Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Demons 2

     This is one of the very few sequels that carries a cult status all on its own. Most sequels are completely abysmal and are only in existence because the original was a success and producers know that if the original made money, so will the sequel, by name alone (Exorcist II, It's Alive II, Texas Chainsaw Massacre II, etc). I personally prefer this movie to its predecessor due to the improvement in special effects, the storyline is a bit quirkier and it has much more memorable characters. 

      Like the first movie, this one also has an impressive soundtrack including artists like The Smiths, The Cult, Art of Noise, Peter Murphy, and Dead Can Dance. Instead of a movie theater, this sequel takes place in a huge apartment building. Some spoiled bitchy brat named Sally is having a birthday party but spends most of the time locked in her bedroom griping about how she hates her dress, hates her hair, hates her party, etc. 

      Meanwhile, a documentary on demons is on television. While ignoring her guests, Sally watches this documentary and a demon actually comes through the TV (a la Videodrome) and possesses Sally. Finally emerging from her room, she turns all demonic and attacks her guests who one by one, become infected by the scratches from her newly formed claws, and turn into demons themselves. A big zit of some kind erupts from Sally's forehead, leaking an acidic slime that eats through layer after layer of the building, infecting everything from kids to dogs. 

      The demon kid is especially funny (or scary, depending on your level of dementia), especially when a gremlin-like creature bursts from his stomach like the "chest-burster" from the movie "Alien" and attacks a pregnant woman (who is, by the way, starting to have contractions, so she's in like the worst mood imaginable to deal with some demon/gremlin bullshit. Needless to say, she won that fight). 

      As countless demons run amuck in this massive skyscraper, this guy and his very pregnant wife are trying desperately to survive this gruesome encounter and find a way out of this nightmare. They shimmy down the building to a lower roof and find themselves in a TV studio. So with lights and monitors watching, she pops out a kid on national television (bet that got some great ratings). A blind, half-dead, but still possessed Sally manages to stumble her way into the TV studio as well. Collapsing in front of a TV camera, Sally can now spread evil through the TV like the demon that possessed her in the first place had done. The husband smashes all the TV monitors, thus saving the day. Husband, wife (who casually walks out like she delivers a child every day or something), and newborn infant walk out the front door and into the morning sun. 

      And there you have it, a movie that doesn't know whether it's trying to be comedy or horror. But it doesn't really matter, it's still a great movie! Keep an eye out for writer/director Dario Argento's daughter Asia. She's the pretty young girl that asks her dad to let her continue to watch the demon documentary. If you wanna know what she looks like as an adult, you can find her in George Romero's fourth zombie flick "Land of the Dead".

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