The October Zombie-Thon - Day 13: Black Demons
Posted by Trevor Snyder on 10.13.2008
Not nearly as offensive as you would think...or hope.
BLACK DEMONS (1991)
(Demoni 3)
Directed by: Umberto Lenzi
Story by: Umberto Lenzi
Screenplay by: Olga Pehar
Country: Italy
If there's any lesson to be learned from Black Demons, it's this: if you're trying to make a serious, scary horror movie, think twice before naming one of your main characters "Dick." I'm sorry, call me juvenile all you want, but I find it hard to feel any sort of suspense when I'm too busy giggling over characters screaming things like "let's get Dick and get out of here fast!"
Not that an inappropriately named character is the only problem that plagues this production. A rather weak entry from the waning days of the Italian zombie cycle, Black Demons takes a concept just rife with controversial potential, and somehow manages to fall flat on its face. This is all the more regrettable, given that it's directed by Umberto Lenzi, who might not have shown an amazing directorial skill with movies like Cannibal Ferox or Nightmare City, but at least seemed highly-adept at delivering the gory goods when needed.
The plodding story involves three college students vacationing in Brazil. The aforementioned Dick, who is recovering from a recent nervous breakdown, becomes strangely obsessed with Macumba (a South American form of Voodoo). He manages to attend a black magic ritual, and secretly records it. The next day the group's jeep breaks down while driving through the forest. The good news is they are given refuge by a young couple living nearby (the man, by the way, looks incredibly like one of the Jonas Brothers, which obviously means I couldn't wait for his death scene). The bad news is the couples' home is right next to an old graveyard containing the bodies of six slaves killed one hundred years ago. When Dick plays back his recording of the ritual, the slaves rise from their graves – looking very well-preserved for being in the ground for a century – and begin methodically (a.k.a. slooooowly) stalking and killing these white devils.
Now, you might be wondering just why this thing is called Black Demons, instead of the far-more-appropriate and descriptive Black Zombies. My first thought was that it might be because, to my ears, Black Zombies actually sounds even more offensive (although I really couldn't explain why, and I'm sure there are those who feel the opposite). In truth, it has to do with Italy's lax copyright laws when it comes to titles. It's not uncommon for the horror movies over there to pass themselves off as sequels to films they are not at all connected to. Even Fulci's classic Zombi 2 was so named in an attempt to seem like a sequel to Romero's Dawn of the Dead, which was released under the title Zombi in Italy. The Italian title of Black Demons is actually Demoni 3, even though it has nothing to do with Lamberto Bava's pair of Demoni films.
Unfortunately, while its clever name trickery is right in line with the Italian zombie genre, the movie itself is a far cry from the much more fun antics of its peers. I don't go into every Italian zombie expecting striking visuals and mesmerizing storytelling – in fact, that's actually a rare treat, reserved only for Lucio Fulci or Michele Soavi. But still, there's no excuse for how bland this one is.
When watching most other Italian zombie films, you get the sense that the filmmakers are truly trying to push boundaries and play a game of "can you top this?" Sure, they're often derivative and fairly-lame, but even then they at least feel like they were made by directors who were having fun. With Black Demons, I felt like Umberto Lenzi was just going through the motions, as he never once offers up anything even resembling a shocking or memorable moment. Incredibly enough, though, Lenzi is on record as saying he considers this film to be his "masterpiece!" I don't even know how to respond to that.
I guess it just goes to show that, at the end of the day, Umberto Lenzi is simply not that great of a director. That might not exactly be shocking news to many hardcore horror fans, but if he really thinks this is his best work than it's even worse than we thought. Here he was given a controversial subject that even a total hack like Bruno Mattei might have turned into one of the genre's more infamous cult classics, but instead Black Demons is barely a blip on the radar screen of Italian zombie cinema. How did it all go so wrong?
Sure, it would be easy to blame it on the weak script, or the pitiful acting (lead actress Sonia Curtis, in particular, gives one of the most atrocious performances I've ever seen in one of these things), but let's face it, plenty of other Italian zombie flicks have managed to overcome similar obstacles and still entertain. No, the problem here is just how dreadfully boring the whole affair is – perhaps because Black Demons commits the ultimate Italian zombie-movie sin, skimping on both gore and nudity. It might sound ridiculous, but when you're watching one of these movies and there's a noticeable lack of those two elements, you can't help but feel somewhat cheated. Now, granted, it's not like I wanted to see any members of this cast naked, and I also highly doubt a few more gore scenes would have really improved things that much, but still, moments like these are what give these movies their special charm. Sure, there's a couple decent kills in Black Demons (including one especially nasty sequence where a woman has her eyeball gouged out before getting her head split with an axe), but they are depressingly sporadic. Instead, what we are left with is numerous scenes of uninteresting, downright annoying characters talking…and talking…and talking.
It might be presumptuous to assume that Black Demons was one of the final nails in the Italian zombie coffin, but it certainly feels that way. It's a glaring low-point in the genre, and only three years later Michelle Soavi would deliver the innovative masterpiece Dellamorte Dellamore, which served as an effective swansong to the whole cycle. Thank heavens for that film, because it would be a real shame if Black Demons was the final word on these movies. I know completists hoping to see every Italian zombie entry will still feel compelled to check out Black Demons, and I really can't deny them that (after all, that's why I watched it). Everyone else, though, would do well to not waste their time.
