Is Demonia Treasure or Trash?

Blu-ray Distributed By Severin / August 25, 2020

In what fans consider his last great film, Godfather of Gore Lucio Fulci returns to the startling imagery and bloody excesses of his ‘70s/‘80s classics for an unholy saga of demonic nuns and supernatural carnage: When a Canadian archeological team begins excavating the ruins of a medieval Sicilian monastery, they will unleash the vengeance of a crucified coven of satanic sisters with full-on Fulci fury. Brett Halsey (THE DEVIL’S HONEY), Lino Salemme (DEMONS), Christina Engelhardt (SKINNER), Al Cliver (THE BEYOND, ZOMBIE) and Fulci himself star in this “solid horror from a true master” (Blu-ray Authority) co-written by Piero Regnoli (BURIAL GROUND, MALABIMBA), now scanned in 4k from the original negative recently discovered in the attic of a Collevecchio convent.

Jamie’s Take  (2 / 5)

Take a look at that description above. “In what fans consider his last great film…” No. Stop. I guarantee no fan of Fulci said this was his last great film. While I enjoyed Lucio Fulci’s A Cat in the Brain, his later efforts are not very good. I still feel I was overly generous in my review of Aenigma. Sure, his budgets shrunk and poor Fulci was stuck with shyster or moronic producers which caused his films to suffer. The heyday of Zombie and House by the Cemetery are long gone.

While his budget was low, Demonia also suffers from a script that really is overly convoluted and at times makes no sense. That is saying a lot for an Italian horror film. I admit I was losing interest by the mid-way point and my mind started to wonder to my work schedule for the next day but I would immediately snap out of my fog realizing I had no idea what the hell was going on, I would skip back and play the movie once more only to realize that it wasn’t me not paying close attention, the film really does jump about and makes no sense.

Demonia starts with a promising opening, several nuns are crucified in a church in grisly fashion as we see nails embedded into their flesh with (delayed) blood spurting about. Enjoy this moment, gore fans as that is the last thing worth a damn for some time until the final third act where suddenly it gets gruesome again.

Years later, a group of Canadian archeologists travel to Sicily for research and stumble upon the enclosed crypt that houses the remains of these nuns. Shortly, strange and odd things begin to happen to the group with locals warning them not to set foot near the church. Some of the archeologists, while young, pay no heed to the warnings and as you guessed it, they get their just dues.

Strangely, the nuns come back as ghosts or can make other beings possessed and turn murderous…but why do some come back as ghosts (one is even nude which of course made me laugh) and why do cats and other beings become possessed? While outrageous and often humorous, one can’t wonder what the fuck they are watching. The movie focuses on two characters: Liza (Meg Register who is actually not bad) and the Professor and one in charge of the group (Fulci favorite Brett Halsey). I couldn’t tell who the protagonist was or whose point of view the film was focusing on. While the actors do their best with what is given, the movie is a mess. Confusion leads to boredom. Boredom is a movie’s worst enemy.

Thankfully the third act picks up where everyone starts getting slaughtered and wasted. However, the special effects are hilariously bad. My utter shock at how shitty these effects looked soon dissolved as I started to enjoy the campiness and lunacy of what was being thrown at the viewer. There is a scene of a woman who is killed by cats and these cats are thrown at her face, scrambling to get the hell outta there as well as obviously fake stuffed animals posing as kittens. This scene alone is what saved Demonia for me. I watched it three times. If the scene is on youtube, check it out.

But that’s not all, there is a guy whose tongue is pulled out of his mouth and nailed to a table where the tongue is obviously way to big to be in this motherfucker’s mouth. One guy is split in half and you can see the fake torso as it looks almost pale white compared to his pinkish skin with a dummy head thrown in for good measure. These are the type of effects that will either piss viewers off or make you laugh. I am in the later category, especially during a scene where a baby is burned alive but it is an obvious plastic doll with a babies cries dubbed on the soundtrack.  When Liza, now possessed, starts spitting up thick yellow goo for no reason, I threw my hands up and even caught myself saying out loud, “Sure, why not?”

Severin’s blu ray looks good and while the picture looks soft I believe it is due to that fog filter that was used so often in the 80’s. The picture looks best during the crypt scenes when Demonia‘s gothic atmosphere peaks. The special features have a few interviews with the crew but I would have liked to have seen some of the actors who worked on the film interviewed. Stephen Thrower must have had a break from doing a Jess Franco commentary as he once again provides an informative commentary on the film, discussing the history of the film and it’s influences as well as where it falls in Fulci’s vast catalog.

I am struggling to give this 2 cans but holy shit, that cat scene is great. But overall this is a major letdown. Demonia feels like a student film made by someone who is copying Fulci.

Jamie says: One’s Trash is Another’s Treasure.

Jamie's Take:	(2.0 / 5)
Blu-ray Extras:	(3.0 / 5)
Average:	(2.5 / 5)

Special Features:

• Holy Demons: Interview with uncredited Co-Writer/Assistant Director Antonio Tentori
• Fulci Lives: Interview with Lucio Fulci on set of DEMONIA
• Of Skulls and Bones: Interview with camera operator Sandro Grossi
• Audio Commentary with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci
• Original Trailer