Demons 1 (1985)

🎬 Demons (1985) Film Description
​Dario Argento presents Demons (original title: Dèmoni), a visceral and relentlessly paced 1985 Italian horror film directed by Lamberto Bava and co-written by Bava, Dardano Sacchetti, and Dario Argento himself. Known for its explosive combination of gruesome practical effects, thumping 80s rock soundtrack, and a highly stylized, almost comic-book approach to terror, Demons stands as a landmark of Italian splatter cinema and a quintessential example of the era's grand, theatrical horror.
​The Premise: A Night at the Metropol
​The film begins with a seemingly ordinary day in West Berlin. A quiet young woman named Cheryl is approached by a mysterious man with a metallic face in a subway station. He gives her a free ticket to a preview screening at the opulent, art-deco Metropol Cinema. Intrigued, Cheryl and her friend Kathy attend the show, finding themselves in an audience composed of an eccentric mix of people, including two young men looking for a thrill, a cynical pimp, a young couple, and a blind man with his psychic daughter.
​The film being screened, a fictional horror movie, mirrors the real-life situation in an eerie meta-narrative twist: it shows a group of teens desecrating a grave and finding an ancient, menacing-looking mask. Before the fictional film even gets far, one of the audience members, a woman named Rosemary, playfully tries on a replica of the mask displayed in the lobby. She accidentally cuts herself, and the minor wound quickly begins to fester and mutate.
​The Unleashing: From Infection to Outbreak
​The cut on Rosemary's face rapidly transforms her into a grotesque, clawed, and fanged creature—a demon. This monstrous transformation, characterized by stomach-turning practical effects, marks the beginning of the nightmare. The demon immediately attacks her boyfriend and others nearby. The cinema, already a confined space, is quickly sealed off by some inexplicable, supernatural force. The exits are blocked, and the windows are now impenetrable.
​The infection spreads not just through bites and scratches, but through the victims' blood and fluids, creating a chain reaction. As the demons multiply, the Metropol Cinema transforms into a bloody, claustrophobic deathtrap. The remaining survivors—including Cheryl, Kathy, and the two young men, George and Ken—must fight for their lives against the rapidly growing horde of savage creatures.
​Style and Legacy
​Demons is celebrated for its frantic, over-the-top action and its distinctive visual style. The relentless pace rarely allows the audience or the characters to catch a breath. The film’s atmosphere is heightened by the heavy-metal and new-wave soundtrack, featuring artists like Claudio Simonetti, Motörhead, and Saxon, perfectly underscoring the chaotic violence.
​The film embraces a truly European sensibility, blending the visceral gore of the Italian giallo tradition with the creature feature tropes of American horror, but amplifying the intensity to an almost cartoonish degree. It culminates in a spectacular sequence where a helicopter crashes through the cinema's roof, and George uses a katana to dispatch the creatures while riding a motorcycle through the collapsing theater.
​More than just a simple monster movie, Demons is often interpreted as a meta-commentary on the all-consuming, infectious nature of cinema itself and the audience's willingness to be consumed by the horrific spectacle. Its success led to a direct sequel, Demons 2 (1986), and cemented its place as a cult classic whose influence on modern zombie and creature horror remains undeniable. Demons is a pure, unadulterated dose of 1980s horror adrenaline.