Music students Cheryl (Natasha Hovey) and Kathy (Paola Cozzo, CAT IN THE BRAIN) ditch their evening class when they accept free passes to an unidentified movie at the recently re-opened Metropol Theatre in Berlin (interiors were shot in Rome). Among the premiere's other invitees are a bickering older couple (Stelio Candeli [NUDE FOR SATAN] and Nicole Tessier [GIANTS OF ROME], young lovers Hannah (Fiore Argento, PHENOMENA) and Tommy (Guido Baldi), blind Werner (Alex Serra, SALOME), his daughter Liz (Enrica Maria Scrivano, THE BERLIN AFFAIR), and her lover (Claudio Spadaro, DEVIL IN THE FLESH), as well as pimp Tony (Bobby Rhodes, ENDGAME) and his two hookers Rosemary (Geretta Geretta, MURDER ROCK) and Carmen (Fabiola Toledo, CALIGULA: THE UNTOLD STORY). Rosemary cuts herself while playing with the demon mask displayed in the lobby. Cheryl and Kathy meet cute with George (Urbano Barberini, OPERA) and Ken (Karl Zinny, THE TUNNEL) and settle in to watch the feature: a horror movie in which four students investigate the ruins of the tomb of Nostradamus and discover a demon mask. One of the students (Michele Soavi, ANTHROPOPHAGUS 2) cuts himself and becomes a murderous demon. Rosemary's cut begins to bleed so she goes off to the restroom where she also messily transforms into a demon. Carmen goes to find her and is clawed by the monster, but manages to escape her (bursting through the back of the movie screen during a horror set-piece). When she transforms before the eyes of the audience, they try to escape the theater and find themselves bricked inside. As the grisly contagion spreads and barricades prove useless, Cheryl, Kathy, George, and Ken endeavor to escape the theater; but the demons are multiplying and there might not be anything left to escape to in the outside world. More demon fodder includes four subplot coke-headed punks (Lino Salemme, Peter Pitsch [OPERA], Giuseppe Maria Curciano [THE MONSTER OF FLORENCE], and Bettina Ciampolini [DISTANT LIGHTS]) who are running from the cops and sneak into the theater by the same mysteriously unlocked door that allows the first of the demons outside. Nicoletta Elmi (child star of such memorable Italian gialli and horror films as Argento's DEEP RED, Mario Bava's BARON BLOOD and BAY OF BLOOD, Massimo Dallamano's NIGHT CHILD, Aldo Lado's WHO SAW HER DIE?, and Luigi Bazzoni's FOOTPRINTS) is all grown-up here as the striking usherette Ingrid.

Lamberto Bava's DEMONS began life as a one story in a proposed film anthology with Dario Argento (SUSPIRIA) as producer/presenter. This feature-length version merely crowds the thin story with lots of characters (so much so that the central quartet only seem to be identified as the protagonists because they've been given names that are uttered more than once so we'll remember). The senseless plot never explains how or why the soon to be infected characters end up trapped in the theater (Bava's sequel and Michele Soavi's THE CHURCH [originally DEMONS III] take care to provide an explanation); that said, it is immensely entertaining with buckets of gore, great sub-Rick Baker/Stan Winston/Rob Bottin eighties animatronic demon transformations (courtesy of Argento mainstay Sergio Stivaletti and crew), and one of the best eighties compilation soundtracks boasting songs by Motley Crew, Billy Idol, Saxon, The Adventures, and Go West among others. Goblin's Claudio Simonetti goes solo for the instrumental passages (his finest eighties soundtrack work). A music video for Simonetti's theme featured a cameo by Argento and was directed by Michele Soavi.

Barberini would later appear in Bava's made-for-TV supernatural twist on "The Postman Always Rings Twice" titled UNTIL DEATH, while Zinny would later appear in Bava's GRAVEYARD DISTURBANCE and DELIRIUM. Toledo and Soavi had previously co-starred in Bava's BLADE IN THE DARK (Soavi does triple duty here as one of the film-within-a-film characters, the demonic movie pass distributor, and assistant director). Fiore Argento's better-known sister Asia would appear in Bava's DEMONS 2. Rhodes and Salemme would show up again (with more "respectable" jobs) in DEMONS 2. Geoffredo Unger, once the stuntman for the masked killer of Mario Bava's BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, pops up late in the film armed for demon combat. Pitsch would appear in Bava's YOU'LL DIE AT MIDNIGHT and THE MAN WHO DIDN'T WANT TO DIE. Lamberto Bava himself makes a cameo.

1080P Single-layered Blu-ray

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

Aspect Ratio: - 1.66:1

1080P Single-layered Blu-ray

Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video

Blu-ray Release Date: May 21st, 2012
Four option reversible sleeve with original poster and video artwork with additional fifth artwork panel featuring all-new Jeff Zornow artwork