Demons 2

Director - Lamberto Bava (Demons, Devil Fish)
Starring - David Edwin Knight (Dark Friday), Nancy Brilli (Madame), and Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni (Evil Clutch)
Release Date - 1986
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "The nightmare returns..."
Format - Blu-Ray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     The Italians know how to make a good horror flick.  They tend to give us films that have a great amount of suspense, gore, and a story that is usually worth following.  However, they are also known for having weak sequels.  Case in point is their lackluster follow ups to Zombi.  Anyway, when I was in middle school and high school I watched the film Demons for the first time and really enjoyed it.  However, I never had the chance to see the film's first sequel.  I have seen The Church which is considered the third film in the series.  I thought The Church was a decent film so I was curious to see what the actual follow up film to Demons was like.  I reached out to Synapse and they were nice enough to send me the film on blu along with the first one.  

     The film follows a community of people living in a high rise apartment as they all attend a party for one of the young ladies.  However she is a pissy party goer and goes back to her room to cry it out.  After shedding a few tears she turns on the t.v. to watch a movie about a group of explorers going through the ruins of a building presumably the ruins of the theater from the first film.  Inside they find the skeleton of a demon and it re-animates.  It then attacks the explorers before finding the t.v. screen and enters the real world and attacks the young girl.  She then turns into a demon and attacks all the people that attended her party before leaving the room and attacking everyone in the apartment building.  

     What most people hate about sequels is that they never follow the original story set forth in the first film.  I love sequels.  They take me on a journey with characters I know and love but we do sometimes get films that forget about the first film and try to retell the story.  Demons 2 does that to some extent but it does that in a way that we can truly enjoy.  That acting in this film is a step down from the first.  One of the things that made the first film so enjoyable is the few characters that was so over the top that they stuck out like the pimp.  Sadly, this film made the characters more traditional and straight forward.  That makes this film feel like a more traditional horror film but that is one of the few things that set the original film out from the others.  The story for this one is more of the first film but in a whole new setting.  The first film took place in a theater where those watching a film about demons when they come out of the film to attack and kill.  This is more of that but this time they come out of a t.v. set and infect everyone in a high rise apartment building.  This works very well as a sequel and also renders it.  I love when a sequel takes a story I already know and expands upon it.  However, this film just took the same story and put it in a different place.  Finally, this film does give us some nice on screen kills but nothing new.  We get the same, recycled kills from the first film but how this film sets itself apart from the first is even more impressive special effects.  The first film has some of the best practical effects I have ever seen in an 80s film but this film takes what that one had to offer and builds upon it.  Overall, Demons 2 is a great sequel that deserves to be seen especially by fans of 80s horror.  Check it out.