DEMONIA (1990) (Severin Films Blu-ray Review)

DEMONIA (1990)

Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 89 Minutes 
Audio: English & Italian 2,0 Mono with Optional English Subtitle
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1) 
Director: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Brett Halsey, Meg Register, Lino Salemme, Christina Engelhardt, Pascal Druant, Grady Clarkson, Al Cliver

Lucio Fulci's Demonia (1990) opens in in Sicily in the year 1486 with an torch-carrying angry mob storming a convent and crucifying five nuns suspected of practicing witchcraft or some such satanic thing. The nuns are crucified and set on fire, their remains are then walled up in a cavernous chamber right beneath the convent. This frightening event is witnessed by archaeologist Liza (Meg Register, Boxing Helena) in Toronto, Canada during a frightful seance in the year 1990. Next thing we know Liza is in Sicily working on an archaeological dig with her university instructor Professor Evans (Brett Halsey, The Devil's Honey), who tells her to stay away from such phantasmagorical nonsense as seances and to focus her attention on the archaeology dig.

Later while exploring an abandoned monastery located near the archaeological dig Liza discovers a walled-off crypt after breaking through a wall with a pick-ax, where she finds the charred skeletal remains of the five crucified nuns from the start of the film, and again when she tells her professor of the strange find he tells her to forget she ever saw it. His intuition is correct though, the locals in the area have been none too pleased about these foreigners digging up the area's forgotten past, including a local politician, angry butcher Turi (Lino Salemme, Demons) and an American underwater archaeologist named Porter (Al Cliver, Zombie), all of whom advise, to varying degrees of hostility, that they should leave the area immediately. Despite these warning the dig continues and a series of bizarre deaths begin to plague those involved, beginning with the harpooning and decapitation of Porter on his boat by the naked ghost of a nun!

Demonia (1990) is sometimes referred to as the last great Fulci film, and that's quite a generous statement from some rabid fans, my own opinion is that it's a bit less than that, but still enjoyable. Demonia borrows heavily from the filmography of Fulci with story vestiges from The Beyond, The City of The Living Dead and Zombie, but it's only a pale imitation of those gore-tastic classics with the introduction of a singular new element, a bit of supernatural nunsploitation. It doesn't help that the cinematography is flat and uninspired with a thick and gauzy diffused appearance that recalls Fulci's fantasy-adventure film Conquest (1983). At times it looks decent with good depth and clarity but other scenes appear to be marred by too much light exposure, often within the same scene the visual density will change, calling attention to itself to the point of distraction.

The film does have some fun gore set-pieces that don't disappoint, we get a meat hook through the neck and then a tongue nailed to a butcher's block, eyes are scratched out via a hokey looking feline attack, there's an impalement on iron spikes, a fiery Crucifixion that includes a nail through the throat, a neck-stabbing during sex, and a severed head impaled on the tusk of a boat anchor, with the best of the bunch being a man ripped in half wishbone style, leaving his son drenched in his blood! Not all the special effects are executed with highest degree of artistry though, some are quite ropy in their application, and none are helped by the unattractive lensing and poor editing that plagues the film.

As a Fulci fan I certainly appreciated the stream of echoes from the director's earlier works, with Meg Register's character name being a direct reference to The Beyond, Al Cliver's boat-living archaeologist recalls his character from Zombie, and a scene of Liza breaking through a wall with a pick-ax is shot to mirror a similiar scene from The City of The Living Dead. It's sort of like when a band loses the rights to their early catalog so they re-record their biggest hits, but their new recording fail to capture what was so great about the original recordings, and such is the case with Demonia (1990), it's an echo of better works from Fulci. It's also great to see Fulci make his usual Hitchcockian cameo as an inspector investigating the string of strange murders, but unfortunately the film lacks the usual Fulci atmospheric touches that might have served to pull viewers in and smooth over the poor editing, but I still dig it as morbidly curious fan of late-era Fulci.

Audio/Video: Demonia (1990) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Severin Films with a new brand new 4k scan of the original camera negative framed in 1.66:1 widescreen, presented in 1080p HD. The flick is advertised as being "scanned in 4k from the original negative recently discovered in the attic of a Collevecchio convent", yeah, okay, I guess those nuns were huge Fulci fans, who knew? This Fulci film has always been a bit of an ugly looking entry, shot with heavy lens filtration that gives it a foggy shroud that's not always pleasant to look at. It also suffers from some technically issues that looks to be either over-exposed and/or overly diffused film. This new 4k scan does take a bit of the edge off those shortcomings, offering a bit more clarity and detail in the close-ups occasionally, but it's still not a pretty sight. That said the foggy and darker interior scenes are better resolved with some decent fine detail, and the colors are more vibrant and deeper than what I've seen before, so it is a quantifiable improvement over the previous release. 

Audio on this release come by way of English & Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono with optional English subtitles. Dialogue in both Italian and English is clean and direct with no issue with hiss or distortion, though I preferred the English dub over the Italian dub. I thought the score from Giovanni Cristian was rather unremarkable but it does have good fidelity, it just doesn't do much to enhance the film. 

Extras kick-off with another great Fulci commentary with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci, a dyed in the wool Fulci expert and fan who I always look forward to hearing from whenever we get a new Fulci release. He dives into this late-era flick with a candid appreciation, always game to point out it's less than stellar aspects while also giving it plenty of love when appropriate, backing up his commentary with extensive production notes, biographical background and some historical context for happenings in the film. 

In the 33-min 'Holy Demons' the uncredited co-writer/assistant director Antonio Tentorin talks via Skype during the pandemic of being a huge Fulci fan and seeking out his films at the cinema, before meeting him 1986 at a radio station where he was a DJ at the time, and how that lead to collaborating with Fulci in this film and beyond. 
Camera operator also Sandro Grossi shows up for the 15-min 'Of Skulls and Bones' in which he discusses his passion for film, and of how seeing Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon made him want to pursue a career in film. He also touches on shooting the film, Fulci's love of the fog filter, visual trucks here learned from Fulci, the director's slovenly appearance and trouble with women, and how the Fulci's death affected him. The disc is buttoned-up with an om-set interview with Fulci during the making-of Demonia (1990) and a trailer for the film. 

The single-disc release comes housed in a standard black keepcase with a single-sided  sleeve of artwork that while not amazing it is a a bit of an improvement over the Media Blasters DVD artwork. This has never been a film with a good looking movie poster or home video artwork, so this is at least an improvement over anything else, it's amazing what a little bit of mint-green color can do.   

Special Features: 
- Holy Demons: Interview with uncredited Co-Writer/Assistant Director Antonio Tentori (33 min)
- Fulci Lives: Interview with Lucio Fulci on set of DEMONIA
- Of Skulls and Bones: Interview with camera operator Sandro Grossi (15 min) 
- Audio Commentary with Stephen Thrower, Author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci
- Original Trailer

Demonia (1990) has never looked better on home video, but that's not saying that much, it was an ugly film when it made it, and you can only polish a turd so much, but Severin do admirable work breathing new life into this stale looking film. The movie itself is a bit of a fun greatest hits tour for Fulci, and fans who are still enamored with the director's late-era work, despite it's shortcomings, are sure to enjoy revisiting this slice of Fulci nunsploitation. I also appreciate that Severin have present it with some quality extras that make this a must-own for any Fulci fan, regardless of your feelings about the quality of his late-era stuff.   

More screenshots from the Blu-ray: