Demons (1985)

Episode 216, 2 Guys and a Chainsaw

Todd: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Two Guys and a Chainsaw. I’m Todd

Craig: and I’m Craig

Todd: We’re taking a break from requests for a moment to do a movie that I’ve requested. It’s been on my list for ages and I’m finally. Super happy that Craig independently of me decided, eh, Oh, let’s give this one a whirl.

It is 1985’s Demons, an Italian horror film. And you know, I love me some Italian horror films. Especially, uh, when they’re associated with one Dario Argento. Now I was under the mistaken impression for years that Dario Argento actually directed this movie. But although when you look at the box cover, his name is prominently displayed.

It’s one of those, a film presented by Dario Argento. Right? And it turns out that the director of this movie is actually Lamberto Bava. Now Lamberto Bava is the son of Mario Bava. Mario Baba would be a contemporary of Dario Argento, uh, Lucia . I knew those were kind of like the three names really of, uh, of Jolo.

And horror in Italy, in the sixties and seventies, uh, Mario Bava did some really, really great stuff. And his son worked on some of his films as well as he grew up and, uh, followed in his footsteps a bit, uh, and went off in the horror direction. I’m really a fan of Mario Bava. I know we’re going to do some movies.

Uh, by him at some point. Um, but Dario Argento did have a hand in this Lamberto Bava did get around and work on our Gentles films. Uh, and so this movie came after he did a, giallo called A Blade in the Dark, an action film called Blast Fighter, a science fiction, horror film called Monster Shark. Uh, and then he wanted to do a trilogy.

His father did a, a movie called Black Sabbath. That’s the movie that kind of started out his own little trilogy and, you know, Argento has his trilogy that started out with Suspiria. That kind of thing. Even Fulci has his trilogy, right. The, started out with City of the Dead and then goes into, The Beyond, I think he calls it The.

Beyond Trilogy or City of the Dead Trilogy. I don’t know. Trilogies are a thing. Right? So, um, he wanted this film to kick off a trilogy and in some ways it did, there is a sequel to this, although apparently it’s less successful. We haven’t seen it. Uh, and there was a third movie in the series as well that he also directed.

Um, it’s written by a guy named Dardano saw Chetty and the writers came and went, um, Argento came and gave some opinions about it, blah, blah, blah. In the end for a movie that kind of comes from this pedigree and has all these different really well known hands, helping it out. I’m really surprised at what we ended up getting out of it.

Or maybe I shouldn’t be, I don’t know, like Italian horror is just this crazy thing. It’s, it’s almost all exploitive, right? Just like the spaghetti westerns were of the Western genre, but just like the spaghetti westerns. You get some real gems in there, like some real art craftsmanship and some artistry, and then to balance it out, you get some utter, just mindless, meaningless, garbage.

That’s just there to throw gore effects at you. And I do sort of feel like this movie false significantly in that realm. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. It really just depends on what you’re in the mood for. So I’d seen this on the shelves forever. It’s been on my list forever. I was really happy to watch it.

Craig, what made you decide that this was the week we’re going to do Demons?

Craig: I was, uh, you know, just looking around the internet and on one of the horror movie websites that I frequent, they did an article about horror movies that take place. At the movies. And I had seen a couple of them. In fact, we did popcorn on the show, uh, which was fun.

And I enjoyed that and I was just kind of thinking well, since we can’t go to the movies right now, uh, why don’t we, uh, why don’t we watch a movie about going to the movies? There you go. And I thought that we had maybe talked about it in passing and I figured it would be something that would be right up your alley and it looked, uh, interesting.

So, and, and, you know, it’s, it’s one of those movies that for whatever reason, I see the title of and imagery. From, you know, just in web articles and, and, uh, horror, film, documentaries, and that type of thing, but I had never seen it. And so I thought let’s, let’s give it a shot. See, what’s all about,

Todd: well, it’s all about something.

It’s all about a lot of stuff, but you’re right. This movie takes place in a movie theater and it gets a little meta in the beginning. And then. Kind of goes off in all these crazy directions, I think in the middle. Well, I mean, I didn’t actually sit down like I normally do and take notes on the plot. I kind of assumed that this was going to be an easy one to remember and whether or not we choose to do a play by play of every scene, you know, in this movie there really isn’t like you often say there really isn’t a lot to this.

Craig: Yeah.

Todd: I mean, it’s this, the plot is extremely simple. The characters are just, um, Who cares, right? I mean, there’s, they’re memorable people in here, but they’re like, they’re like cardboard cutout stereotypes, right? Pretty much. It’s very much a movie goers movie, I guess. There’s. It’s just a big adventure kind of flick for people who like gore.

I kind of think it starts out with really promising was some great tension and cinematography. I thought of this woman named Cheryl who’s coming home from school or something and she’s on the subway. And she feels like she’s being followed at some point that the platform empties, but she hears footsteps behind her.

And I thought it was, there was a really. Quite a good scene, actually. Um, and it turns out to be this man, uh, who was wearing kind of this half mask. It’s a silvery demon mask on half his face. And apparently is some kind of gimmick for he is handing out free tickets to a screening of a brand new horror movie at a local theater.

I’m not sure where this is supposed to take place. I know it was filmed in Berlin, I guess it’s supposed to take place in Berlin too, because they don’t really do anything to try to. To make it look like another city. Right? So she’s in the Berlin subway and she gets two tickets to the screening at the Metropol and she talks to another friend of hers named Kathy.

And they ended up going in together to the theater and they meet up with some friends. Now, I don’t know if these were people that they, that they knew beforehand, I guess they kind of were.

Craig: No, no, no, no. I mean, well first I just wanted to say that the guy in the mask that you were talking about that as far as design goes, that was one of my favorite things from the whole movie.

That mask was really cool. It was like kind of a eighties metal Phantom of the Opera mask in that it just covered half of it. Face, but it also kind of seemed like the mask was fused to his face. Like the edges of it were maybe kind of under his skin and it was a pretty scary, but at the same time, if you saw somebody in that costume handing out, you know, flyers or tickets for a free movie, you’d probably just think, Oh, wow.

Great makeup. But, uh, you know, in the context of the movie, you’re thinking, Oh, okay, who is this guy? Uh, but yeah, they go to the Metropol and there’s a whole big scene of just the patrons arriving. And it’s just a whole hodgepodge of, like you said, stereotypical people like the black kind of shafts. Pimp type guy.

And he’s got a couple of girls with him and they’re kind of the troublemakers. Uh, you’ve got Cheryl and Kathy, who are the kind of naive school girls though. You know, they’re clearly women, they’re not young young girls. Um, and they meet up with a couple of guys, George and Ken, George, I would say is your typical eighties.

Good looking guy. He reminded me of, uh, the bad guy from karate kid. He kind of looked like that guy. And, uh, the two guys are kind of flirting with the girls. They ended up going down and sitting right next to them in this big theater to watch this screening. And there’s just, like I said, a hodgepodge of other people, um, a blind guy gets led in by a beautiful woman who at first I thought was his.

Girlfriend, but I think it ended up that maybe it was his daughter. Wasn’t real sure about that. Um, a kid named Tom and like a sailor shirt and his girlfriend, Hannah, and then just a bunch of other random people. It’s not a full theater, but there’s quite a few people there. Uh, and they sit down to watch this movie and they don’t even know what it is.

Like before they go in, Kathy’s like, Oh, I hope it’s not a horror movie. I hate horror movies. But when they go in, even in the lobby, like the lobby is decked out, like all kinds of scary art deco with some kind of, you know, horrific imagery and there’s one prominent featured thing in the middle. Which is a motorcycle of all things or like a dirt bike or something with this scary looking silver mask hanging off of it.

And, uh, at 1.1 of the girls who was with. Tony, um, Rosemary puts the mask on and it’s like, you know, goofing around. Um, Oh, don’t I look scary. That kind of thing. When she takes the mask off, um, it cuts her face. Just, just a little cut on her face, but enough to draw blood and anybody who’s seen these kinds of movies knows that.

Todd: Bad

Craig: news. Right. But then they get into the theater and the movie starts, and it seems like a pretty typical eighties horror movie. You’ve got, you know, a couple of couples, young people riding motorcycles around this scary old mansion and through their dialogue. Meanwhile, we keep cutting back and forth.

We cut back and forth from the movie within the movie to the people in the audience, kind of reacting. And the people in the audience are pretty darn scared. They’re

Todd: terrified. A

Craig: scary house

Todd: dialogue.

Craig: According to an old legend Nostradamus was buried here. Nostradamus sounds like a rock group to me. Yeah.

Top of the pops in 1500.

So tell me computer brain,

Todd: while it was kind of a fortune teller,

Craig: a prophet from the 16th century, he

Todd: predicted a whole

Craig: mess of things that have come true, such as for example, the discovery of Neptune and Uranus Hitler, world Wars, the coming of the demons that hasn’t happened.

Todd: Not yet.

Craig: And the dialogue too is all dubbed.

Now I didn’t read too much about this. Did they film it in English and then just dub other actors voices over? Cause it looked like their mouths pretty much matched up with what they were saying, but it was clearly a dub.

Todd: Yeah. And like a lot of these Italian films in order to save money or just to kind of get a certain quality level of, they would often film them in English.

And then, uh, you know, maybe half of the actors are Italian or somewhat international, so maybe their English isn’t that great, but you know, they could speak it, but we don’t care too much for their voice. And so another actor will come in and just dub the same English over them. I think some of the actors did in fact have their own dialogue, but the fact of the matter is that even those who probably.

You’re hearing their voice. It’s still got dubbed afterwards and that does lead, you know, that’s something that you kind of have to get over when you’re watching these Italian, these older Italian films is that it does lend a certain annoyance, I guess. Well, you can tell it’s dubbed, right?

Craig: Yeah. It’s not.

You can tell

Todd: it’s not just the, the, the lips don’t quite match up or whatever, but

Craig: sometimes the lines sound quality.

Todd: Yeah. It’s just a little too perfect. Right?

Craig: Yeah. And it didn’t bother me. I mean, typically, you know, if I’m watching a foreign film and I have. The choice of watching it in the original language with subtitles or the dub, usually, unless I’m feeling really lazy.

Um, I’ll watch in, in the original language with the subtitles, because there are nuances in people’s performances based on their voices in this, I noticed right away that it was a dub, but like you said, I just got over it very quickly. And, and whereas. It was very obvious to me in the beginning, by the end, I wasn’t even thinking about it.

So it was not that big a deal. But anyway, this movie is going on and, and these kids in the movie are at this old mansion or something. And, uh, one of the girls finds a plaque or something on the outside wall. No, not this. It’s an inscription or something,

Todd: what’s it say

Craig: they will make cemeteries, their cathedrals and tubes your cities.

Which I believe is the tagline for our movie.

Right. That’s

Todd: funny how they tied that in. Yeah, that’s good.

Craig: You know, it’s just kind of some silly nonsense where they’re like, Oh, legend, has it that no stra Domus was buried here and, uh, Nostradamus prophesized the coming of demons. And so they explore. For five seconds and until they find  tomb, it’s so funny.

I

Todd: love this. I could, I could only see this movie within a movie as a parody of horror movies. I mean, it’s not, it can’t be anything, but it’s so ridiculous. The dialogue is so bad. So stilted, not that this movie has the best dialogue in the world, but, but this movie within the movie tops at a hundred percent and, uh, yeah, they find no is to like nothing,

Craig: you know, strangely enough.

I felt like the quality of the movie they were watching was almost identical to the quality of the movie that we were watching. Like I assume they were directly, I assumed that the movie within the movie was also directed by Lamberto Bava well, similar in tone,

Todd: they originally had planned to use another film, I think when a full cheese movies, uh, as the movie within a movie, but at least that was suggested to save costs.

And I think that both Argento and Lamberto decide, you know, kind of pushed, no, we, we really need to make our own film within this film. And so that’s what they ended up doing.

Craig: I’m glad they did. I mean, it’s fun. And, uh, immediately, you know, like you said, there’s like some Metta stuff going on because in Nostradamus, this tomb, they find a book written in Latin.

Of course, one of the guys is like, Oh, it’s in Latin. I can’t read it. Wait. Yeah, I can

Oh, wait, I forgot. I do read Latin.

So he reads something and he, and, and they in there, they also find a mask, the same mask that was out in the lobby. One of the guys is goofing around and puts on the mask and the guy who’s reading the Latin book is like, Oh no, don’t do that.

Todd: No, he says, don’t do that.

Craig: CorVel wears. It becomes a demon.

Todd: How do you know?

Craig: It says here, whoever wears, it becomes a demon.

That’s pretty funny. So anyway, he, he puts on the mask and then he’s goofing around and the girls are like, it’s not funny. Take it up. So he takes it off. And just like with Rosemary, the mask cuts him. As well on the face, same exact place. It looks just the same as it looks on. Rosemary’s face at that very moment.

Rosemary reaches up to touch the wound on her face and it’s bleeding again. And so she excuses herself. To the bathroom. And even on the way to the bathroom, you can tell that something’s off. Like she’s feeling sick. Something’s not right. She gets to the bathroom and she’s looking in the mirror and she’s looking at her face and right away you can tell, Oh, here it comes.

Like here comes the first big effect because you can tell that one half of her face is now, you know, synthetic some makeup, plastic, or whatever it is. And she’s poking at the thing on her face. And it swells up like a zit from hell and pops

Todd: all over

Craig: in a very disgusting and all over. And you know, there’s other things going on in the theater, like the girl who brought in the blind guy, his bone, and some guy in the back, like I don’t even.

I don’t even know what was going on there.

Todd: I don’t want to sound, you know, insensitive or whatever, but bringing the blind man to the movie theater. I mean, I know, I know as a blind person, you can go see movies, but I feel like in this film, they kind of made fun of it a little

Craig: bit. Yeah. It was a joke

Todd: because she’s turning to him and she’s in it.

And he’s asking her like, questions, like I think going into the two now and she’s like, yeah. And he

Craig: says,

are you scared? Yes, I

Todd: am. Yes.

Craig: I’m scared too. Like what the

Todd: hell are these people never seen a movie with any tension whatsoever.

Craig: Yeah. And he’s totally a movie talker. It’s funny. It’s like going to the movies with my dad. My dad’s a big movie talker and I’m like, dad show. Just watch it. I don’t know either I’m watching it too,

Todd: my first time to these questions. Uh,

Craig: but anyway. Okay. So then the other girl who was with. Tony gets up to go check on Rosemary. And she goes into the bathroom and she sees blood all over the sink. And I think she hears maybe some whimpering or something from the stall. So she goes in and she looks, and she finds Rosemary and one of the stalls, but Rosemary is kind of.

Huddled down so that you can’t see her face, you can only see the back of her head. And when she finally turns around, she’s full out demon, she’s got like crazy green demonize and her face is all gross and veiny and pissy and nasty. D, and she’s got these, you know, long witchy fingers with a crazy long nails.

And so she chases Rosemary chases, the other girl through the lobby

Todd: into like a curtain maze. Yeah.

Craig: It’s well, and, and like she swipes at her and gets like she caused her neck. Like this other girl has a huge claw wound on her neck. And you’re right. First she ends up like in a curtain maze, like she’s trapped in these theater curtains.

I don’t even know what that was all about, but she ends up behind the screen of the film and I left. Why is it that, that I always get excited? Like, it’s like, it’s like the scene in gremlins when they end up behind the screen and yeah. I don’t know, it’s just something magical. Like, Ooh, I’ve never been behind the screen before.

Todd: It’s like, I’m in the mood. And I know, uh,

Craig: and it’s fun because she’s like this, apparently this. Being a demon is transferable. It’s like zombies. Like if you get bit or scratched or whatever, then you’re infected too. And so this other girl’s behind the screen and she starts transforming and she’s screaming and moaning.

Meanwhile, on the screen, people have turned into demons and our cha you know, like the guys are demons and they’re chasing the girls around and there’s stabbing and all kinds of other Gore effects going on there. But the people in the audience. Start to see or hear that the screams sound too real. And, uh, the girl Kathy is like, no, something’s wrong.

There’s somebody behind the screen. And eventually this Chicky pops through bursts through the screen and falls to the ground and everybody kind of gets up and surrounds her. And she goes through the transformation right in front of their eyes and jumps up and starts. Chaos. And then that is basically the rest of the movie.

Like the movie, the movie within the movie is over and now it is just demons chasing people around in this theater, in which they are mysteriously and supernaturally trapped for the next 45 minutes.

Todd: Yeah. I mean, that’s basically all we can say about it. I think it gets just more and more crazy. And you know, when you, when you watch the movie, you realize, and it was only after they showed a full shot of the audience and they, they did this fairly early on that I realized there aren’t a ton of people in this theater.

And so what’s kind of funny is, is that the whole audience gets up as a group, goes up to investigate, you know, this one demon lunges out at them. And then they kind of take care of it as a group. And then as a group, they all go down the aisle to go outside and start clawing at the doors, which like you said, there’s suddenly a wall where the entrance should be.

Um, and then, you know, they turn back and they go back into the theater and they start. It’s way too easy to kick the chairs of this movie theater over, Oh, separate them from the floor and start piling them up by the doors. But they do that in order to keep the demons out. There’s a whole bunch of going around and investigating.

And at one point they think it’s the projector. They say, Oh, the movie’s doing this. You saw what happened to Cheryl. She put on the mask and she got cut. I think it’s the pimp who says this. She put on the mask and she got cut. That’s what happened in the movie. So we got to go up and stop the movie. And so then they go up into the screening room as a group.

It’s like 15 people

Craig: go into least

Todd: the projection. Yeah. And then, Oh my God, it’s automatic. There hasn’t been a person here this whole time. So they smash up the machines. And in the meantime, the blind guys. Handler daughter, you said,

Craig: I, I guess like, like I said, I thought that it was his girlfriend, but then I didn’t understand why she was boning.

Somebody else in the back. My favorite part was before she was boning, the guy in the back, this guy came down and sat next to her. I assume she knew him before. I don’t know. She’s sitting between the blind guy and this other guy. It starts, full-out making out with the other guy completely unbeknownst to the blind guy, right on the other side.

Yeah. And when I say, and when I say making out I’m being subtle, because they were getting some hanky panky going on there

Todd: to say the least.

Craig: And at that time I was still thinking it was like his girlfriend and I’m like, dang, you guys are like big. Thrill seekers like, but anyway, I think it was his daughter. It ultimately doesn’t matter,

Todd: but some girl,

Craig: yeah. She’s she, and the guy that she was making out with in the back had had a rope strung around both of their heads at the same time.

Like, like tying them together. And I guess it. I don’t know, there was lots of blood, like, I guess, uh, it was cutting into their scan or something, but the blind guy finds her dead and then he gets his eyeballs clot out,

Todd: which there’s a lot of blood just period in this movie. I mean, it’s, it’s definitely.

The movie exists just to show us a bunch of Gore. I mean, I’m pretty certain that that was the ultimate intent of this film, that these effects are not bad, actually for eighties, lower budget, special Gore effects. The thing is it’s and what’s kind of the problem with them. Is it, they linger so long. I mean, it’s just, they want to show us every little bit of this effect that, you know, sometimes when you linger a little too long on these scenes, then you see that it’s really just plastic and things are kind of stretching on naturally.

So it kind of loses a little bit of that, but, but if this is the kind of thing you’re into, anyway, I think at 1.1 of the demons jumps up behind a guy and like, Digs or claws into his neck and like basically rips his neck open from the middle.

Craig: Yep. Yep.

Todd: This guy, the blind guy gets his eyes clawed out, Hardy, har har, um, you know, with two fingers in there and a hand in the mouth and just kind of almost like his skull is just, you know, candy to be crushed.

Ah, yeah. And the pimp gets it in an interesting way. I don’t remember how he got, do you remember how did the PMT,

Craig: okay, so you were talking about how they were. Throwing all the chairs up in front of the doors that they’re actually in the balcony at that point. So it doesn’t, yeah, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but they, I guess, quarantine themselves off in the balcony.

Um, but. The guy who’d been making out with the blind guy’s daughter, the rope that he had been strangled with, I guess he had also been hung from the balcony with the rope. Um, so then when, uh, they were, they were getting ready to cut the rope so that nobody, none of the zombies, I just keep saying zombies, they’re not they’re demons.

Um, could to keep them from climbing up it. They’re going to cut the rope, but apparently they’re too late because that guy gets up there and he attacks Tony, a couple of them attack Tony. And somehow they end up going over the balcony again. But then Tony and like both the zombies hanging off of him are just dangling from the rope and, uh, George.

The good looking hero, guy cuts the rope and they dropped down there. And there’s another scene. I don’t remember who it was, but they’re fighting some demon on the balcony and they throw it off the balcony. Right on top of this girl, like hiding the aisles, the Tana, the girl. But like she’s, you know, being all in Cognito, like army crawling through like the seats and they throw this demon right on top of her and it just pukes gallons of blood and pus all over.

And it goes on for, you know, probably not more than five seconds, but

Todd: it’s like two minutes. At one point, I couldn’t figure out if he was puking blood or if the effect was supposed to be that he was chomping her down and blood was just spraying everywhere, but I’m pretty sure she was just puking blood because she does manage to get out from under him for a moment.

But yeah.

Craig: Well, and then she’s mysteriously. Okay. And not covered in blood. Moving forward. Don’t really know how that works out. And like you said, it really is. I mean, there are breaks in the action because they do kind of, you know, seal themselves off and, and the demons kind of, aren’t getting to them. And some people like Hannah and her guy, Tom, the sailor shirt guy are off on their own.

And so they’re trying to navigate. By themselves. And there’s a scene where they try to escape through the air vents, um, which isn’t as tense as I think they wanted it to be. Um,

Todd: they get like about 12 feet and they’re in the vents and she says something like,

Craig: we’re going to make it. This is a great idea.

Todd: I’m like, Oh my God. How are we going to get out of here? And like a demon comes up behind them, right in the air vents.

Craig: I was confused what was happening at first because the boy Tom hears scratching behind him. And then. Um, we see the demon clause. So it seems like a demon is following them, but then they come to a fork and he maneuvers and says, Hannah, you go ahead of me.

And so she does, and he’s like, wait a second. Now it doesn’t make any sense. Now it sounds like it’s in front of us. Well, I finally figured out it’s because Hannah was turning, it was her, she was the one making the noise. And her hands had already turned. And, uh, eventually after he says, wait a second, now it’s in front of us.

I don’t get it. She turns around and she’s a demon and she kills him. But, you know, you’ve, you’ve mentioned, uh, the Gore effects you’re right. The movie is just a vehicle for that. You know, the plot is just paper thin, but I didn’t mind at all. I do really like these older, practical effects. They’re fun to watch.

Todd: Yes. They are

Craig: the first, uh, person who turns, uh, the, our girl Rosemary, her transformation while yes, clearly artificial was really cool to watch and, uh, you know, they had clearly. Built her whole head and they do this, there was this whole effect where her tongue comes out and it’s like a foot long and you’re right.

They do linger on it a long time and because they linger on it and because it’s well lit, um, you can see it’s, you know, it’s, it’s a dummy it’s, it’s not. It doesn’t look real, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t look cool. It does look cool. And a lot of these effects did, and I liked that it was, you know, kind of soaked in blood and they just really kind of went all out.

I wouldn’t say that this is my type of movie, but I had fun watching this movie. I thought it was a lot of fun to watch. There were random things like. So they’re all, you know, hold up in the theater or whatever, then all of a sudden we’re with a bunch of thugs in a car note, snorting cocaine out of a Coca Cola can out of a Cola

Todd: can.

Craig: And at first I thought that they were because they’re snorting it through a bendy straw. So at first I thought that they were literally sucking Coca-Cola up into their nose.

Todd: Like. What is happening. It was bizarre. And it’s, this reminded me a bit of trauma, right? Because these are typical trauma characters sort of pumped up, pumped up I’m high on cocaine or whatever, uh, driving down the street and acting crazy.

Just their dialogue was insanely hilarious. There’s a girl in the backseat named Nina and she is barely wearing. Anything on top a dude named hot dog and ripper and baby pig even has kind of like a piggish nose and they’re, they’re just shouting junk, back and forth to me like, like Nina at one point picks up a photo and shows it to rip her in the front seat and says, this was me when I was only one year old.

And he goes, Already selling your twat. Huh?

just dogging on this girl. But then he hits a bump or something and cocaine spills all over the floor, which pisses him off. So he stops the car, turns around and says, You’re all gonna pick that up every single last gram. And what did they do? They literally stopped by the razor blades and start to scrape cocaine off of the seats.

And I’m like, is this, is this really where this movie? Yeah. It’s choosing to spend its time, but then I’m the guy who’s holding this razorblade and as I’m scraping up, this cocaine sees that. Uh, Nina has some cocaine spilled down her pretty much open shirt. And so with the razorblade, he starts scraping the cocaine up her belly, and she’s looking at him like, like it’s kind of a turn on and he starts scraping it up towards her breast and up over her nipple in this sort of dangerous way.

And. I mean, what an interesting scene.

Craig: It was strange. Like, it just seemed very out of place. Like whatever. I don’t have any problem with nudity. I, you come to expect that from these types of movies, but like, it was just so random. It had nothing to do with anything. It was like, it was clearly just let’s get a long closeup of her naked breast with this.

With, with the razorblade, you know, going over her nipple. And eventually he does cut her, which I thought maybe would have some significance, but it doesn’t

Todd: no, well, thankfully not under nipple. Cause that would be scary

Craig: year. Right? Nut. It was just on her breasts. You’re right.

Todd: This scene apparently was pretty controversial and got cut out of the release in a lot of places.

Uh, in fact, when it was put on home video and that kind of thing. In a number of countries. Um, they cut this scene out. It’s one of the more notorious scenes in the movie apparently, but, uh, it’s, it’s out there now on, uh, anything you can find like on shutter we watched on shutter, right. We saw the fully

Craig: online version.

Yeah. And that’s, I mean, the thing is you could easily cut it because it has nothing to do with anything. I mean, it’s just, yeah. It’s just for erotic stimulation. I mean, that’s the only thing that. Or, and then so eventually, like they’re just sitting on the side of the road in this stolen car, snorting, more cocaine than.

Todd: I’ve ever.

Craig: Well, I have never really seen any cocaine, but, uh, so any cocaine would be more than I’d seen, but yeah, but, uh, but eventually the cops pull up and chase them and they end up, uh, outside the movie theater and then the movie theater doors mysteriously opened for them. So they end up in the theater too.

And one would think that. There would be, I just don’t even know, like I was thinking, Oh, okay. Well now the story is going to get interesting because they’re in there too. And there’s going to be some kind of entry. No, I mean, it was just. More getting more people in there too, right. Chased around and killed

Todd: you’re right.

It just sort of begs the question. Why did we spend so much time getting, getting to know these characters and their cocaine habit in the car when they’re just going to pop in and just be more victims in the movie?

Craig: I think part of the reason for it was so that they could showcase their pretty fucking rad soundtrack.

Todd: Yes.

Craig: How did they get all of these huge. Rock bands from the eighties. To do this. I mean, I guess they must’ve just paid for it. I don’t know, but it’s got a great eighties rock soundtrack with huge name bands and performers.

Todd: And this is my jam. I mean, hair metal, heavy metal in the eighties. I mean, there’s a whole shot, a whole list of them in the credits at the beginning of the movie and my mouth just dropped.

I’m like, we’re going to hear this in this film, like Motley crew and I

Craig: mean, just Billy idol, maybe black Sabbath. I don’t remember. I didn’t write them all down, but huge names.

Todd: Yeah. And actually that was a great aspect of this movie too. And I think contributed a lot to my enjoyment of it. Like you said, you got to kind of shut your brain off for this one.

Just go with the flow. And there’s just a lot of blood and a lot of Gore and a lot of senseless stuff happening and characters, you know, care about, but it’s all happening. To this absolutely awesome rock and eighties type metal, hard rock soundtrack,

Craig: but there is also a score. Uh, and I really liked the score.

I mean, even in just the opening scene, the opening scene, um, In the subway. There’s probably the first five minutes of the movie. There’s no dialogue. You just are seeing the actors, but it’s set against this score. Um, and I was impressed right away,

Todd: Claudia. Simonetti, I guess is how you say, I don’t know.

How’s your Italian, he did a ton of music for obviously for Argento and we love our Gentiles. If he was the composer for Suspiria. Yeah. Deep red profundo. Raso that we did, which I absolutely love the music for obviously this one and a lot of the ones that came after it, like opera and. Oh, yeah, it’s good.

I mean, that’s another thing and there’s almost just a whole genre. Isn’t there of scores for Italian horror films of the sixties and seventies and eighties. Right. It’s just, it has a particular feel and it’s good. It’s like gritty and it’s kind of intense and it’s a little synthy and there’s just something about it.

That’s just unique. Right? Yeah, we’re getting on the other side of the, of the ocean at that time. Just really fun.

Craig: Yeah, definitely. You know, so then everybody’s back, uh, in the theater and I don’t know. Oh, and then finally, at some point, the people in the balcony are just sitting around, uh, at this point, like waiting to be rescued and they hear something and they’re like, Oh, we’re being rescued.

So most of them start taking down the barricade. But George and Cheryl and Kathy and Ken are like, no, don’t, you know, you’re going to let the demons in here, but nobody’s listening. And so, as it turns out, the demons are coming and that’s where you get the great shot. That’s on the box. Art of these demons, like coming up, it’s really just.

Up a hallway or up a staircase or something in the theater. Um, but it kind of looks like they’re cresting a Hill and, um, they’re lit from behind and their eyes are glowing and it’s just this mob of demons and it looks, it looks really cool.

Todd: Yeah. Um, apparently that, that I effect, uh, was something that, um, the director came up with on the spur of the moment.

Uh, and it was achieved. I thought they used lights or something, but it was just little pieces of reflective tape that they put over their eyes and just kind of obliquely, shown a light at them. And it looks fantastic. Right?

Craig: Yeah, it looks really cool. I mean, if you turn your mind off to the fact that their eyes haven’t glowed before,

Todd: or since.

Craig: But that’s okay. It looks great. And that’s, I guess kinda, you know, the big showdown where again, the mob of demons attacks the theater goers, but, um, Cheryl and George and Ken and Kathy crawl underneath what’s left of the rebel and they get out. But as soon as they get out, um, Kathy is acting weird. Like she’s only semi-conscious at first.

And then, uh, she starts talking weird, like asking them who they are, like, who are you? Who am I? She, she turns into a demon pretty quickly and they kill her. I don’t. Rum, I guess can like beats her down with a chair. Oh. But then there was another really cool effect after he beat her down with the chair she’s on all fours, like on her knees and on her hands and her back starts to arch and then it splits open and a con like a fully formed demon emerges out of her back again, again, not at all in keeping with what we’ve seen so far.

That’s so cool.

Todd: Yeah. It’s, it’s pretty awesome. I mean, it, it makes no sense whatsoever. It doesn’t even seem like physically possible, but it’s an awesome effect. And that’s another thing I think you’ll see on the box art, um, this face and I thought the makeup was quite good, you know, and the makeup on this thing, I thought we’d see more of this deem.

And I thought, thought this would be like the big, bad monster demon that were kind of in their Croft for awhile. And, uh, He just kind of comes and goes. I’m not sure if we ever see what ends up happening to him.

Craig: I don’t remember. I, I, I know that it scratches or bites. Can, um, and then, and so Ken knows he’s going to turn, so he tries to run away, but they follow him into the lobby and, and, and he’s turning and he’s begging George to kill him because he doesn’t want to be a demon.

And he pulls a frickin samurai sword, like off the wall.

Todd: So in this theater, they’ve got one hanging

Craig: there and then. And, and so, uh, he does, he turns Phil, he begs, uh, George to kill him. So George does. And then, and then Cathy is, for some reason, I don’t remember not Kathy, Cheryl is alone in the theater and like the demons are like surrounding her.

And so incomes George on a motorcycle with. The samurai store

and, and he, like, he writes up to where Kathy is and like he’s slicing demons along the way. And he grabs her and throws her on the back of his motorcycle. And then they just do laps around the inside of the theater.

Todd: It’s like, It’s like nine year old Todd in the eighties wrote this movie, right.

Craig: Set a samurai

Todd: sword.

He’s going to be on a motorcycle and he’s going to slash divas as he’s driving by with the girl on the back. It’s great. It’s fantastic. And then. Because why not a giant helicopter falls through the ceiling?

Craig: Well, the other, the other thing that I do like about this scene, the samurai scene is that we get to see a lot of the characters from early in the movie as, as demons now.

Um, and that was kind of fun. Like Tony, the pimp is one of them, the, uh, the sexy redhead usherette, who we haven’t even mentioned. Who played her? Was that Futura Argento? Is that who or was she a different role? I know that fewer or fewer. However you say your name is in the movie. No, that she was Hannah. Um, so I’m not sure who, uh, the, the sexy red head was.

Um, but. She is a czar or a demon at this point, which surprised me because early on in the movie, I assumed that she was part of the whole demon conspiracy. She was so

Todd: mysterious and she’s wandering around and she has got that weird look and she’s closing curtains and stuff like, yeah.

Craig: But anyway, she’s, she’s a demon in this scene, but then you’re right.

They’re like, wait a second. Do you hear that? And then the whole helicopter just falls through the roof fell just like just sins through the

Todd: roof. Did I miss something here where a helicopter like landed or something?

Craig: No joke. We had never seen a helicopter before.

Todd: This was, this was the best, this at this point I was like, yeah, again, eight year old Todd, and then a helicopter is going to fall from the ceiling and they jumped to the helicopter and there’s still demons in there.

And the helicopter by the way, looks fake as hell. But he does manage to get it started a little bit and the blade spin around and cut a couple of demons. You know, this movie is a lot like dead alive, isn’t it?

Craig: Yeah, it is.

Todd: Feels like dead, alive, owes a lot to this film. It’s. It’s really the same kind of thing.

Right. Just a whole bunch of gourd by the end.

Craig: Well, and yeah, it has a very return of the living dead vibe to it also.

Todd: Right.

Craig: But yeah. Okay. So then, well, yeah, they, they, he it’s so stupid that he starts the rotor and it kills a bunch of them. And then in a completely inexplicable way, he somehow rigs up some sort of like, Police system shoots them up to the roof.

I have no idea how that worked, but they get up to the roof where they find the masked man from the beginning of the movie. There is no explanation, nothing like this would be the part of most movies where he would like divulge his evil plan. But, but no, he’s just up there and he tries to throw them back in the hole and eventually, uh, they get power over him and.

The two of them, like, are both like pushing down on his back. Um, and they push his head down onto these huge metal spikes, um,

Todd: like the rebar sticking out from the roof.

Craig: Exactly, exactly. And then, okay, so then, you know, big reveal, they run to the edge of the building and they look out and the city is like an apocalyptic.

Hellscape like. This has not just been confined to the theater or fair to originally was it has burst out now. Um, and there are demons everywhere,

Todd: like within the last hour, basically. I mean, I mean, we saw the punks come in about halfway through the movie and everything seemed normal then. And the movie is really only like an hour and a half long.

So our 40, so. Yeah, within the last 45 minutes or so, the entire city has been covered with demons and people have the wherewithal and the means to fight back. Cause that’s kind of what’s happening there, fires everywhere and stuff and what they, they somehow get down to the ground. What do they repel down or climb the ladder down or something.

And there’s a car that pulls up and. It’s full of light. It’s like, there’s like a family in there. What’s like a Jeep, right. And there’s a guy and his wife and daughter and their son and presumably, and she, you know, jumps up and she’s shooting demons and a get in, get in the car and it’s. Funny. It’s kind of hilarious.

Craig: Hilarious.

Todd: It’s clearly this like very suburban domestic family who suddenly again, within the last 30 minutes has, you know, learned how to take care of themselves and survive.

Craig: Yeah. This all American like blonde eight year old with like a huge assault rifle.

Todd: Pick up a gun. Floor.

Craig: There’s more, there’s more weapons in the back.

And like he picks up a mission like an Uzi

God, and they start driving off, you know, into the, not literally the sunset, but start driving off and. George is like, where are we going? And they’re like the countryside. We saw some lights in the sky. We think maybe, I don’t know what they think.

Todd: There’s humanity there or something.

Craig: Yeah. Then the credit starts.

You’re also, I thought the movie was over and I almost turned it off, but I’m glad I didn’t because it wasn’t over

Todd: yet. That was

Craig: an issue. Did you stick around? Yeah, I was gonna say, did you stick her out for that last part? Yeah.

Todd: I did, but that was a real interesting, fake out. Wasn’t it? Like the credit starts to roll Ben suddenly, uh, you know, it’s just showing them and I thought, Oh, that might be a little something, you know, that they show or whatever.

Cause there’s still action happening behind them. And then some of the credits stop rolling because a Sheryl has turned into a demon. And so there’s a bit of a struggle in the car and they kick her out,

Craig: just leave her in the road

Todd: and keep driving.

Craig: I thought, I thought that I really liked it used me. It made me smile and you know, it’s kind of a subversion because she was the first character we were introduced to.

She was the nice girl. Um, you just expect that she’s going to be the final girl. Yeah. And then they, she turns into a demon, they just throw her out of the car

Todd: and by the way, um, her boyfriend or whatever, cause they had their moments and things like that doesn’t even seem to care now.

Craig: Well, they just met a couple hours ago.

Todd: That’s true. But it seemed like they were trying to build something, you know, between them. Yeah. And he, by the way, he was. Well, he was pretty stud I mean, by the end of it, he kind of looked like Rambo, right. He has had grease on his face and his shirt was ripped in all the right places. And, uh, he looked like a Bruce Willis, you know, 1985 right there at the end.

His, his transformation was the most impressive of all.

Craig: Yeah. I mean, he ended up being the hero in the end,

Todd: but. Regardless of the fact that we barely saw him through the movie until those key scenes at the end. Right. And that was just the way the movie was. As far as characters went, the movie didn’t really care about the characters.

Right. We didn’t really follow them. There was no through line. No, no backstories, no subplots, no, nothing. Just, here’s a bunch of demons and theater ripping people up

Craig: and I was fine with it. I mean, I. I didn’t, I didn’t read anything about it before. Like I said, I’ve seen some imagery, I may have seen a couple of, you know, just real quick clips of some of the special effects and things.

Uh, but I didn’t know a whole lot going in, but this is kind of what I expected and kind of what I was hoping for. Um, it was a fun, no brainer, eye candy kind of movie. Um, and for the most part, it was pretty. Fast paced. I mean, there were some strange detours, like the people in the car, you know, the punks in the car or whatever, which was odd, but you know, it never got slower, boring.

No, and it was fun. I had fun watching it. I might one day even watch it again.

Todd: I probably would, especially having watched it a first time, you know, I mean, knowing that this isn’t going to be a more subtle. Atmospheric, uh, Argento type production, but it’s going to be more along the lines of a full cheek sort of Gore Fest.

That I’m fine with that. Sometimes that’s what I want to see. You know, sometimes that’s what I’m in the mood for it. And this movie, like kind of like dead alive, just delivers it in spades. This is what you’re coming here for. We’re going to go all out and put all of our money into this. And I guess the movie was quite successful in Italy.

It beat out a lot of other more popular films in the States anyway, at the time. Um, and again, spawned a sequel. Which I hear is not as good, but I’d be interested in watching. Yeah. And you know, Craig, this is good. I’m glad to hear your final assessment on this because I always worry a little bit when we turn on these Italian horror films, um, whether or not Craig is going to enjoy himself.

So. I’m glad that this time around you, uh, you found something to like here.

Craig: Yeah, I liked it. It was, you know, good eighties fun. I’ve said it a bazillion times. It’ll come as no surprise to anybody who’s listened to any of our episodes. I love practical effects. Um, and they just, they abound here and they look good and creepy and bloody and gross.

And, uh, yeah, it was a lot of fun. I give it a thumbs up.

Todd: Cool me too. Well, thanks again for listening to another episode. If you enjoyed it, please share it with a friend. You can find us online to search for two guys and a chainsaw. We’re slowly putting more videos up on our YouTube channel. Please go there and subscribe to that channel.

If you haven’t. We want to build up to a hundred subscribers so we can do some more stuff with that. And also just kind of build a different kind of audience. Also, if you have a request for us, we’re still doing requests this month. So just a log onto our website or our Facebook page. Leave us a comment in one of those places and we’ll try to get to it as soon as possible. Until next time, I’m Todd.

Craig: And I’m Craig

Todd: with Two Guys and a Chainsaw.