Demons 2 (1986)

A group of tenants and visitors are trapped in a 10-story high-rise apartment building infested with demons who proceed to hunt the dwindling humans down.

Director:

Lamberto Bava

Writers:

Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava

Stars:

David Edwin Knight, Nancy Brilli, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Edwin Knight	...	George (as David Knight)
Nancy Brilli	...	Hannah
Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni	...	Sally Day (as Coralina Cataldi Tassoni)
Bobby Rhodes	...	Hank
Asia Argento	...	Ingrid Haller
Virginia Bryant	...	Mary the Prostitute
Anita Bartolucci	...	Woman with Dog
Antonio Cantafora	...	Ingrid's Father
Luisa Passega	...	Helga Haller
Davide Marotta	...	Demon Tommy
Marco Vivio	...	Tommy
Dario Casalini	...	Danny - Ulla's boyfriend
Michele Mirabella	...	Hooker's Client
Lorenzo Gioielli	...	Jake
Maria Chiara Sasso	...	Ulla, partygoer with camera

Storyline

A documentary is shown on TV of group of teens who investigate the legendary forbidden zone, in which a Demon infestation once took place (see Demoni I). When finding a lifeless corpse of a demon, one of the teens causes the resurrection of it, and the demon makes it's way into the nearby world by TV-broadcast... An unlucky girl, having her birthday-party at that time, gets possessed by the demon while watching the documentary and soon the entire building in which she lives turns into a living nightmare....

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Plot Keywords:

demon | corpse | apartment building | tv | birthday party | 

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Taglines:

The Nightmare Returns

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

13 February 1987 (USA)

Also Known As:

Demons 2: The Nightmare Returns

Filming Locations:

Hamburg, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

$1,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

DACFILM Rome

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min (R-rated) 92 min (Unrated Edition) 78 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although not a fan of the horror genre, lead actress Nancy Brilli nonetheless agreed to act in this movie because she wanted to work with special effects.

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Goofs

The birthday cake shown at about 25 minutes into the film is not the same one we were shown at the start of the film, the hand-lettering is different, actually more legible than it originally was.

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Quotes

Joe: [to his friends, upon finding a hideous, lethal supernatural creature lying dormant in a dark spooky alley] There's no danger!

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Alternate Versions

The Anchor Bay/Roan Group 'Dario Argento Collection' videocassette/DVD released in the U.S. features the unedited (unrated) version, 3 minutes longer than the edited R-rated version.

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Connections

Referenced in 28 Days Later... (2002)

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Soundtracks

Blue Heart
Written by Peter Murphy and Stephen Betts
Performed by Peter Murphy

User Reviews

Lacklustre demons this time around

Everything that made the original so much fun seems to absent here. This is simply a "run of the mill demons on the loose wrecking havoc" slasher, but without the passion that graced the original.

There's nothing new in the story, in fact it seems like they ignore the first one altogether. Here, the demons run loose in a high security apartment building and, naturally, kill most of the residents in grisly fashion. The makeup effects actually seem less convincing here than the first time around. Although the actors weren't exactly brilliant in Demons, in Demons 2 they're actually a lot worse. You don't care about these characters, AT ALL. The plot is nonexistent, the music poor (apart from one Simon Boswell song), it's not scary in the least; it's just not that good.

Easily the worst film Dario Argento has been involved with and Lamberto Bava's also (Bava has a cameo in this film, not a very funny one).

Maybe 3 is too high a rating, but at least I could watch it all and didn't think of stopping midway. My advice; Stick to the original.