more "demons"...

i like to collect films, so when i find a film that i enjoy, i'm happy to find out that there are sequels. it gives me avenues. having already collected demons, i was very pleased to find a cheap copy of demons 2 to complement it. now, because of the dynamics of the way the italian film industry worked in the '70s and '80s, i have three choices when it comes to a third installment in the series.

-"demoni 3 (aka:black demons)"-
looks pretty horrible. umberto lenzi has a habit, like a lot of italian directors of his era, of making films to capitalize on the reputation of other people's decent films. on the other hand, nightmare city managed to be a relatively original zombie film for it's time. demoni 3, however, looks like a pretty piss-poor zombie 2 knock-off, filled with racist themes.

-"demons 3: the ogre"-
a tv movie directed by lamberto bava, the director of the first two demons films, this was probably re-christened "demons 3" when it came to home video. everything i'm reading seems to indicate that while this film is crafted well, it's somewhat plodding, and the one monster shows up very late in the program.

-"the church"-
i've actually seen this one, and it's not really that bad, at all. it's a great effort from michele soavi, who would go on to direct the excellent dellamorte dellamore. like what i've heard of the ogre, its pretty slow, and it doesn't bear much of a resemblance to the previous films in the series. this film wasn't given any official connection to the series, although dario argento, the producer of the first and second films, reportedly wanted to release it as "demons 3". having seen it, to even consider it part of the series, you have to really stretch it and pretend that maybe this film is a prequel of some sort, and in some way explains why evil things happened in the rest of the series.