Demonia (1990)

If you are after coherent and believable horror then the work of Lucio Fulci isn’t for you. But if you want atmosphere and impressive set-pieces then you should check out his work. If you’re a horror fan then you have probably already heard of his best titles, but his filmography also includes a number of lesser-known gems.

Demonia isn’t one of them.

If I tried to explain the plot then I think we would all just start laughing, underlining just how ridiculous it is. Basically, a young woman starts to have visions of some bad things, there is an archeological dig going on, and some vengeful spirit nuns start killing off people. Meg Register is Liza, the woman having the visions, and Brett Halsey plays Professor Evans, helping to oversee the fated archaeological dig. And Fulci himself plays a policeman investigating the deaths that start to occur.

Demonia is bonkers, and not really in the best ways. And yet, for reasons I cannot quite put my finger on, I found myself enjoying the silliness of it all. Maybe I was just in the right mood for it, I did pick it as a viewing that I figured would keep me away from anything too weighty and/or grim, or maybe those being harshly critical of it, and they are many, have been a bit unfair.

Are Register and Halsey good in their main roles? Not really. I don’t blame them though, Fulci never seems to give much thought to his cast members and they are asked to be as over the top and silly as the script they are working with. Others onscreen suffer from similar fates, although both Christina Englehardt and Lino Salemme are a bit livelier and more fun than the rest.

If you can accept the ridiculousness of the script, co-written by Fulci and Piero Regnoli, and the fact that there are no truly standout moments, Demonia isn’t a terrible way to spend ninety minutes. Never mind that Fulci himself tried to get his name removed from the thing (ironic, considering the lack of story credit given to Antonio Tentori). I wouldn’t recommend anyone watch this ahead of The Beyond, Zombie Flesh Eaters, City Of The Living Dead, and a number of other slices of more worthwhile Fulci, but I wouldn’t completely dismiss it. It’s absolutely daffy, and sometimes absolutely daffy perfectly fits the bill.

5/10

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Burial Ground: The Nights Of Terror (1981)

Burial Ground: The Nights Of Terror is a surprisingly enjoyable and atmospheric horror movie that suffers from a lot of bad (over-)acting and the presence of THIS guy

playing one of the creepiest "children" that I've ever seen onscreen. That's probably due to the fact that he was a midget already in his mid-20s when he portrayed young Michael, a boy who dotes on his mother a little too much. But more on that later.

The plot is simplicity itself as a bunch of people arrive at a villa and start to encounter some zombies. It's all the fault of a professor, he managed to wake them up moments before becoming their first victim. That's all you need to know. The characters onscreen aren't all that well fleshed out or even interesting but they're there and they're in peril and that's all that's needed.

Directed by Andrea Bianchi and written by Piero Regnoli, Burial Ground: The Nights Of Terror has enough gore to appease fans of blood and viscera and plenty of atmosphere despite the many flaws. The zombies aren't the best I've ever seen but they're grimy and maggot-strewn and when heads are damaged the makers of the movie have gone for an interesting way of depicting the trauma, it's done in the style of shattering ceramic as opposed to bloody mush. There's some blood and mush on display but the shattering of each dried corpse head is a nice little touch that helps make the movie memorable.

The other thing making the movie memorable is the very strange and incestuous relationship depicted between young Michael (Peter Bark, pictured above) and his mother, Evelyn (Mariangela Giordano). The film hits all of the usual beats, in many ways, and shuffles from one zombie moment to another and then takes a massive swerve when Michael finds himself being offered comfort by his mother and trying to exploit the situation in a very Oedipal way. It's probably the most disturbing part of the whole film and certainly made Peter Bark an actor held with warped affection in the schlock-loving hearts of many genre fans.

Mind you, at least Bark and Giordano make an impression, which is more than can be said for the rest of the cast. It's not entirely their fault, they are ill-served by weak material that sometimes feels like it's going to veer into softcore porn territory before it gets back on track with yet another zombie appearance. The acting is bad, the script is weak and the film isn't one to recommend to anyone who wants a wholly satisfying movie experience. Thankfully, there are some positive aspects (mainly that atmosphere and the special effects here and there) to make it worth viewing at least once and I'd certainly advise fans of zombie movies to at least make up their own minds about it.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Burial-Ground-The-Nights-Terror/dp/B000063K1F/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350749640&sr=8-1&keywords=burial+grounds+nights+of+terror