The film follows a university student named Cheryl, who receives a free ticket to a film screening at a newly renovated movie theater. She goes with her friend, Kathy, and it turns out that tickets were distributed to folks throughout the city. The screening is of a horror film dealing with some sort of mask that turns people into demons. The same mask was on display in the theater lobby, and one women is scratched by it. She becomes a demon and then attacks people, who then also become demons. It's essentially a zombie premise, but without the undead factor. However, if I understood correctly, the theater itself is the source of evil, not the mask, but that is never explained past a character suggesting the idea.
On paper, Demons plays out much like Night of the Living Day (1968). A simple narrative structure, where a group of people are trapped and need to work together to survive. The issue is that everything that happens between demon attacks is completely uninteresting and lacks any sort drama or intrigue. The cause for most of these problems rest in all of the characters within the film. Not only did I not care about them, I actively disliked them. Instead of feeling suspense for their survival, I was praying for their deaths. It's as if someone gathered together all the most popular students at Miami of Ohio and put them in a movie. The one exception is a pretty racist portrayal of a black pimp who takes on the role of group leader early in the film. This guy is so over the top and ridiculous that one just has to love him.
The monster effects are quite good, and satisfyingly graphic. There are multiple shots that encourage vocal reactions from a viewer, and the scene where a character is shown transforming into a demon is particularly good. The music is another strong point, featuring electronic tunes, in addition to rock and heavy metal songs. The music is lively and fun, and certainly gives some of the sequences an added charm.
Ultimately, however, I couldn't help but feel bored while watching Demons. The effects are nice, but Bava's directing is pretty poor, with sloppy blocking, bad acting, with most scenes lacking any sort of gravity. The one exception is a scene where one of the characters rides around the theater on a motorcycle wielding a katana. Demons is worth watching just for that scene.
So here it is:
Inferno (1980) Director: Dario Argento
After not being satisfied with Demons, I decided to watch Argento's film Inferno, a spiritual sequel to Suspiria. The film is the second entry in Argetno's Three Mothers trilogy, with The Mother of Tears (2007) being the third and final installment. While perhaps not as bombastic and striking as Suspiria, Inferno is still a great horror film that has plenty of visual flair and mystery throughout.
The film centers on American college student, Mark Elliot, investigating the mysterious disappearance of his sister in New York City. What he finds is that there is a powerful witch pulling the strings behind everything. Not terribly complicated or nuanced, but the mythology behind the three witches that the audience is given at the beginning of the film ,and built on throughout, is quite interestingm and becomes the most engaging aspect of the story.
In Suspiria the main color motif was red, while Inferno's is blue. The blue creates a much colder feeling in the look of the film, and also a more enigmatic and surreal quality. While Suspiria certainly appeared dreamlike, Inferno takes this even further. The sets that the film were shot on look like sets and one does not actually feel like the film is set in New York. This is a strength, not a weakness, because one truly feels as if they have been transported to some strange world that does not abide by the normal laws of nature. The light sources are often inexplicable, giving different shades of blue to rooms. The entire apartment building is part of the witch, Mater Tenebrarum, and the artificial and overtly constructed nature of the mise-en-scene works to evoke this feeling of a supernatural presence.
The score was not composed by Goblin, which is certainly a disappointment, and Keith Emerson's score creates a markedly different tone. This was intentional on Argento's part, and it is clear that he is trying to work against some of his fans' expectations, especially by not killing a character until 35 minutes into the film. Still, the score simply is not as affecting as the ones by Goblin, although there is one track that is balls to the wall awesome.
One other curious aspect of the music in the film, is the recurring usage of Verdi's Nabucco. Nabucco is an Italian opera that follows the plight of the Jews as they are assaulted, conquered, and subsequently exiled from their homeland by the Babylonian King Nabucco. Specifically, the part used in the film is the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves. Tonally, this seemed at first like a somewhat odd piece to use in the film. Something like Verdi's Dies irae Tuba mirum seems more stylistically consistent. The music may seem unusual if one is thinking solely within the framework of Inferno, but if it is taken in conjunction with Suspiria, then something more is revealed.
Suspiria is set in Munich, Germany, and most of the deaths take place within an interior space. All but for one death, the blind piano player. In addition to being the only exterior death, the scene also has the blandest color pallet, consisting mostly of grays. Also, unlike the other murders, this one is not committed by the mysterious knife wielding hand. Instead, the man's dog turns on him. The interior environments are lush with color and appear surreal, and the murders are committed directly by a hand of the which, while the exterior one requires an assistant, in this case the dog. These stylized interiors can be seen as a sort of surreal world, one existing outside of a parallel real world.
The real world consists of the exterior environments, and are gray. The witches do not have direct power/can't exist within the real world, so the dog must be used to commit the murder. And when this man is attacked by his dog and he screams for help, what happens? Nothing. No one comes to his aid. Throughout Argento's films, no one comes to the aid of the victim until it is far too late. No one seems to be able to hear the screams. That, or people are choosing to ignore them.
The significance of the real world environment in Suspiria of Munich, Germany is drawn from the Holocaust. The atrocities of the concentration camps and ghettos were known in other parts of the world, but were ignored until the last moments of World War II. The use of Nobucco in Inferno then continues this theme of the Holocaust by inciting a story about the suffering of the Jewish people. The genocide of the Nazi's is then mirrored in Argento's films with the elaborate senseless killing of innocent people throughout. Since Italy was a fascist ally of the Germans during World War II, this film can be seen as an expression of guilt for not doing something to end the slaughter.
Why witches? No idea.
The greatest issue with Inferno is that the hero, Mark Elliot, is severely lacking in agency withing the narrative. Most events happen around him without him having any direct effect on their consequences. That doesn't detract from the films strengths, however, and this is a horror film that should be seen.
I don't want to watch anything scary in a theater, my "happy place". Witches do not interest me. Interesting observation about the music.
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