- Director
- Lamberto Bava
- Year
- 1985
- Country
- Italy
- Runtime
- 84 min
Also released as
- Dèmoni
- Dance of the Demons
- Demons
- Demoni 1
- 猛鬼戲院
- デモンズ
- 데몬스
- Demonios
- Demons: Filhos das Trevas
Filed under
Demons
Lamberto Bava, produced by Argento, and it is a film about a cinema audience being turned into monsters inside the cinema.
Strangers are handed free tickets to a screening at a Berlin cinema. There is a prop mask in the foyer. Somebody puts it on.
The premise is the whole joke and the film commits: the exits are bricked up, the film within the film predicts what is about to happen, and eventually a man rides a motorbike down the aisle with a sword.
Claudio Simonetti's score and a soundtrack of Billy Idol, Mötley Crüe and Accept date it precisely to 1985, which is part of the appeal.
The makeup by Sergio Stivaletti is very good, and the transformations, all bubbling and splitting from the inside, are among the best practical effects Italy produced.
It has no ideas beyond its premise and does not need any. It is 88 minutes and never stops moving.
The numbers
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Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Australia
Canada
Germany
UK
USA
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 9 Aug 2026
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