how much enjoyment I got. It hits the tone perfectly in many departments and things that should work against it only make it more fun. For example, I have never thought it a good idea to use heavy metal in a horror film as most end credits of 90/00's horror movies do - but the use of it here works. The awful script, ropey acting, heavy metal music just make it all the more campy and entertaining. When the first demon appears with green foam exploding from her mouth, I couldn't stop laughing, as with most of the gore splatterfest scenes that followed. I'm not sure if this was intentional or whether it's just dated but whatever, it's funny as hell, and in a good way that does not ruin the film. The difference between the gore in this movie and modern horrors is that this is all done with such a sense of humour that it never becomes too sick or gross. It just looks like they had a great time with as much blood and guts as they could. The European feel to the film, the locations, including some seriously contrasting 80's red and blue lighting just adds to the campness and the 80's atmosphere, while still leaving the film to be atmospheric and creepy without going into total comedy. The shots of demons approaching with glowing eyes with bright light behind them, or as they approach from the back of the cinema or at the bottom of staircases is creepy as hell, and the use of the cinema space and it's claustrophobia is well done. There are some things that don't make sense but you can easily bypass it and enjoy the story. If there is a weakness, I'd say the middle third of the story when they are all trapped inside can start to wear slightly thin, but at an hour and a half it doesn't labour too long. A delight for horror fans, who like a funny, eerie, well made splatterfest with a difference

I recently re-watched this and was much better than I remembered. Great 80's nostalgia, great practical effects and gore, drugs, hot chicks, and bloodthirsty demons amok in a movie theater. A woman named Cheryl is given two tickets to a free screening at the Metropol theater. She brings her friend, Kathy. The lights go down and the movie starts playing. They see that it's a violent, disturbing horror movie which features a look-alike of the mask from the lobby. (One of the women in the lobby named Rosemary tried on the mask and it cuts her face) The movie is about four teenagers who discover an old tomb and dig up the grave of a sixteenth-century fortune teller called Nostradamus. When the teenagers dig up Nostradamus's coffin they find no body, just an old book and a mask identical to the strange mask in the foyer. When one of the characters puts the mask on he's scratched by it, just like Rosemary was and her face begins oozing with blood and green pus. She is soon transformed into a bloodthirsty, green-skinned, red-eyed, fanged demon and starts attacking people in the theater. Those people turn into demons too. The untouched people try to escape the locked up theater They make a stand and fight back against them. If you love bloody nostalgic horror movies, you'll love DEMONS!!!

Co-written by Dario Argento, produced by William Lustig (director of Maniac) and directed by Lamberto Bava (son of horror legend Mario). Some might argue that Bava Junior doesn't have the talents of Bava Senior. I saw this for the first time in the late 80's. Ten rupees rental man. It was hilarious, the demons were funny looking, the picture was too dark and the acting was atrocious. Love the scene at the end where the guy is on the motorcycle swinging the sword at all the demons chopping them up and decapitating them. The nihilistic ending sees the remaining survivors escaping the theater, only to discover the city over-run by demons. This movie has everything; violence, blood, action, 80's metal, and all kinds of other things. This is about people who get invited to a theater to see a horror flick, but it turns out to be a movie from hell.

The idea was a natural: a group of 80s moviegoers slither into a free screening of a slasher flick and end up being terrorized by Demons from Hell (or a subdivision thereof). DEMONS boasts everything that made the 80s instantly forgettable: Big Hair and Big Music (this was, after all, the era of MTV), slasher films and music video directors who couldn't direct their way out of a mall. It all amounts to one big mess of a movie with absolutely nothing to recommend it. I saw it first at a drive-in, but, because Time has a tendency to muddle one's memories, I opted to give it another try just the other day. My initial reaction was the same as my latest. (A quick example: the victims, upon realizing that they're being attacked by Demons from Hell, proceed to barricade themselves INSIDE the theater, blocking off all escape routes.) (And, for no apparent reason whatsoever, a helicopter lands on the theater roof, which caves in.) Lambert Bava ain't no Mario. (And how did they get away with pilfering the score for PSYCHO...?)