"Demonium" is the English language debut of Andreas Schnaas,whose previous amateurish horror movies include "Zombie 90:Extreme Pestilence","Anthropophagous 2000" and "Violent Shit" trilogy.For a Schnaas film,"Demonium" actually looks pretty expensive,but not too much.The acting is very poor and the script by Ted Geoghegan and Sonja Schnaas is awful,with appalling dialogue and unsympathetic characters.The gore is pretty extreme,with decapitations,throat ripping,torture and chainsaw dismemberment.Still the film is rather dull,so casual horror fans will be disappointed.Give this one a look,if you're a fan of German splatter.4 out of 10.
16 Reviews
An Italian cast brutally murder the English Language.
BA_Harrison27 December 2008
Having first achieved success with productions filmed in their native tongue, the next logical step for many foreign directors is to try and break the international market with an English speaking movie; for crappy cult German horror director Andreas Schnaas, whose amateurish splatter pics are unlikely to ever receive praise from the masses, this might have meant a very long wait. Rather than waste time honing his skills and mastering his art, Schnaas has ploughed on as he is, somehow raising a slightly bigger budget than usual for Demonium, his seventh directorial effort and the first to be shot entirely in English.
Well, something approximating English, anyway...
Inexplicably, Demonium features a predominantly Italian cast whose command of the English language can only be described as basic. With the actors mangling nearly all of their lines, and Schnaas' usual inability to tell a decent story (what is it with those annoying, flickery, sepia-toned flashbacks?), the film quickly becomes an incomprehensible mess which is only just made bearable thanks to some pretty gory death scenes and a little nudity (although even these elements seem to have been toned down slightly by the director in a misguided attempt at broadening the film's appeal).
Taking its basic premise from the Agatha Christie classic 'Ten Little Indians', the film sees a group of people gathered together at a creepy castle for the reading of a rich scientist's will; here they are told they must remain for three days before they can qualify for their inheritance. No prizes for guessing that not all of them survive to collect. One by one, the beneficiaries suffer gruesome fates (an exploding chest, a chainsaw attack, a pitchfork in the throat, etc.,) at the hands of the will's executor, Rasmus, and his lover Maria, who hope to claim the scientist's last discoverya wonder drug that can cure all illsall for themselves.
Despite plenty of the red stuff, even the most dedicated of gore-hounds might find Demonium's poorly structured narrative and excruciatingly bad acting too much to handle.
***Minor point of interest: Italian horror make-up maestro Sergio Stivaletti supplies the film with a very brief CGI sequence. It is rubbish!***
Well, something approximating English, anyway...
Inexplicably, Demonium features a predominantly Italian cast whose command of the English language can only be described as basic. With the actors mangling nearly all of their lines, and Schnaas' usual inability to tell a decent story (what is it with those annoying, flickery, sepia-toned flashbacks?), the film quickly becomes an incomprehensible mess which is only just made bearable thanks to some pretty gory death scenes and a little nudity (although even these elements seem to have been toned down slightly by the director in a misguided attempt at broadening the film's appeal).
Taking its basic premise from the Agatha Christie classic 'Ten Little Indians', the film sees a group of people gathered together at a creepy castle for the reading of a rich scientist's will; here they are told they must remain for three days before they can qualify for their inheritance. No prizes for guessing that not all of them survive to collect. One by one, the beneficiaries suffer gruesome fates (an exploding chest, a chainsaw attack, a pitchfork in the throat, etc.,) at the hands of the will's executor, Rasmus, and his lover Maria, who hope to claim the scientist's last discoverya wonder drug that can cure all illsall for themselves.
Despite plenty of the red stuff, even the most dedicated of gore-hounds might find Demonium's poorly structured narrative and excruciatingly bad acting too much to handle.
***Minor point of interest: Italian horror make-up maestro Sergio Stivaletti supplies the film with a very brief CGI sequence. It is rubbish!***
Lots of gore but the film itself is dire
Stevieboy66610 May 2020
A group of people assemble at a castle for the reading of a will, only to get murdered one by one. This did have a touch of Agatha Christie in that respect.
Demonium was released in the UK on a label called Hard Gore, as the name suggests they specialised in putting out gory movies. And there is plenty of gore and violence on offer here.I would say that it is the only thing worth seeing as the plot, script and acting are all atrocious. Actually there is some female. topless nudity too. If it was not for the gore then I would be scoring this mess 1/10. Denomium is a TERRIBLE movie, despite the DVD's claim that it is a "masterpiece of gruelling horror"! Special effects meastro Sergio Stivaletti, who worked on many great Italian horror movies, was on board and whilst some of the gory effects are decent many are cheap looking, including some nasty CGI.
I am in two mind about this one...........
poolandrews5 September 2002
This movie starts with a couple, who at this point we know nothing about other than they are lovers, getting brutally 'murdered' by someone or something in a wide brimmed hat to conceal his/hers/its face. After they are both dispatched we cut to a 'castle' in europe somewhere and a caption on the bottom of the screen informing us that it is 'a year earlier'. Straight away the owner of this 'castle' Arnold is also brutally killed. Three gory deaths within the first ten minutes, a good start. Anyway, Arnolds relatives are informed and called together at this 'castle' for the reading of his will. As you can probably guess they start to mysteriously disappear. I think that this is basically a pretty decent low budget horror. Its twisted, someone throws his own freshly severed arm out of a nearby window to try and raise some help. Its perverted, we get the maid dressed up as a dominatrix and a chained up slave groveling at her feet. And its sick, a very joyful killer cuts a woman in half with a chainsaw in close up, and an unlucky guy gets his throat ripped out with a meat hook. But it has its problems, for instance the opening three murders are done by killers unknown to the viewer. But soon after the killers and their motives are revealed when the fourth victim dies making the way the opening murders were staged with an unknown killer pointless. The photography is quite poor consisting mainly of master shots and virtually no close ups. It seems as if the director wanted to film each scene as quickly as possible, with as few camera set ups as he could manage. While pretty gory there are gorier out there. The blood looks fake, really thin and watery. The make up effects could certainly have been better too. Oh, and you never see the 'castle' just its front door. Inside its just like a large modern house so forget about dark candle lit corridors and gothic looking rooms. It does however have its good points. It moves along like a rocket, your never too far away from the next murder. Could have been better but its not too bad I suppose.
Lousy, even by lousy-movie standards.
mw_director4 July 2004
There is one shot early on in the otherwise utterly indefensible DEMONIUM that shows that Andreas Schnaas might have a real filmmaker lurking somewhere inside him: a blind woman, unaware that a killer is lurking in her house, walks past the camera towards her bathroom, when all at once the killer jumps out of hiding behind her, running from one room to the room opposite the hallway she's in. It's abrupt, and Schnaas cuts away almost immediately, so that the entire action is on screen for less than a second. It's a "jump outta your seat" moment worthy of Argento's DEEP RED.
Unfortunately, that's the only instance of actual film-making in the whole lousy enterprise. For the most part, Schnaas is just an untalented pretender to the director's chair. Even a reported $2.2 million budget and a chance to shoot 35mm hasn't made his work look any more professional than it does in his infamous shot-on-video no-budget backyard productions. His DP, and I use the term advisedly, makes everything look like video anyway. Almost all of the nighttime exteriors look like they were lit with a single 1K. And Schnaas not only shows his incompetence at composition, but in this film he overuses a camera dolly to ridiculous effect, the act of a filmmaker whose attitude is "Well, we rented the damn thing, might as well use it." I didn't get the impression Schnaas ever bothers with shot lists or storyboards, but even if he does, his work on those must be as inept as his "directing".
And the acting...yeesh! All the cast (but one) are Europeans for whom English is clearly their second or even third language, so everyone's (and I mean everyone's) line delivery is laughable. They sound like they're just reading for their ESL class, and doing it badly. Schnaas was either on a tight deadline here, or just doesn't bother with second takes, because a number of actors flub their lines, then start over. I imagine some of these actors might be pretty talented working in their native languages, but their work here is unlikely to benefit their careers in any way, to put it kindly.
Everyone talks about how gory Schnaas's films are, but you'll see much worse (and more believable) than this in ICHI THE KILLER, a gore film that just happens to be made by a real talent at the helm. Schnaas can't even make a good example of the lowest form of film art this side of hardcore porn. He and Troma deserve each other.
1/10
Unfortunately, that's the only instance of actual film-making in the whole lousy enterprise. For the most part, Schnaas is just an untalented pretender to the director's chair. Even a reported $2.2 million budget and a chance to shoot 35mm hasn't made his work look any more professional than it does in his infamous shot-on-video no-budget backyard productions. His DP, and I use the term advisedly, makes everything look like video anyway. Almost all of the nighttime exteriors look like they were lit with a single 1K. And Schnaas not only shows his incompetence at composition, but in this film he overuses a camera dolly to ridiculous effect, the act of a filmmaker whose attitude is "Well, we rented the damn thing, might as well use it." I didn't get the impression Schnaas ever bothers with shot lists or storyboards, but even if he does, his work on those must be as inept as his "directing".
And the acting...yeesh! All the cast (but one) are Europeans for whom English is clearly their second or even third language, so everyone's (and I mean everyone's) line delivery is laughable. They sound like they're just reading for their ESL class, and doing it badly. Schnaas was either on a tight deadline here, or just doesn't bother with second takes, because a number of actors flub their lines, then start over. I imagine some of these actors might be pretty talented working in their native languages, but their work here is unlikely to benefit their careers in any way, to put it kindly.
Everyone talks about how gory Schnaas's films are, but you'll see much worse (and more believable) than this in ICHI THE KILLER, a gore film that just happens to be made by a real talent at the helm. Schnaas can't even make a good example of the lowest form of film art this side of hardcore porn. He and Troma deserve each other.
1/10
Krappenshite
Bezenby18 March 2013
Warning: Spoilers
I'd heard a lot about Andreas Schnaas over the years, and was kind of looking forward to watching one of his gore films, but to be honest I wish I hadn't bothered.
Demonium is a film full of blood and gore, but the story is completely lacking any substance whatsoever. I didn't have any problems with the Italian cast and their accents, but the film seriously lacked any kind of exciting plot. Is this what all of Schnaas' films are like.
Some evil guy gets murdered, and therefore all his next of kin show up for the reading of the will and to get killed in various ways. The killers aren't really kept much of a secret, as they are revealed about halfway into the film to be Maria the maid and Rasmus the...lawyer? Something like that. We've already seen those two get killed at the start of the film, so the only mystery is who killed them, and believe me, you won't care.
That's the film. There's various flashback to how evil this guy was, doing experiments on people and such like, and there's some sort of sub plot about some formula the guy made, but it's all a bit pointless, really. There was a trailer for another Schnaas film on here which looked much better. This one you could quite easily give a miss.
Demonium is a film full of blood and gore, but the story is completely lacking any substance whatsoever. I didn't have any problems with the Italian cast and their accents, but the film seriously lacked any kind of exciting plot. Is this what all of Schnaas' films are like.
Some evil guy gets murdered, and therefore all his next of kin show up for the reading of the will and to get killed in various ways. The killers aren't really kept much of a secret, as they are revealed about halfway into the film to be Maria the maid and Rasmus the...lawyer? Something like that. We've already seen those two get killed at the start of the film, so the only mystery is who killed them, and believe me, you won't care.
That's the film. There's various flashback to how evil this guy was, doing experiments on people and such like, and there's some sort of sub plot about some formula the guy made, but it's all a bit pointless, really. There was a trailer for another Schnaas film on here which looked much better. This one you could quite easily give a miss.
Unpolished diamond...
jluis198418 November 2005
This could have been Andreas Schnass glorious welcome to the English speaking cinema, but ended up flawed because of certain production aspects that could had been easily corrected. Maybe it was the budget? overconfidence? human error? Let me explain.
This plot is about an old man who is brutally murdered in his castle, and the family who comes to take the inheritance. One by one will be killed by the servants who want to take the money. This is stated since the first two scenes, so don't worry, I have not spoiled a thing.
The movie starts with a couple being brutally killed by no reason. It takes us a year after the homicide and the movie starts, we realize that the couple are the servants. There is suspense, but this is not of the Agatha Christie's "who did it?" type, the questions that carry the movie are: "how were they discovered? and who discovered them?" In terms of script, is an unusual take on the story of the typical "inheritance story", and even when it gets boring at times and the ending is kind of dull, the acting carries it very good. Andreas Schnass had a nice cast... which leads us to one of the main problems in the film.
Why to have good foreign actors who CAN'T speak English TALKING in English?!? No matter how good an actor is, to be able to play a part in a language you don't know takes an extra effort that on rare occasions works(Peter Lorre in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" comes to mind). It was obvious that the movie was doomed when this choice was made because, even when some actors DO make a good pronunciation, most of them don't. Don't get me wrong, the acting is good, but it would had been a thousand better if the actors were speaking their mother languages. Or knew how to speak English. A good dubbing would had improved this movie a lot.
Andreas Schnass is known for having over-the-top gore similar to Peter Jackson's early efforts; in Demonium, while it still is very gory, it takes a Gothic approach similar to Stuart Gordon's Castle Freak. This makes the gore to be less funny(unlike Braidnead) and more in tone with the dark ambiance the film has.
So, we have average script, good acting(despite the BIG flaw of the language), usual direction BUT... the second BIG flaw of the movie is the lighting. This is Schnass first 35 mm. movie, but the lighting he used makes it look like a video. It's that bad. Certainly, this is a problem of experience, I hope that his next efforts will have improved this flaw.
I see a bright future for Mr. Schnass, and even when this movie suffers a LOT with it's flaws, it's still watchable. It's a bad movie that promises a better next effort.
5/10 because it's flaws really damaged what could had been a good movie.
This plot is about an old man who is brutally murdered in his castle, and the family who comes to take the inheritance. One by one will be killed by the servants who want to take the money. This is stated since the first two scenes, so don't worry, I have not spoiled a thing.
The movie starts with a couple being brutally killed by no reason. It takes us a year after the homicide and the movie starts, we realize that the couple are the servants. There is suspense, but this is not of the Agatha Christie's "who did it?" type, the questions that carry the movie are: "how were they discovered? and who discovered them?" In terms of script, is an unusual take on the story of the typical "inheritance story", and even when it gets boring at times and the ending is kind of dull, the acting carries it very good. Andreas Schnass had a nice cast... which leads us to one of the main problems in the film.
Why to have good foreign actors who CAN'T speak English TALKING in English?!? No matter how good an actor is, to be able to play a part in a language you don't know takes an extra effort that on rare occasions works(Peter Lorre in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" comes to mind). It was obvious that the movie was doomed when this choice was made because, even when some actors DO make a good pronunciation, most of them don't. Don't get me wrong, the acting is good, but it would had been a thousand better if the actors were speaking their mother languages. Or knew how to speak English. A good dubbing would had improved this movie a lot.
Andreas Schnass is known for having over-the-top gore similar to Peter Jackson's early efforts; in Demonium, while it still is very gory, it takes a Gothic approach similar to Stuart Gordon's Castle Freak. This makes the gore to be less funny(unlike Braidnead) and more in tone with the dark ambiance the film has.
So, we have average script, good acting(despite the BIG flaw of the language), usual direction BUT... the second BIG flaw of the movie is the lighting. This is Schnass first 35 mm. movie, but the lighting he used makes it look like a video. It's that bad. Certainly, this is a problem of experience, I hope that his next efforts will have improved this flaw.
I see a bright future for Mr. Schnass, and even when this movie suffers a LOT with it's flaws, it's still watchable. It's a bad movie that promises a better next effort.
5/10 because it's flaws really damaged what could had been a good movie.
Not a good horror film....
MovieGuy014 November 2009
I did not like The horror film Demonium at all. I did not find anything interesting in the movie to enjoy. Rasmus Bentley and his lover, Maria. One afternoon, after they close a deal which will secure their lives together forever, terrible events occurs. One year earlier,a scientist is brutally murdered in his ancient castle. Rasmus, calls together the man's heirs listed in his will, but as they all gather at the castle, but what they do not know is that the murderer is still haunting the ancient halls. One by one, the group is hunted down by the lunatic, whose bloodbath is not yet complete. I found this to be quite a poor horror film, with not much of a very good storyline to it. 3/10
UnCut Region Free And A True Gorefest
cbudnick20 August 2002
I liked the movie so much I bought the rights and released it in the UK. Andreas Schnaas is clearly the new master of Gore. Detailed special effects filled the screens with so much blood and eye poping surprises that the acting and story line were a accomplished and a welcome surprise to this instant clasisc.
b-movie horror gore film, but fun to watch
drnrg316 May 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Oh what a treat this film is. I don't mean that by Hollywood standards. This film is far from it. Instead it relys on it's cheap feel to achieve it's purpose.
The whole plot is cheesy. A group of five people are left an inheritance from a character which we see die in the first 10 minuets of the film. These characters all seem to be foreign actors who clearly do not speak English. This seems to a be a big problem with the reviewers, but to me it just add to it's cheesy charm. I really believe the director, Andreas Schanas(not sure if I spelled his name right?)purposely filmed the movie like this on purpose. It sorta makes you want these characters to die, which ultimately do.
It's funny because the heroes ,who obviously are Rasmus & Maria are twisted to the point of insanity and are the ones doing all the killings. I'm not too sure if it's for money or for the serum's secrets, but the way they kill their victim's is pure Gore fans eye candy. There is even a scene where a man is crucified to an entrance and tortured as one of our heroes sings Jesus Christ Superstar. Really disturbing.
The movie itself is bad in quality. The lighting is horrible, sound effects outlandish(is that a cuckoo clock in the background?)and actors-, while charming, because they cannot speak Engish, sound like amatures when reading their lines.
I would like to comment on the intro of the movie. This scene is very suspenseful, because the victim is blind and cannot see the horror that lurks in her house. Literally right next to her. In this Andreas S. really captured the feel of terror from movies like "Suspiria" for example. The creature itself is so hideous that it attempts to pass off dressed a woman. One wonders how it ever got around in public.
The one flaw I might add, is that the ending seemed to go too fast with the last three killings taking place in one scene. This could have been done better. All in All a great little B-Movie gore flick. with it's quality differences aside, It's really enjoyable and even though it's in Engish, I would still concider it Foreign.
The whole plot is cheesy. A group of five people are left an inheritance from a character which we see die in the first 10 minuets of the film. These characters all seem to be foreign actors who clearly do not speak English. This seems to a be a big problem with the reviewers, but to me it just add to it's cheesy charm. I really believe the director, Andreas Schanas(not sure if I spelled his name right?)purposely filmed the movie like this on purpose. It sorta makes you want these characters to die, which ultimately do.
It's funny because the heroes ,who obviously are Rasmus & Maria are twisted to the point of insanity and are the ones doing all the killings. I'm not too sure if it's for money or for the serum's secrets, but the way they kill their victim's is pure Gore fans eye candy. There is even a scene where a man is crucified to an entrance and tortured as one of our heroes sings Jesus Christ Superstar. Really disturbing.
The movie itself is bad in quality. The lighting is horrible, sound effects outlandish(is that a cuckoo clock in the background?)and actors-, while charming, because they cannot speak Engish, sound like amatures when reading their lines.
I would like to comment on the intro of the movie. This scene is very suspenseful, because the victim is blind and cannot see the horror that lurks in her house. Literally right next to her. In this Andreas S. really captured the feel of terror from movies like "Suspiria" for example. The creature itself is so hideous that it attempts to pass off dressed a woman. One wonders how it ever got around in public.
The one flaw I might add, is that the ending seemed to go too fast with the last three killings taking place in one scene. This could have been done better. All in All a great little B-Movie gore flick. with it's quality differences aside, It's really enjoyable and even though it's in Engish, I would still concider it Foreign.
No reedeming qualities at all...
lex-icon15 January 2004
I saw this film yesterday, hoping it would be one of the so 'bad they're good' splatter films which I enjoy from time to time. But as the plot unfolded, right from the start I knew I had my hands on something really, really bad. To begin with, the acting is well.. atrocious, I mean the so called 'actors' were not only bad, but it almost seemed like they were trying their best to be the worst, it wasn't fun at all to mock them either since they seemed like porno actors and most of them were pretty unattractive to boot. The story already gives itself away in the beginning and soon you'll realize that for the rest of the film you will not be getting any surprises. I was yawning all the way through since I already knew what would happen. The sets and camera angles used are plain and do nothing to heighten the suspanse, not even the cheap scares worked since it all looked so fake. As far as the music score went, nothing to say really, just your usual spooky horror music we've all heard before, except for the occasional german (?) eletronic/metal/goth song in the background. By the end I was skipping forward with the remote to avoid the redundant and totally pointless dialogue between the characters, I don't even know what it was all about since the script is an amateurish disaster and everything that happens is so bizarre and illogical that it boggles the mind as to how such a screenplay could have been written by a sane person. Please do yourself a favor and stay away from this trash, it has nothing going for it except some cheap murder scene which failed even to make me cringe in the slightest. And what's with the ending?? what is the point of it all?. Avoid it like the plague!
Good but flawed in many places
Jim-D27 April 2002
I saw Demonium at a film festival and I was surprised by what I saw. I had seen two of Mr. Schnaas' earlier movies, Violent S*** 3 and Zombie 90 - Extreme Pestilence, and they were both good gory flicks. Demonium was gory, but not really as fun. It had some neat cheap effects (like a head breaking open and a chick blowing up), but it felt really slow sometimes when it could have been a lot faster. I think Mr. Schnaas was trying to make a gothic horror movie, but it just didn't work in some ways.
The effects were good, like I said but they looked kind of cheap sometimes. Blood has a habit of changing color from normal to hot pink a few times and it looks like they show some of the gore for too long which makes it look fake. The acting was also really weird and it seemed like a lot of the people couldn't speak English. It says here that the movie was filmed in Italy. The American guy and his wife (who explodes at the dinner table) both sounded good but a lot of the others seemed like they were reading their lines off cue cards or just couldn't speak English. Oh the main bad guy Rasmuss was also pretty good, mainly because he had a cool accent and he actually sounded like he could speak English. I don't understand why they didn't get Americans to be in this movie or film it in Italian. All of Mr. Schnaas's old movies were in German (I think). He could have done it in German too and it would have sounded way better. If they ever release this movie worldwide, they should really consider redoing the voices. I think that Americans especially would be able to take it a lot more seriously. I mean, the acting is good, but everyone who saw it with me said the same thing - These people are Italians and should be speaking in Italian, not English. It was just really weird.
Other than that, the movie was good. The story to the movie was really good. It has an old man who is killed and his family comes to his castle to hear his will being read. While they are there, the people who killed the old man try to kill off everyone else so they can have all of the old man's fortune and a secret medical technology. The only bad thing about the story is the beginning. It doesnt make any sense. Its like they put the end of the movie at the beginning so you know who the bad guys are right away and you know how they die right away. It was really weird and made the movie really less suspenseful. They should have made the killers a surprise and had them die at the end. The whole beginning seemed really added on and lame. I dont know what they were thinkign when they wrote that. Also they never really explain how the secret chemical works at all. Its just kind of there and just makes people melt and explode!
I guess not a lot of people have seen Demonium yet because they are only showing it at festivals now. When you do see it though, make sure you remember that this is the first big movie from a really low budget director. That makes a difference. I think they were trying to make something really big, but it didn't work all the time.
But dont get me wrong the movie has a lot of good parts, too. Like I said, it IS GOOD. There is some really good make-up on a lot of the deaths (and on this thing that looks like the toxic avenger). There is some nudity for people who like that and the castle looks really nice and ancient. The only real problems are the voices, some of the gore looking fake, a few slow parts, and the really bad beginning.
I think Mr. Schnaas has made a good step into becoming a real director of horror. He should make his next movie with less gore and nudity and make it have more to do with suspense. To make it big in the movie world you have to make horror movies that all people like: with action, suspense, and some violence and nudity. His movies are mostly about Just violence and nudity. I think caring about the characters before they die makes a movie even scarier.
Over all, I give this movie a 6 or 7 out of 10 for effort. Maybe if they release it soon, they will redo the sound and more people will see it. That way, Mr. Schnaas might get to be far more recognized.
The effects were good, like I said but they looked kind of cheap sometimes. Blood has a habit of changing color from normal to hot pink a few times and it looks like they show some of the gore for too long which makes it look fake. The acting was also really weird and it seemed like a lot of the people couldn't speak English. It says here that the movie was filmed in Italy. The American guy and his wife (who explodes at the dinner table) both sounded good but a lot of the others seemed like they were reading their lines off cue cards or just couldn't speak English. Oh the main bad guy Rasmuss was also pretty good, mainly because he had a cool accent and he actually sounded like he could speak English. I don't understand why they didn't get Americans to be in this movie or film it in Italian. All of Mr. Schnaas's old movies were in German (I think). He could have done it in German too and it would have sounded way better. If they ever release this movie worldwide, they should really consider redoing the voices. I think that Americans especially would be able to take it a lot more seriously. I mean, the acting is good, but everyone who saw it with me said the same thing - These people are Italians and should be speaking in Italian, not English. It was just really weird.
Other than that, the movie was good. The story to the movie was really good. It has an old man who is killed and his family comes to his castle to hear his will being read. While they are there, the people who killed the old man try to kill off everyone else so they can have all of the old man's fortune and a secret medical technology. The only bad thing about the story is the beginning. It doesnt make any sense. Its like they put the end of the movie at the beginning so you know who the bad guys are right away and you know how they die right away. It was really weird and made the movie really less suspenseful. They should have made the killers a surprise and had them die at the end. The whole beginning seemed really added on and lame. I dont know what they were thinkign when they wrote that. Also they never really explain how the secret chemical works at all. Its just kind of there and just makes people melt and explode!
I guess not a lot of people have seen Demonium yet because they are only showing it at festivals now. When you do see it though, make sure you remember that this is the first big movie from a really low budget director. That makes a difference. I think they were trying to make something really big, but it didn't work all the time.
But dont get me wrong the movie has a lot of good parts, too. Like I said, it IS GOOD. There is some really good make-up on a lot of the deaths (and on this thing that looks like the toxic avenger). There is some nudity for people who like that and the castle looks really nice and ancient. The only real problems are the voices, some of the gore looking fake, a few slow parts, and the really bad beginning.
I think Mr. Schnaas has made a good step into becoming a real director of horror. He should make his next movie with less gore and nudity and make it have more to do with suspense. To make it big in the movie world you have to make horror movies that all people like: with action, suspense, and some violence and nudity. His movies are mostly about Just violence and nudity. I think caring about the characters before they die makes a movie even scarier.
Over all, I give this movie a 6 or 7 out of 10 for effort. Maybe if they release it soon, they will redo the sound and more people will see it. That way, Mr. Schnaas might get to be far more recognized.
Somewhat a black comedy
fairlesssam1 July 2017
I like this film, it's kind of funny in a black comedy horror kind of way.
A group of family and friends of a dead person are invited to his castle for a meeting about his estate. Immediately one by one they are murdered in the most bloody fashion.
Although the film is not the best quality it is extremely entertaining and does not pause or slow. The characters are fun and interesting as is the story.
It's kind of a hardcore Clue featuring Tim Curry.
Lots of blood and gore.
A group of family and friends of a dead person are invited to his castle for a meeting about his estate. Immediately one by one they are murdered in the most bloody fashion.
Although the film is not the best quality it is extremely entertaining and does not pause or slow. The characters are fun and interesting as is the story.
It's kind of a hardcore Clue featuring Tim Curry.
Lots of blood and gore.
A real movie: crap!
eer8516 November 2004
Schnaas makes his debut on film with this (shot on Super16 then blown to 35mm) DEMONIUM and tries to do a mystery story without leaving the gore: the result is a mess. They took Italian actors (since it was shot in Italy) but to act in English: you can imagine what comes out. The story is filled with holes and the style hasn't improved: again, the director uses a lot of hand-held camera. The gore is still there: this time the effects are very good (totally professional manifacture), but some scenes (like the murder of the old doctor, who gets the chest pierced with his own leg) are too much exaggerated. Since this is a real movie, we can say it sucks.
Great movie
Schnaasfan24 August 2002
I think i was one of the first persons to own this DVD in Sweden.
The movie itself is one of the best movies i've seen in a long time. The gore is great and the atmosphere is marvelous. I cannot describe in words how much i love this movie.
I believe that in 10 or 20 years Mr Schnaas will be one of the worlds leading horror directors and that he will have reinvented the whole gore-genre again.
He is a master and deserves a lot of respect for that.
The movie itself is one of the best movies i've seen in a long time. The gore is great and the atmosphere is marvelous. I cannot describe in words how much i love this movie.
I believe that in 10 or 20 years Mr Schnaas will be one of the worlds leading horror directors and that he will have reinvented the whole gore-genre again.
He is a master and deserves a lot of respect for that.
Vein of Gold
pantagruella13 October 2009
I have been checking e-Bay for unseen films and then checking the IMDb for the reviews which are very helpful. Demonium was cheap but the review I read was damning. But one small detail made me go ahead and buy the film. From the start I began fast forwarding through long-winded scenes of strange and awkwardly accented English. But then I started to hit scenes which struck a response. Was this a parody of Monty Python? Is that the most annoying character ever in a film? Is that the wickedest person in films? Eventually I decided it was a gem. I guess they made this film for me, without bothering to satisfy the next ninety-nine people in line. You are right to say it is extreme rubbish. But I'm right to say it's sheer brilliance. Anyone remember Mrs Fothergill or Kala? Well, you might be interested in this.
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