Review by Dave Kaye
DEMONS 2
** ½ Out of 5
Tagline- The Nightmare Returns
Release Date- October 9th, 1986
Running Time- 91-Minutes
Rating- NR
Screenplay- Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, Franco Ferrini, Dardano Sacchetti
Director- Lamberto Bava
Starring- David Knight, Nancy Brilli, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Bobby Rhodes
Released in 1986 Demons 2 like the original has built up a large cult following and while I found the first Demons to be flawed it was also a lot of fun as well and in general I’ve never really been a big fan of Lamberto Bava with the exception of the first Demons movie and A Blade in the Dark. Demons 2, was for me the typical Bava movie where I didn’t really dislike it, but I can’t say I really enjoyed it either. Upon my first viewing of Demons 2 I actually liked it more than the original, but going back and revisiting the movie I’m not quite sure why I ever felt that way as quite honestly I was mostly bored while watching it. In general Demons 2 is a sequel by name only as it doesn’t really have much of a connection to the first film and while the events of the original are brought up there really isn’t a connection between the two films and plot wise Demons 2 is the same exact movie only this time set in an apartment building rather than movie theater.
The screenplay was written by Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, Franco Ferrini and Dardano Sacchetti and I’m not really sure why it took four people to write this. The characters are mostly boring and lack any depth at all and a good majority of them are inter-changeable and while the original film didn’t have the best developed characters some at least had their own identities and some of the characters in Demons 2 are sort of copies of those in the original. The writing is quite weak and boring with a rehash plot and boring and lifeless characters that you really don’t care in general if they live or die and I suppose some could say the same about the characters in the original, but I actually liked some of them whereas here the faster they die the better since the movie would be over. A lot of the characters are also quite dumb as they try to break the glass in the building using weights, but when that doesn’t work one decides to try and use a flower pot. If the weights didn’t work I think it would be a safe bet to say that a fucking flower pot won’t work either and while it is sort of funny it’s also a bit annoying as well.
Director Lamberto Bava delivers a mostly sluggish movie with boring pacing and the death scenes lack the gore of the original. It takes a good 25-minutes before anything really exciting happens and when the action does kick in the movie does get better, but its pacing is still sluggish and the action sequences lack any excitement as we’ve seen this done and done far better. Lamberto Bava does manage a few entertaining scenes, but for the most part I just found them lacking for the most part and for a good portion of the running time I was mostly bored.
While I can understand the cult following Demons 2 has gotten over the years and like I said originally I actually really liked the movie, but it just doesn’t hold up for me and I was mostly bored throughout most of the movie. The only thing of note is Demons 2 marks the acting debut of a very young Asia Argento.
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