Demonia

Picture it. Sicily, 1486. Come for the Fulci, stay for the Golden Girls references.

While hardly the Golden Era when it comes to Il Maestro’s work, Demonia is “nun-theless” a pretty spirited good time.

In the prologue, a bunch of fire and pitchfork 15th villagers crucify five nuns. And then suddenly we’re in Toronto of all places (the home base for Really Awful Movies), and in the midst of a séance. It’s a bit like how City of the Living Dead takes us to a séance in New York City.

One of the participants, an archelogy grad student, Liz is overcome by visions of…nuns being crucified. Soon, she’s off to Sicily for an archeological dig, but not before being chastised by her University of Toronto prof/supervisor for taking part in silly, superstitious nonsense like seances. As an aside, how cool are archeological digs? Like in The Exorcist and The Ruins, they sure lend an air of dusty, desiccated mystery to the proceedings.

A couple of drunken workers helping out on the job site, tumble to their deaths in spectacular fashion. Obviously, the dig is cursed. But don’t say you weren’t warned! The Sicilian villagers, being a superstitious lot, implore the professor and his team to take their shovels elsewhere.

Soon, Liz is wandering around dusty crypts in this misbegotten Sicilian town, and having truly terrible visions.

Demonia features some of the portal to hell elements that director Lucio Fulci brought out in his Gates of Hell trilogy, and this is a flick that spans multiple genres – nunsploitaiton, supernatural, police procedural – and is a helluva good time.

Genre heads take note: Brett Halsey is in Cat in the Brain, while the local butcher, Turi, is played by Lino Salemme, one of the Berlin theatergoing denizens in Demons.

And speaking of butchering, unlike some of Fulci’s famous gutmunchers, Demonia shows a bit of restraint when it comes to gore…save for one, awesome scene involving, what else? Eyeballs!

Direct yours to this.

***1/2 (out of 5)