[Rec] 3 :Genesis (2012) Horror Demon

[Rec] 3 : Genesis (2012) - QUICK HIT! Not a full review but some initial thoughts after viewing this film. Demonic dogs, now that could be really scary. Cujo on a grand scale with a dog in a shelter infecting all the other and then their escape into the world? Oh wait that has very little to do with [Rec] 3. In fact reaching back to the first of the series we are reminded that the dog of the apartment building was taken to the vet with some new new form of rabies, but we later find out that the whole thing started with a possessed girl, then in the second  film of the series we learn it is a new form of demon possession. One person infects another through bites but all who are infected are demon possessed. So the dog was possessed in the first film and this is the connection to [Rec] 3 : Genesis. The vet Uncle Victor (Emilio Mencheta) who worked on that dog was bitten and comes as a guest to the wedding of his niece Clara (Laticia Dolera) to Koldo (Diego Martin).
  After some introductory shots establishing the wedding and some of the guests, as well as the couple camera people, Adrian (Alex Monner) a camcorder holding cousin who is recruited by professional videographer Atun (Borja Glez. Santolalla) to get some candid shots we see the wedding, and the reception where the action will take place. The hand held POV of the first two films is purposely ended in this film. A more traditional film starts up shortly after the action starts in this on. There is even a death of the camcorder scene so the audience will understand we are transitioning from one format to another. It seems like a good decision to stop this as we are always wondering why the cameraman always keeps filming even though in such a dire situation no one in their right mind would. Sure they always trot out, "the people should know" lines but really is that convincing? I would be more impressed if they said, "Hey, I am gong to sell this footage for thousands of dollars if I live through this.". When the film transitions to the standard format it is welcomed.

  The plot is simple enough to set the stage for some crazy infected action, when Uncle Victor sways on the railing above the dance floor suddenly a wonderful party comes crashing to a halt. He immediately raises from his fall and bites his wife when she comes to check on him, all hell breaks loose. Too quickly the bitten turn into demon possessed infected and a bit too fast the party in a chaotic fight for survival. The guests scatter and in the confusion Clara and Koldo are separated. Koldo and the camera toting men end up barring themselves into the kitchen. The escape is harrowing but effective but always someone else is lost in the effort. That is the thing with this type of film. We know that just about everyone is going to get killed at some point it is just a matter of who and when.
  Clara survives also and is smart and lucky enough to get to the PA system to tell her new husband that she is alive and will see him again. Each senses that the other is alive and this really is a love story with the priority for each newlywed to be reunited with the other. Koldo knows where Clara is and now heads towards her. She on the other hand has to flee and a good section of the movie is their attempts to get find each other. In this fight for survival and reunion each has many close calls and gruesome encounters. In fact one of the high points of the film is the special effects, chainsaws and bites are bloody goodness. The gore and also the humor make this film an enjoyable watch. Mixed in with the blood and guts there are several funny pieces, not laugh out loud funny but enough humor to make it interesting along the way.  So the two love birds cut and slash their way until they are finally reunited.
  After the couple is reunited I was a bit dissatisfied by the ending, it was a bit too predictable. One could argue that it could end no other way than it did. The government closed the parameter around the wedding and so we know that leaving will not be easy. In a change from the earlier films the priest who performed the wedding figured out that the crisis was a demon infestation and come up with a novel way to counter it. Certainly this franchise is set up for at least one more episode. In the end though, even with the blah ending I was quite entertained by the film. I look forward to whatever comes next.
Rating (5.7) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others.

Demons 2 (1986) Horror Demons

Demons 2 (1986) - "Demoni 2: L'incubo ritorna" directed by Lamberto Bava and written in concert with Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini, and Dardano Sacchetti this is a sequel to the movie theater madness that was Demons. Instead of a theater this time we have a highly secured luxury apartment building called The Tower. Safety is first to these people and that need for security sure has a way of backfiring. The film starts in darkness with a voice over to set the atmosphere "A terrifying centuries old prediction foretold the spawning of the demons on earth. That prediction came true when spectators in a movie theater were transformed into blood thirsty fanged creatures and spread death and contagion. Days of terror that convinced the world demons can exist." It is unclear whether this voice over is for us viewer or is the start of the "movie within a movie" that runs throughout Demons 2. Similar to the first Demons film there is a movie about Demons being played during the unfolding of the plot. In the first film it is why all the people are at the theater in the first place and in this sequel many of the people in the apartment building are watching a film on television. There is the woman with the dog (Anita Bartolucci), the boy left alone Tommy (Marco Vivio), the security guard (Lino Salemme) Sally Day the birthday girl (Caorlina Cataldi-Tassoni) and a variety of other guests. It is a fairly well executed technique, we get to learn the players in the apartment building and at the same time the plot of the inevitable demon cross over approaches. A bit of exposition to let us know that the demons pass the demon plague on through their nails and body fluids. It is the single most important plot point. It is because in both instance the film and the real life events sync up that the demons can cross over into this world but we are getting ahead of ourselves.

The opening scene is a humorous misdirection, a close up of a knife with what could be dripping blood, a man's feet an apron red with the fluid, pan out to the baker putting the finishing touches on Sally's birthday cake. This is the introduction and then we head off to the main set at the apartment building.

This is a large cast and many people are introduced as living working and playing in the building. There are George (David Edwin Knight) and Hannah (Nancy Brilli), she is pregnant and he is a student who live in the building. The Haller family consists of Mr Haller

(Antonio Cantafora), wife Helga (Luisa Passega) and daughter Ingrid (Asia Argento), there is the prostitute visiting a client named Mary (Virginia Bryant).

Of note though if you read Soresport Movies early review of Demons (1985) then you know of the "Pimp with a plan" Bobby Rhodes and here we get to see him again as the gymnasium instructor with the same gusto her brought to his first role.

This film like the first uses the method of cutting the scenes within the building, people watching the scary movie, the party goers dancing, George studying with the scenes from the movie within the movie. In that film two couples are investigating what is call the forbidden zone,

The clunkiest part of the plot is the party and the cross over of the demons. Sally is a borderline personality who can not seem to be happy that her birthday is here. Recently broken up with Jacob she is pissed when she learns he is coming over. This is set up to draw another parallel to the first film where we saw a group of punk rockers driving in a car eventually making it to the movie theater and letting the demons out into the world.

In this film Jacob and his three friends drive towards the party playing hard rock music and acting very much like the punk rockers in the first film. The problem with this stuff is that it has no bearing on the plot at the apartment building.

Jacob drives really fast and in the end crashes into Tommy's parents' car in front of the building.

It does not really do anything, it does not attract police to the crisis. None of the people end up getting into the building, it is really a dead end. It does moves Sally into her bedroom away from the party that seems to just go on without her. Not even her best friend bothers to join her in her room. She sits watching the horror movie moping while the party goes on without her.

In the movie in a movie the two couples investigating the forbidden zone come across a demon body dried out and trapped beneath rubble. On of the girls cuts her arm and drops land in the mouth of the demon, this starts its rebirth. Pam (Eliana Miglio) sets up the group for a photo with the demon even with none of them noticing it coming back to life. At the same time at the party Ulla (Maria Chiara Sasso) is setting up the party goers for a group picture. When the two women snap the photo at the same moment, in both cases the flash fails and this little bit of synchronicity joins the world of the demon movie and the apartment building. Sally watches in horror as the demon in the screen seems to see her and walks right at the television screen. Its face pushes out and when she turns it is in the room with her. This is a really weak connection but it gets the job done and it is a short jump until Sally is a demon also and the friends in the other room are target of the Sally demon.

Not before Sally spills bodily fluids from her body, a new form of demon acid blood or something that eats through the floor and drips through the ceilings of the floors below. Its only purpose is to create a way to spread the Demon transformations more quickly.The party is quickly a total demon feast. Unlike the first film where the transformation from wounded human to demon took a bit of time it is not so here. Really about a half minute is all that is needed for the change to happen, so very quickly Sally's apartment is full of hungry demons.

They break out of Sally's apartment and the entire building is now compromised. The smart reviewer out there must see this as a historic piece connecting to the two recent [rec] movies, [rec] and [rec]2 films of recent years. Another film that may have taken or at least shared ideas with this film is The Horde which also used an apartment building as a centerpiece, in its' case a zombie and revenge film rolled into one. Although those films reduced the scope of the building and have original origins for the demon infestation the mechanic as pretty close to being the same.

The rest of the film breaks down into scenes of each of the areas of the building and the people in them and how they are effected by the outbreak. The woman with the dog, hears the dog growling and sees the demon blood dripping from the ceiling.

She watches in horror as the dog transforms into a demon dog.

Then the struggle for her is to try to avoid it and stay alive.

Tommy, home alone gets locked out of his apartment and in so doing must hide in the ventilation system to avoid the Sally demon who is prowling the halls. In the gym the leaking demon blood transforms a man in a steam box which then sparks another chaotic fight between the "Gym Instructor with a plan" Hank and his muscle heads against an ever increasing number of demons.

Three workout women are huddled hiding in a car when the demons attack you see not only are the windows rolled down but the sunroof is open making for easy demon feeding. Can't figure out that choice at all.He and his crew and the Haller family all end up in the parking garage but find that the building is locked down so tight that no one is getting out. They are going to have to make there stand right there. Arming themselves as best they can they circle the wagons for a final battle. It is so useless, with the claws of the demon converting each person they scratch it does not seem it is a winnable battle. Poor little Ingrid (Asia Argento in her first movie role) has to watch as her parents are killed and she is surrounded by demons. While we are talking about the garage scene there is the most ridiculous thing in it.

George and the Hooker are trapped in the elevator when the power goes out. She has already been set up as terrified of elevators and so there is quite a bit of hysterical behavior on her part and calming words on George's part. Through a crack they can see the carnage befalling the residents of the building but are helpless to do anything about it. For them the challenge is finding a way out of the elevator.

George is part of the through story and he the actor is a bit stale in the role but he has the internal drive to get back to his pregnant wife. In the commentary Lamberto Bava talks about not really liking the actor very much, feeling that he was not giving his all in the film. George does eventually make his way back to his apartment and finds his darling wife Hannah has survived a dual attack. The first part by a little demon child who squeezes in through the changed door and then by the true demon that emerges from its stomach. George arrives just in time to save her.

The final sequence is Hannah and George making their way to the roof so they can repel down the side of the building onto the roof of the television studio next door. All the while having to fight off demons and the very persistent Sally demon. When all is said and done George and Hannah have a brand new baby boy and they are free from the apartment building. How they get there is worth your time. So although not as scary as the newer films I mentioned in this review, this film is a very competent attempt at making a demon film with chaos and struggle that work in group and for individuals. The effects are all eighties cheese and the soundtrack include the likes of The Smiths and The Cult. Sure there seems to be things that go nowhere but that has often been the case with Lamberto Bava films. In this movie at least those things do not impact the overall storyline. You can't say that everything is perfectly explained but for the most part the simple story of survival plays out to a some what satisfying conclusion.

Rating (5.7) 5.0 and up are recommended

Demons (1985) Horror Demons

Demons (1985) Lamberto Bava takes a script from Dario Argento and creates a classic gore fest demon movie that holds up through the years. Made in Germany by Italians with English speaking actors the story revolves around a group of theater goers who get more than they bargained for when they accepted the complimentary tickets. Cheryl (The beautiful Natasha Hovey) is scared at being alone in a train station thinks she is being stalked by a strange man with a metallic mask covering half his face. It is a nice tension building scene early in the film, with hyper intense music by Claudio Simonetti who created the out of this world music for Suspiria, as well as other Argento films, The Card Player and Mother of Tears. This film also features music by a variety of eighties bands and is a real treat. Cheryl panics and runs through the train station with this eighties techno blaring. The masked man follows catching her at the top of the escalator but instead of a quick and sudden death he hands her a ticket to a theater, the Metropol. Relieves she actually tracks the guy back down to get a second ticket so she and her friend Kathy (Paola Cozzo) can go together.

There is no title for the movie but skipping class they decide to go to the film anyway. Skipping class can only mean something bad is going to happen. Isn't this how it is in the movies? Do something bad and look out for the repercussions?
We meet some of the other players in the film, the couple who don't get along too well, the Blind man, Warner (Alex Serra) and his cheating wife Liz (Enrica Maria Scrivano), the Pimp with a plan, Tony (Bobby Rhodes) and his two prostitutes Carmen and Rosemary, the two college guys who will scoop on our girls George and Ken (Karl Zinny), Hannah and Tom the daters and the beautiful but creepy red headed ticket taker Ingrid (Nicoletta Elmi). Throughout the this movie her looks seem to lead that she knows something about what is going to happen but then nothing comes of it. Maybe Argento lost some scenes in the rewriting of the script that took away the bigger story which included this woman in a more sinister role. That is what you would think from he silent stares and suspicious behavior anyway. It is a real flaw with Demons is that there is potential for so much more in the story. Is the film being shown the culprit? When the chaos begins someone says it is the building that is doing it. This too is not explored in any significant way, which is a shame because what is a good movie could have been even better.
One of the prostitutes, I am assuming the profession since it is never stated. Rosemary (Geretta Geretta) is her name and she puts on the creepy demon mask in the lobby when they are coming in and as she removes it it cuts her. This is the closest to cause and effect the film gets. When the film begins in the theater it is a dark horror film. It plays out with a group of young adults finding the tomb of Nostradamus. There they defile the crypt and find a book and a mask that looks just like the one in the Metropol's lobby. One of the characters puts the mask on against the wishes of his friend and is warned that the wearer becomes a demon. "He will spread pestilence and evil" As the character removes the mask he is cut just like Rosemary was. This she finds really disturbing and at that moment realizes that the cut she has is bleeding again and heads to the bathroom to get cleaned up. As she walks out the film also talks about cuts that will not stop bleeding.
There is this stuff with Liz (Enrica Maria Scrivano) and a strange guy making out while Werner (Alex Serra) listens to the movie. It was like she planned for them to be here to meet the man. It is a bit out of place but a reason to focus on the audience and break up some of the plot points. So the film being played is interspersed with the audience behaviors in what is some pretty decent editing. When the film later starts to parallel the goings on in the theater it is a real movie making treat. Bava obviously knows what he is doing and the effects are startling and effective.
In the first of an increasingly amazing gross out effects shot of Demons, Rosemary in the bathroom looking at the cut on her face. It pulses and bubbles before bursting forth a green goo. The film now is sort of becoming the theater as the fiend in the movie becomes a demon as Rosemary also does in the bathroom. There are the screams in the film that mask her screams. The on screen film is quite gruesome with some pretty intense stabbing scenes. Carmen (Fabiola Toledo) heads to the bathroom to check on her friend but it is too late and demon Rosemary chases her after wounding her neck. Escaping by running in a panisc through the corridors of the theater, she ends up behind the screen of the movie. Unfortunately for her with all the screaming and stabbing happening in the film no one notices her real live screams. It is a great bit of editing here also. Werner notices Liz is gone and calls for her. She is getting it on with her man a little ways off and wants to head back but is not really pulling away. Werner is feeling around in the dark as demon Rosemary is making it up to the balcony where Liz her lover and Werner are seated. There is a stabbing through tent scene in the film while Carmen starts to turn into a demon herself behind the scream, again masking her distress in a wall of movie sound. Finally though she forces her way through the screen and everyone knows something is going on. They race to her aid as Rosemary gets the cheating couple strangling them with a rope. They see Carmen change in what is some excellent special effects as her fingernails are pushed out by claws, her teeth push out by fangs and she is quickly a demon.
Now the attacks come fast and furious and the music picks up to ad to the chaos, people are panicking and running for the doors as our hooker demons get a couple more people, but in an unexplained phenomena the doors are now blocked by walls. Maybe it is the theater that is doing it? It is important to note the gory attacks are getting better with eye gouges, skulls ripped off, broken fingers and more each more gruesome than the last.
As they blame the movie for the goings on they decide they have to stop the movie and break into the projection room. There is no one in the room though it is all automated. Tony, the pimp with a plan is not done giving orders though. He smashes all the machines and thus the movie is stopped. We now inexplicably shift from the theater to a bunch of coke heads in a stolen car who really only have one purpose, that is to let the demon plague out of the theater. It is annoying but it is what was decided in the script they end up running from the police and in the alley next to the theater, a door mysteriously open and they get in. At the end of the scene though a demon gets out too though. They don't even last very long once inside, they are demon meat before they know what hit them. It really takes away the incredible tension that was built in the Metropol and throws viewing for a loop. The pimp with a plan, Tony has the survivors breaking seats to block the entrance to the balcony and fights off a demon or two before he too is bitten. If they had just stayed there the whole time without cutting in the coke heads it would have been a lot better.
When fully trapped I mean barricaded in the balcony the remaining non-demons pound in the walls to try to get attention of the outside world. Although it fails to bring rescue they do find a hidden passage to a cellar where they freak out because they are still trapped. They panic a bit and the camera follows the room in an artistic scream fest. Only Hannah and Tom are alone together in the theater and are desperately seeking a door that does not seem to exists. Hey maybe if they crawl into the air conditioning vent? Maybe that will work as a means of escape? Back to the balcony and they know the barricades won't last forever but they wait it out. They hear gunshots from the cops dealing with the escaped demon in the alley, soon they are scrambling to get out through the very barricades they built. They are not thinking clearly tearing down the barricade that is keeping the demons out. All most of them can think is that the gunshots mean there is help out there and they have to get to it. Seeing a problem with this strategy George, Ken, Cheryl and Kathy head through the remaining barricade crawling under before the demons attack. Of course they are chased but make it out the other side. What is great about this film is it just keeps upping the gore ante and the attacks at this point are amazing particularly the finger biting. As they exit the crawl Kathy has fainted after a close call with a demon. She is out of it but as she wakes the guys and Cheryl realize she is possessed by a demon, not bitten but possessed. Oh and did I say it gets better, not only is she a gone but the creature literally crawls out of her back. At this point you could say that the film can't get better but it does. All the demons are on the hunt and only Cheryl and George are left, before they get out of the theater there is motorcycle slashing in the theater it is amazing and hilariously crazy but he is the motorcycle samerai and slays most all of the demons. Enough you say NO says Demons and a helicopter comes crashing through the roof. You will be like WTF but our remaining characters see a way out through that hole in the roof. It is just excellent the lengths this film goes to. Then on top of that there is more and we see what has been happening outside also. WOW! Oh and what were those posters on the walls of the lobby? Was that an AC/DC poster and a Four Flies on Grey Velvet, nice touches. So for all you horrorphiles out there if you have not seen this movie What are you waiting for? This flawed but ultimately brilliant film is waiting for your eyes to bleed in its glory.
Rating (8.2) 5.0 and up are recommended In the Zombiegrrlz system BUY IT!