An attractive young lady (who never gets naked) is walking through a Berlin subway station when a creepy dude in a goofy mask gives her two tickets to a movie screening. She takes her friend and they, along with about 40 other people, are treated to a low-budget horror flick about four nerds rummaging around Nostradamus' tomb. For some reason, the events happening onscreen mirror what happens in real life in the theater. And before you can say "Mephistopheles testicles" six hundred three score and six times, all kinds of demon possession shenanigans start popping off. Clawing, biting, teeth falling out, gallons and gallons of pus and blood, glowing eyes, torso ripping, scalp removing, etc. The action moves along at a steady pace (a lot of it accompanied by 80's rock by Motley Crue, Billy Idol, Accept and Saxon), but unfortunately the whole thing left me feeling "blah". There was just something about the way the movie was made that left me flat. The character development was weak, the sets were lame, the story was silly, the demon reveal scenes were telegraphed as fook and the way that one guy turned into Rambo was bizarre. One minute he's cringing like H.R. Pickens at the horror movie and then 45-minutes later he's riding around on a dirt bike (inside the theater!) swinging a samurai sword around like he's friggin' fuckin' Michael Dudikoff in AMERICAN NINJA!
DEMONS is definitely worth a watch for horror fans since it is mildly influential and mildly entertaining, but it wasn't my cup of tea in 1985 and it still isn't now. That said, I own, at least, 5 different copies of it on various formats simply because I like the covers. I did enjoy the music also.
Part 2 - Demons 2 (1986)
