Cheryl’s girlfriend and her friend receive an invitation from a strange man in the subway to show a new horror film about demons, the invasion of which was allegedly predicted by Nostradamus. In the lobby of the cinema, one of the visitors tries on a mask from a mannequin for a joke, and is injured by something sharp inside the mask. What is happening on the screen is strangely reminiscent of what actually happened before the session – the same mask and one of the heroes was hurt by it. Just at the moment when a young man on the screen reads an excerpt from the book of Nostradamus, which tells that everyone who puts on a mask will turn into a demon, the injured visitor becomes ill, and she goes to the restroom and turns into a demon there.

4k movies reviews
I love horror films since childhood – and, probably, since childhood I have a love for horror films of the 80s. Then they knew how to shoot what could really scare, when they didn’t use computer special effects in every scene – simply because then it was too long and expensive, and it was much more customary to do everything with layouts and makeup. With real high-quality makeup, from which a shiver begins to creep, it is worth seeing so close bloodshot eyes and teeth from which some kind of rubbish flows.

And I still consider this horror film by the inimitable Lamberto Bava to be the scariest horror movie I’ve ever seen – although I’ve watched a lot of them. There are few films that combine naturalism so easily – yes, it is better not to watch impressionable people, and I do not advise others to chew while watching, otherwise you never know, suddenly the stomach decides to return everything back in some particularly disgusting moments – and full a feeling of hopelessness, coupled with the beginning of the end of the world. Or not the end? The second part sheds some light – but now we’re talking about the first film.

Argento and Bava did their best by removing one of the symbols of that decade – and removed in such a way that their overseas colleagues could not jump their bar – just try to reach it – but this was just a repetition. Great rock music that perfectly complements what is happening on the screen. Heavy atmosphere of hopelessness. The transformation into a demon is shown in detail. An attempt to mix what is happening in the film, which is watched by cinema visitors and what will happen to them a little later. Unless the heroes are a little pumped up – they are not remembered for the most part, that’s all, but it’s understandable – they are only consumables.

While watching, I don’t want to pay attention to bloopers, how – why did the scratched guy never turn into a demon, why at first the cinema worker was so calm about everything that was happening, who this guy in the mask really is – after all, he was seen in the role of a demon on the screen, the heroes, like a helicopter were able to break through the concrete roof, not to mention the fact that from time to time the heroes were given time to chat, from time to time reminding that the demons were here, nearby – but they appeared exactly when they could go out to scene. But after all, horror films look not in order to look for inconsistencies in them, but to be frightened – and the Demons quite succeed.

So what is more demonic – demons tormenting all the living, or is the building of the cinema itself, so deftly luring into its womb – and in no hurry to let it out? Or maybe the demons are just the evil I of every person that has escaped free?

And after watching, the question remains – why Bava, who knows how to shoot such masterpieces of horror, suddenly slipped in this genre to outright trash and cheapness?

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48.0 kHz, 24 bits)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48.0 kHz, 24 bits)
Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono

Subtitles
English, English SDH