Rating: 
Summary: Fulci flounders
Review: After watching "Demonia" twice (and believe me, it's a struggle), you get the impression that Lucio Fulci, who made some of the most enjoyably OTT spaghetti horrors ever, had just given up. It's a creativity-deprived, slow-moving, and very boring attempt at rejuvenating the elements that made his previous films such fun. Any sense of style is gone, instead replaced with exhaustingly tedious storytelling.The plot (*yawn*) concerns an archaeological dig in Sicily, led by the eternally sad-faced Brett Halsey ("Return of the Fly"). His student, Liza (Meg Register), becomes fascinated with a nearby monestary where, she learns, three nuns were crucified centuries before. Of course, the usual supernatural forces of evil pop up to kill assorted characters, but even the gore scenes can't break the monotony of this draining film. The recently-released Shriek Show version of "Demonia" is presented in a faux-widescreen format; however, the picture quality (see Frankenberry's review) is poor and washed-out, and the audio is uneven (voices merge into one another). Among other things, the soundtrack is extremely annoying and out-of-place, and the 'special effects' are poorly executed (note the prosthetic face that gets its eyeballs ripped out, and the man who gets pulled in half); the dubbing is also much worse than usual. I'm a huge fan of Lucio Fulci and thought he left a legacy of good, old-fashioned gore films ("Zombie," "Gates of Hell," "House by the Cemetery," etc.), but "Demonia" is one to avoid. It gives new meaning to the phrase "horrible horror."
Rating:
Summary: demonia
Review: another fulci film that i was pretty disappointed in. only serious fulci fans would be reommended to check this film out.
not a really fast paced film either. goes along pretty slow, does have a couple of good scenes in it but nothing really to brag about. i'll stick to fulci's zombie movies i think.
Rating:
Summary: demonia
Review: another fulci film that i was pretty disappointed in. only serious fulci fans would be reommended to check this film out.
not a really fast paced film either. goes along pretty slow, does have a couple of good scenes in it but nothing really to brag about. i'll stick to fulci's zombie movies i think.
Rating: 
Summary: Fucio fulci has done it again
Review: Demonia is a good movie about five nuns nail to the cross by towns people it has lots of blood and gore sences the i love .
even a men ript apart you must see it .theres ten minites of
talking but the rest hour is good. i recomend .house by the cementary . zombie. the black cat, manhattan baby. by henry
May23,2002.
Rating: 
Summary: A Film About Nothing
Review: Demonia sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun, what with an ancient evil, crucified nuns, and horrific murders, but it turns out to be a pretty dud film. The film steals shamelessly from it's predecessors "The Beyond" and "City of The Living Dead", in fact, there is hardly any originality in the whole film. The story centres on a young woman on an archeological dig who unwittingly uncovers the secret of an ancient ruined nunnery, and revives a bunch of long-dead nuns who were put to death for satanic and evil crimes.
The script and acting are pedestrian at best, and while lead actress Meg Register looks gorgeous and does her best, she really isn't given anything intelligent to do or say. What truly lets the film down is that the actual return of the nuns is scarcely even seen on screen, and the various deaths that befall the cast seem to happen by themselves! The murders themselves are of course pretty gruesome, although not in the same league as Fulci's earlier horror epics, and the special effects range from lame (the spike pit) to unconvincing ( an attack by cats), as though Fulci can't be bothered to put the effort into these scenes that he used to. The standout effect, however involves a man split in two by being tied to tree branches, and although it begins unconvincingly, the overall effect is actually pretty disgusting, so be prepared for that one!
So, all in all, a far from essential purchase. At least the film looks good in places, and the ruined nunnery is a beautiful looking real location, but apart from that, I would lose no sleep about not having seen this film.
Rating:
Summary: Solid Latter Day Fulci
Review: Demonia, while better than Aenigma and The Black Cat, is not on par with his efforts from Zombie to The New York Ripper. However,one glance at this lesser effort will reveal Fulci's style. This basicly centers around a cruxifixion of nuns for sacrilge. It gets quite philosophical here, showing Fulci's views on religion. It would make a good double feature with Don't Torture a Duckling, The Gates of Hell, or The Beyond. This has some memorable death scenes just like vintage Fulci; the highlight is a tripwire quartering. Fulci himself even plays a part in this. If you're a fan of Fulci, I don't see how this could disappoint. Check it out, it's pretty cool.
Rating:
Summary: made no sense, yet had a neat topless killer
Review: dunno, twas a bit odd, and funny. not really worth watching, except for like a topless scene or two involving a cross bow.
Rating:
Summary: Very Slow... and What is with the pictures?
Review: I am sorry to say I was disappointed by this more recent effort from Luci Fulci. The movie is not just a little slow in the beginning... it takes well-nigh 40 minutes before a character gets killed, in a movie that runs 90 minutes! The story is full of red herrings that go absolutely nowhere, including the Brett Halsey character's quarrels with his predecessor. The biggest problem I had was that the film is visually flat and uninteresting... it feels and looks like a TV movie shot on video with a few admitteldy far-out gore effects. The most interesting part of the movie, at least for me, was Fulci's extremely unflattering take on Southern Sicily, and I briefly wondered whether he wanted to draw some parallel between the medieval village mentality and silence surrounding the organized crime in contemporary Sicily. Am I reading too deeply into it? Probably. For those who are interested, Fulci himself appears as an "Interpol" investigator and gives an adequate performance.
The DVD I watched was issued by a label called Shriek Show, and while the source film is very clean, the transfer leaves much to be desired. There are annoying pilexization problems throughout, and a few sequences look as if a wire mesh filter was covering the camera lens. (Seriously, was this movie originally shot on video?!) The DVD includes a text interview with Brett Halsey, which, while informative, is presented in a very small font and those who own TVs smaller than 27 inch screens may have a devil of a time trying to read it. It also has a very brief on-location interview with Fulci (in HEAVILY accented English... next time, subtitles please) bracketted by what appears to be a home movie of the Italian crew setting up a scene while chatting noisily. I hope this is not Shriek Show's idea of a "behind-the-scene" featurette... For Fulci completists only.
Rating:
Summary: I freaked
Review: I freaked and had to watch this thing in 2 parts. The performance by the young actress in the lead was excellent,subtle and involving. The animosity of the townspeople for the archeology team was credible. The natural scenery was perfect. The only thing that did not work were the "double-exposure" scenes.
Rating:
Summary: Poor Digital Mastering Spoils the SHRIEK SHOW
Review: I had never seen this film by Fulci until I got this DVD from Media Blasters - Shriek Show. I must say, it's taken me 3 days to get just 55 minutes through the movie --- that's how involving it is. Not to trash the maestro, but this has to be his most uninteresting film, even moreso than "White Fang". I'll sit through anything and usually can be entertained somehow one way or another, but on this one so far - nada. From the reviews I've read here and elsewhere, things pick up in the last half hour and there's supposedly some gore so I'm assuming the movie will at least have a bit of a payoff and I'm sure it won't be a total loss. But still, that first hour is grueling. The WORST part of this DVD, however, is the poor digital mastering --- it is absolutely one of the worst I've ever seen on a DVD with digital artifacting going on constantly. Pictures on the wall move around, character's faces morph, hair bleeds (and I'm not talking gore!) and the image just won't stay still. Very poor mastering! It's a shame because the source material looks great --- but the mastering ruins it. You know it's bad when you're paying more attention to the shoddy mosaic artifacting than the movie itself. Someone compared this to Anchor Bay quality --- there's absolutely no comparison (unless you mean their early stuff like the atrocious transfer on "Zombie"). I sure hope SHRIEK SHOW - MEDIA BLASTERS upgrade their mastering for their upcoming releases because they are acquiring some very cool titles like LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN. And if they don't, they will be known as the "Madacy" for euro-horror titles in my opinion. What a shame!
|
