Editorials
[It Came From the ’80s] A Theater Full of Hungry ‘Demons’
With horror industry heavy hitters already in place from the 1970s, the 1980s built upon that with the rise of brilliant minds in makeup and effects artists, as well as advances in technology. Artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and countless other artists that delivered groundbreaking, mind-blowing practical effects that ushered in the pre-CGI Golden Age of Cinema. Which meant a glorious glut of creatures in horror. More than just a technical marvel, the creatures on display in ‘80s horror meant tangible texture that still holds up decades later. Grotesque slimy skin to brutal transformation sequences, there wasn’t anything the artists couldn’t create. It Came From the ‘80s is a series that will pay homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
“The will make cemeteries their cathedrals and the cities will be your tombs.”
Lamberto Bava’s Demons is a magical display of Italian horror at its finest. Produced and co-written by Dario Argento during his heavy metal craze, even featuring Goblin mainstay Claudio Simonetti on the score, this is an epic monster movie that bops to the beat of its pulse-pounding, fist-pumping soundtrack with a colorful aesthetic Bava likely picked up from his father, horror master Mario Bava. That the cast is largely comprised of teens aged from 15-20 only furthers the film’s high energy. But the thing that ties it all together is, of course, the demons.
Shot in a closed down movie theater, the somewhat Inception-like plot sees a group of strangers invited to a mysterious screening at a newly renovated theater, only to find themselves locked in with predatory demons. It’s a fun wink to the audience, in that the mysterious screening is of a horror movie that delivers all the exposition on the demon curse. Namely in that the shiny silver mask in the lobby holds the key to unleashing the ravenous demons.
Poor Rosemary (Geretta Geretta) connects the dots too late, having put it on before the screening started. She falls ill, the scratch on her face from the mask pulses before bursting into an obscene amount of green puss. Her mouth gushes blood as her new fanged teeth force out her own, her nails follow suit, black veins and red eyes take over, and she’s off to devour the unassuming audience. Those that survive the attack then turn themselves, causing an outbreak among the panicked theater attendees. Basically, it becomes full-fledged carnage that spreads fast.
Gruesome transformations, green pus and vomit, and violent gory deaths thanks to special effects and make-up artist Sergio Stivaletti, one of Europe’s make-up and special effects masters. He collaborated with most of Italy’s most important horror directors, working on films like Phenomena, Cemetery Man, The Church, Opera, and more. Demons was among his first, though.
Stivaletti and his team had a huge lion’s share of work with the creation of the demons. The mechanical work from the pulsing flesh, casting various teeth molds for various stages of transformation, demon puppets, and a ton of gore effects meant a lot to juggle during production. Throw in motorcycle stunts, a massive helicopter crash, and impaling by rebar, and Stivaletti and his team deserve just as much credit for Demons as director Bava and producer Argento.
Which is probably why they reunited for the sequel, Demons 2, where they took the concept to a whole new wacky level. It’s also why Stivaletti sparked rumors of reuniting once again with Bava and Argento for Demons 3D, a potential modern reboot. Though studios tried to capitalize on the success of Demons and Demons 2 numerous times by renaming horror films to appear as sequels in the franchise, Bava’s are the only official Demoni films.
Between the heavy metal, punk rock soundtrack, the sense of fun, and the bloodbath of the demons’ feeding frenzy, Stivaletti, Bava, and Argento delivered an all-timer. It’s quintessential ‘80s horror, and I’d love for them to bring the gang back together for one more film. If they could invoke the killer tag-lines from the ‘80s too, that’d be great.
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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