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Demons 2: Standard Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Synapse Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (8th August 2024). |
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The Film
 A hi-tech high-rise apartment building buzzing with activity on a cool evening. Hannah (Body Count's Nancy Brilli) sends her husband George (model David Knight) out to satisfy her pregnancy cravings, high-class prostitute Mary (The Ogre's Virginia Bryant) is visiting a resident, gym trainer Hank (Circle of Fear' Bobby Rhodes) mercilessly rides his customers, Sally (Opera's Coralina Cataldi Tassoni) is on the road to spoiling her own sweet sixteen birthday party when she learns her ex Jacob (Hands of Steel's Bruno Bilota) is on the way with his new squeeze, her guests are driving the building's security guard (Demonia's Lino Salemme) up the wall, while latchkey tykes Ingrid (producer Dario Argento's daughter Asia in her first role) and Tommy (Until Death's Marco Vivio) settle in to watch a TV documentary in which a group of kids break into the now "forbidden zone" of West Berlin in search of demon artifacts from the outbreak. When one of them cuts herself on a demon claw, a dead demon is resurrected and comes through TV into sulking Sally's bedroom to make her birthday an unforgettable party. Sally's demon blood melts through the floors Alien-style, infecting other residents and cutting off power to the security system sealing everyone in. As the infection spreads, George and Mary tries to escape a stalled elevator in order to get back to Hannah while other survivors barricade the parking garage as demons converge. Although it can be occasionally brutal, and kills off reasonably sympathetic characters left and right (including two children), Lamberto Bava's Demons 2 feels lightweight and even more comic bookish. Sergio Stivaletti's demon effects are more accomplished but also more cartoonish – particularly Sally's bladder-inflating transformation and another baby demon birthing that is more cute than creepy – and the even more stilted dubbing is even more unintentionally comical than usual. Gianlorenzo Battaglia's cinematography is slicker – as is the Nicoletta Trussardi wardrobe – emphasizing cool blues until the red gel-drenched television studio finale. Simon Boswell's synth score includes a driving main title theme "Demonica" as well as variations on the suspense cues he would rework for Michele Soavi's Stagefright and Bava's Delirium while the compilation soundtrack favors New Wave bands with tracks like The Smith's "Panic" and Gene Loves Jezebel's "Heartache" accompanying Sally's party. Fields of the Nephalim's "Power", Love & Rocket's "Kundalini Express", and The Art of Noise's "Backbeat" – along with Boswell's "Demons Groove" cue – also suggest mischief rather than menace. Dead Can Dance's "De Profundis", on the other hand, is effectively employed as George and Mary witness the procession of demons emerging from Sally's apartment and The Cult's "Rain" accompanies Sally's full transformation and the end credits crawl. Like Demons, the supporting cast is also shot-through with Italian horror history regulars. The demon version of Tommy was doubled by dwarf Davide Marotta who had also donned Stivaletti make-up as the monster child of Argento's Phenomena, The Beyond's tarantula victim Michele Mirabella is Mary's client, Baron Blood's Antonio Cantafora plays Ingrid's father and would later appear in Argento's The Card Player, and the demon that comes through the television is played by Stefano Molinari who also played the castrated, possessed zombie who menaced Tassoni in Evil Clutch as well as being one of the victims of Demons 5: The Devil's Veil, Bava's TV take on "The Vij" which also formed the basis of his father Mario's Black Sunday. Zombi 3's Marina Loi is one of Hank's students while Paganini Horror's Pascal Persiano and Demons' Eliana Hoppe appear in the demons documentary, and Bava himself plays young Tommy's father while his own son Fabrizio served as the film's second assistant director). The goofy film is still highly entertaining, especially when taken in as a double bill with the first. Argento and Bava were developing a third film in the series with the creatures unleashed on an airplane, but that fell through and ideas were recycled into what would become Soavi's more Gothic The Church (which is known as "Demons 3" in Japan while Umberto Lenzi's unrelated Black Demons was released in Italy as "Demoni 3"). 
Video
Like the first film, Arrow debuted the film in high definition in 2012 in the U.K. on Blu-ray. While the grading was not as muted as their Blu-ray of the first film, the BD25 compression did make it look significantly softer in concert with the noisy, high-speed 400T Kodak stock used for the film (it was discontinued soon after production), but Synapse's 2013 steelbook Blu-ray and barebones 2014 standard edition featured a better encoding and a more vivid color grade which Arrow's 4K UltraHD limited edition and 4K UltraHD/Blu-ray combo standard edition along with Synapse's 2021 limited edition 4K UltraHD and Blu-ray and the current editions under review share along with slightly more open framing over the earlier HD master. The new 4K master in sports the same vivid neon hues (particularly blues) while the higher resolution of the scan and 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen encode manage to better delineate detail in the grainer stock while the stop motion bits hold up well since they were shot in-camera and did not include any of the more ambitious compositing Stivaletti performed in The Spider Labyrinth around the same time. Registration faults inherent in the original photography during one sequence were unfixable and remain here (since the location not as clearly defined as the Berlin of the first film, it is truly surprising the production did not rush out and reshoot the scene anywhere rather than keep the scene as is). 
Audio
Like Arrow's 2012 Blu-ray of the first film, their Blu-ray featured mono English and Italian mixes robbing fans of the film's Dolby Stereo mix which was restored to Synapse's 2013 release. Arrow's 4K redo featured DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Italian and English mixes along with the Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo mix but oddly still featured the mono mixdown of the English track in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Fortunately, Synapse rectified this, even noting that the stereo tracks are the real mix rather than a downmix of the 5.1 track, and the effort is appreciated for those of us who bothered to upgrade from Imperial's mono cassette to the Japanese Dolby Surround release back in the day. Optional English subtitles are provided for the Italian tracks while English SDH subtitles are provided for the English tracks. 
Extras
Synapse dispenses with the audio commentary by Bava, Stivaletti, and Roy Bava for the 1998 laserdisc – which had been carried over to the Anchor Bay DVDs and the Arrow Blu-rays and 4K UltraHD – in favor of a newer audio commentary by film historian Travis Crawford also included on the Arrow 4K UltraHD in which he notes the ways in which similar thematic concerns to Demons have been reconfigured for the apartment building setting and the medium of television – including an almost TV look and feel – noting borrowings as far flung as Shivers and Videodrome to more closer references to Four Flies on Grey Velvet, Black Sabbath, and Kill, Baby... Kill!. He also notes the decision to pursue a lower rating to attract a younger audience and the resulting box office returns, as well as the shift from metal to New Wave song choices. Also ported from the Arrow 2021 edition is "Together and Apart" (26:36), a visual essay by author/critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas who notes the blurring of private and communal spaces in both films even before the demons emerge – from the groupings of viewers in the theater engaging in their own conversations and intrigues to the contrast between the gym class and Sally's party and the more isolated existences of other residents all watching the same TV documentary – the two films within films, and the rupturing of the theater and TV screens, as well as the act of viewing in both films as a ritual experience.  Ported over from the Arrow edition is "Creating Creature Carnage" (20:29) in which special makeup effects artist Stivaletti discusses the designs of the demons and delineates his work from that of Rosario Prestopino (Maya) on both films, as well as noting that featured demon Rosemary was actually an easier design than the transformation of Carmen in the first film, and his preference for the transformations in the second film. From the original Synapse release comes "The Demons Generation: Roy Bava Discusses a Legacy in Lacerations" (34:49) in which director's son Fabrizio recalls being in high school while working as trainee assistant director on Demons, the speed with which his father likes to work, and his memories of his grandfather Mario bringing him onto film sets including Inferno where he and his sister were tasked with cutting out the holes for lights in the maquette of the New York skyline for the reverse angle exteriors shot in Rome. In "Screaming for a Sequel: The Delirious Legacy of Demons 2" (15:58), director Bava recalls putting together the sequel quickly after the first film, but more interesting are his remarks about The Church which he says he developed but ultimately had to turn down because he had TV contracts while Argento was trying to raise funds. Most intriguing is his claim that his script closely resembles the final film rather than Soavi reworking the material, and his annoyance that he is not listed in the credits. In "A Soundtrack for Splatter" (27:08), composer Boswell recalls meeting Argento and working on Phenomena and then not only being asked to score Demons 2 but also to put together the songs which he did through a deal with Beggars Banquet music, also recalling his need to personally contact Morrissey and make the case for use of his song "Panic" in that the film is not just a splatter film but has deeper things to say about the media. The disc also includes the film's Italian theatrical trailer (2:56) and a near-identical international English trailer (2:55). 
Packaging
The standard edition lacks the limited edition's slipcover but it does carry over the insert which reproduces a bloodstained copy of Sally's birthday party invitation on one side and information about the transfer on the reverse.
Overall
Dario Argento beams terror into your living room through the idiot box with Lamberto Bava's Demons 2.
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