Demons
(aka Demoni)

Lamberto Bava (1985, Italy) - produced by Dario Argento

Cast : Urbano Barberini, Natasha Hovey, Karl Zinny, Fiore Argento

Plot:
A bunch of people are given flyers for the premiere screening of a horror movie, in a new movie theatre. A girl cuts herself with a mask she found in the hallway. When the movie begins, events in the movie start to happen in the audience. The girl who cut herself transforms into a demon, soon infecting the audience one by one, driving the living into a frenzy for survival. But the battle won't be any easy, as the theatre itself is possessed and has trapped them in..

Appreciation: 9.5/10
Easily one of the best demons/zombie flick of the 80s, set in all excesses of hairspray and general bad taste and attitude. Like many other good italian horror movies of the same epoch, it contains heavy doses of gore, kick-ass makeup effects (that would make Michael Jackson pale in comparison), surrealistically dumb & cliche dialogues, amateurish dubbing and enough nonsensical moments for a lifetime. With all these elements, who needs a plot anyway? :)
What sets this movie appart from the rest is its fast pacing and energy level. Unlike usual zombies, the demons here look like they are on speed. You can't run around them for fun ((à la Fulci), oh no, you don't fuck with these demons, cause they not only shred you to pieces in a second, they also run and leap. The pacing of the film is hectic to say the least, helped with a loud heavy metal score that almost never stops.
Surprisingly, the movie also contains genuine moments of fright, thanks to the amazing makeup and special effects.
The movie contains the single most incongruous scene i've had the chance to witness: Ok. What are the odds for an helicopter to crash on a movie theatre? Very slim. Now, what are the odds that an helicopter crashes on a movie theatre at the exact moment that some people need to get out quick when there's no other exit??? My only guess is that they had an helicopter on the set and they were looking for a way to use it (much like Ed Wood's re-use of footage he had at hand). Like the rest of the movie, it doesn't make any bit of sense to a remotely sane person, and nothing in the story is ever explained, but all the absurdity adds up to the fun of the whole thing.
As a side-note, i have to confess that it has the box-cover that scared me the most for a long time when i wandered in the horror section when i was younger.
The movie could be summed up as a cross-over of "Dawn of the dead" and "Braindead". The apocalyptic ending sounds like a rip-of from "Dawn", but hey, who cares?
Very entertaining, italian horror hardly gets any better than this! I just wish i'd been there for the theatre premiere back then..

Other suggestions: The beyond, Evil dead 1 & 2, Dawn of the dead, Day of the dead, Braindead