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SOURCE-Anchor Bay DVD
First off thank you to CodyLL for sending me this DVD. Pretty sure when this release came out a long ass time ago I bought it. But it appears to be one of my DVDs that came up missing when I moved in 2007.
Spring of 1986 in Italy work began on this sequel to the surprise hit film Demons. Demons had done ok at the US box office and became a cult hit on home video and cable. Both films are produced by Dario Argento and directed by Lamberto Bava. Lamberto is the son of famous Italian director Mario Bava, and in the 80s Lamberto got a reputation for making wildly gory films usually with pretty good soundtracks if you are into 80 hard rock and metal.
Speaking of the soundtrack just look at the line up for Demons 2. The Smiths,the Cult,Art of Noise,Dead can Dance and Love&Rockets. That is a good line up of goth rock/alternative rock and just oddball stuff of the era.
Like the first film we get a group of people stuck in a building while they slowly one by one get turned into Demons,usually in bloody gory ways. I love how the pimp from the first film,he was a favorite of mine and my friends back in the day watching that old rental vhs of the first film,is back in this film playing pretty much the same character. Also you get a young,has to be 10 or so,Asia Argento in what I think is her first acting role.This time instead of being stuck in a theater while a demonic film plays,the cast is stuck in a huge apartment building while this demonic film plays on TV. Causing the demons to come out of the TV screens,I wonder if Ringu was inspired by this.
Yea I know there is blu ray releases of this. But honestly while I do enjoy the first Demons film enough that I will one day get one of the Blus of it,part 2....it isn't bad. But nothing about it screams "HEY GO DROP 30 BUCKS TO HAVE THIS ON BLU RAY!" I will be happy with this DVD.
The DVD looks nice and the dubbed dialogue ain't bad. Pretty sure this is the same dub I saw a long time ago on VHS. Anchor Bay has a commentary on the film. It is OK. One draw back is Lamberto Bava either isn't fluent in English or isn't comfortable talking in English for long periods. So there is parts where Bava says something in Italian and somene else translates for him. Besides that tiny thing the commentary is worth checking out. It has so few blank spaces and gives a decent amount of info.
So if you want to see a above average mid 80s Italian gore flick track down a copy of Demons 2. I bet it is streamiing on some service.
Demons 2 gets a C+
