Demonia (1990) One for the true Lucio Fulci completionist (Review)

Giallo and Italian Horror legend Lucio Fulci marked a return to cinema in this early 90’s nunsploitation flick – but is its reputation as Fulci’s weakest film deserved or has the last 30 years been kind to the Italian maestro’s forgotten work?

We open in fifteenth-century Italy, as a group of satanic nuns with a sort of question mark in between their eyes are crucified by angry locals, suspected of witchcraft. This scenario is glimpsed during a seance in 1990’s Canada by Liza (played by a badly dubbed Meg Register), who collapses after the vision. She’s advised to stay away from the occult by her archaeology professor Paul Evans (played by a very badly dubbed Brett Halsey) who operates in a sort of leading man/father figure role. He whisks Liza away to an archaeological dig in Sicily in the shadow of an ancient monastery and despite her interest, locals warn Liza and Paul off from straying into the monastery. Almost immediately ignoring this advice, Liza enters the monastery and proceeds to smash a wall down, uncovering the chamber where the nuns were crucified – unwittingly releasing their malevolent spirits.

The nuns proceed to dispatch the collective archaeology team in various ways, while Liza gets the lowdown on the sordid history of the monastery from a local crazy cat lady. She explains that the nuns’ debauched behaviour led the local townspeople to kill them and brick up the scene of their crimes and yet again her warning to Liza goes unheeded before her eventual grisly demise. Professor Evans despairs over his dwindling dig team, suspecting locals until he realizes that Liza may have had a hand in the murderous happenings. Chasing her to the monastery, he witnesses the locals are stopping at nothing to reenact history and cast the nuns back to hell. Can he save Liza before it is too late?

Wow, this was a tough watch. I had such high hopes for a slice of 90’s nostalgic horror, perhaps one that I had missed – one that the world had overlooked. The film never received a theatrical release outside of Italy and only received an official release in the US in 2001, and now, having watched it, I understand why. Fulci’s endearing gore from his goldern era is missing, replaced by non-scary nuns and topless female apparitions sometimes wielding harpoon guns, not to mention some epic bad dubbing for every character in the film. The deaths show some imagination: there’s a somewhat squeamish scene in a butcher’s shop with what looks like actually real meat carcasses. Still, there are also a few lazy kills and one that’s downright ridiculous – you could blame the budget, but I’m not keen on watching mannequins being ripped apart by the legs in a confusing manner. The script is unremarkable, especially after the film goes to Italy when only a few dialogue-led scenes really matter. I had to double-check that this film was made in the 1990s, as it looks and feels like a film from the 1970s, with the male actors mostly a horny, beardy bunch and the wide-eyed macabre-inquisitive Liza a million miles away from a 90’s female archetype, especially in the horror genre.

I think an 8-year-old me, up past his bedtime, may have briefly been terrified by certain scenes – there’s a strangely nostalgic feel that evokes its far superior predecessors. But even as a throwback, this film isn’t scary enough, gory enough, or interesting enough to command my attention for long. Fulci certainly has some classic genre films under his belt – this one would’ve been best served by being kept in his back pocket.

(Editor) Extras are exhaustive in this limited edition Arrow Video release. Before getting to the disc, there’s new writing on the film by the ever wonderful author and critic Kat Ellinger. Then, we have two discs of additional content. On disc one: a 4K restoration, a commentary by Stephen Thrower, author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci; a video interview with uncredited co-writer/assistant director Antonio Tentori; interview with camera operator Sandro Grossi; and camcorder footage of a visit to the Demonia set, including an interview with Lucio Fulci. Then, on disc two. Fulci Talks, a feature-length 2021 documentary by filmmaker Antonietta De Lillo, based on an in-depth, career-spanning video interview with Lucio Fulci from 1993, conducted by De Lillo and critic Marcello Garofalo

DAVID ON DEMONIA