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Black Demons
AKA Demoni 3
Directed By Umberto Lenzi
Released: 1991
Starring: Keith Van Hoven, Joe Balogh, Sonia Curtis, and Maria Alves
Running Time: 88 minutes
DVD Released By Shriek Show 2003
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College students, Kevin (played by Keith Van Hoven),
Jessica (Sonia Curtis), and her brother Dick (Joe Balogh), are traveling
through Brazil. Dick decides to take part in a black magic ritual and he
becomes cursed. The trio’s jeep breaks down and they are escorted to a
villa by two friendly travelers. Dick finds a nearby gravesite containing
the bodies of six murdered slaves and awakens them. The slaves rise up
from the ground armed with various pointy objects and the urge to slaughter anyone who
is unlucky enough to be hanging around. Maria (played by Maria Alves), the servant and resident
practitioner of magic, does all she can to protect everyone from the evil
that Dick has awakened.
Umberto Lenzi, is that you? From the director of
Seven Bloodstained Orchids,
Eyeball,
and Ghosthouse,
comes the unfortunately-titled Black
Demons. A straightforward plot (read
as only a handful of loose ends) and beautiful Brazilian locations fooled
me for a moment into thinking Lenzi might just have pulled off something
of a minor classic here. However, bland lighting and a forgettable
soundtrack by Franco Micalizzi combined with a cast of wildly irritating
actors hinder the film from being a return to the glory days of Italian
horror.
Speaking of bland, Keith Van Hoven (House
Of Clocks) turns up as our hero,
Kevin. While he’s not the worst of the lot, the guy is frighteningly dull.
From the moment she opens her mouth, soap opera and sitcom actress Sonia
Curtis, is unfathomably awful as Jessica. If only the producers had hired
a competent voice actress to dub over Curtis’s thinly delivered lines then
we’d only be stuck with her vacant stare to contend with. Then we have
Philip Murray as Jose the mumbler and Juliana Texeira as “just plain”
Sonia. Two annoying characters whose death scenes inspire sighs of relief,
if not some cheering.
Joe Balogh (Hitcher In The Dark)
actually won me over with his portrayal of Dick, Jessica’s haunted and
ultimately cursed brother. The scene where he takes part in a Macumba
ritual is the best directed in the movie and Balogh is definitely up to
the task. Brazilian actress Maria Alves easily has the best performance in the
film. I only wish her character, Maria, could have survived long enough
to get us through the rest of the dang flick. Alves spends most of her
screentime looking completely terrified but it works.
Oddly enough, Lenzi refers to Black
Demons as his masterpiece during an
interview in the book, “Spaghetti Nightmares”. Well, I just don’t know how
to interpret that one. The pace of this film is drowsy at best and despite
some occasionally inspired camerawork, fluid editing, cool zombie makeup,
and somewhat gory (and well-staged) deaths, I don’t see how any director
could interpret this as their masterpiece. While not the worst of his
horror contributions, Lenzi has done much, much better. If nothing else,
Black Demons
is a decent little time waster.
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DVD Stuff:
Shriek Show's DVD of
Black Demons looks great. There
is very little print damage and the 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen is
superb. The mono 2.0 audio isn't bad but I did have a hard time hearing
some of the dialogue. There is an interview with the always opinionated
Umberto Lenzi as well as a brief interview with co-writer and Lenzi-wife,
Olga Pehar. Shriek Show also provides trailers for some of their other
Italian horror titles.
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Quotes:
Dick: “You know, Kevin, you really get up my nose!”
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