Woodyanders
Six black slaves are resurrected as lethal and vengeful zombies through voodoo and go on a gruesome spree in Brazil. Vacationing British guy Kevin (smooth Kevin Van Hoven), his spunky American girlfriend Jessica (fetching blonde Sonia Curtis), and Sonia's whiny, annoying brother Dick (the extremely obnoxious Joe Balogh) all find themselves in considerable jeopardy. Director/co-writer Umberto Lenzi manages to create a reasonably creepy atmosphere (the sequence with the zombies coming out of their graves in a misty cemetery is especially strong and memorable), relates the story at a snappy pace, and stages the splatter set pieces with his customary lip-smacking grisly gusto. The pleasingly hideous make-up f/x by Franco Casagni deliver the ghastly goods; nasty highlights include an eye gouged out with a crowbar, an axe splitting open someone's skull, and a bloody throat slashing. Moreover, the shambling, rot-faced zombies with their egg-white eyes, unsightly faces, and rattling chains are genuinely unnerving. The cast for the most part give really bad performances, although Maria Alves contributes an amusing turn as superstitious maid Maria. Franco Micalizzi's spirited spooky'n'shuddery score, Maurizio Dell'Orco's crisp, handsome cinematography, and a lively last third with Kevin burning up those pesky zombies real good with a bunch of Molotov cocktails are all up to speed. An enjoyably schlocky piece of low-grade Italian horror junk.
EVOL666
Umberto (CANNIBAL FEROX) Lenzi's BLACK DEMONS is a goofy but entertaining entry in the zombie genre. Lots of dumb stuff happens for no apparent reason, a good bit of silly gore, and even though it was made in 1991 it looks like a film from 1975, make BLACK DEMONS a none-too-serious but fun watch...Three college students are in Brazil, one of whom sneaks off to witness and tape-record a voodoo ritual. Later on, their car breaks down and they come across two locals who own an old house who offer the kids refuge until they can get their vehicle fixed. The voodoo enthusiast is inexplicably drawn to a small graveyard by the house, plays his voodoo-tape, and presto! Black demons. Apparently there is a curse on the land where six slaves were killed for trying to escape and they will not rest until the blood of 6 honkys is spilled. The rest of the film is the group avoiding death (or not avoiding death in some cases) at the hands of the vengeful zombies...Completely ridiculous and totally fun - BLACK DEMONS is a semi Un-PC zombie romp that will probably be of interest to Italian horror fans. Don't expect much in the way of a sensible or coherent storyline, and I was also disappointed by the lack of nudity - but the gore is decent, with two (count 'em...TWO!!!) wonderfully cheezy Fulci-style eye gougings, a throat puncture, and a few other "choice" scenes...but be warned - the "action" doesn't come til after the half-way point of the film. The zombies themselves are suitably creepy looking as well. Fun Italian trash - BLACK DEMONS is a no-brainer good time...7/10
CMRKeyboadist
Here is a movie that could have been a lot more. Released in 1991 under the title Demoni 3 (has nothing to do with the Demons series) and directed by the infamous Umberto Lenzi, the story takes off with a brother and sister and her boyfriend. Her brother becomes possessed by some black magic during a voodoo ritual and later on brings back to life 6 "Black Demons" to kill 6 white people to get revenge for their enslavement when they were alive. This movie moves very slow (as do a lot of Lenzi's films) and is acted quite badly. But then again, the actors didn't have much of a script to go off of. Unlike Lenzi's other classics like Cannibal Ferox or Nightmare City, this movie really doesn't hold your interest at all. With Nightmare City the gore was silly and the acting stupid but it was entertaining because the movie didn't stop, and the same goes for Cannibal Ferox. This movie, on the other hand, had may be 3 decent scenes of gore (most of which had someone getting an eye poked out) and the rest of the film is talking filled with bad background music. The only thing that kept my interest at all was the costuming for the demons/zombies. They looked genuinely kind of creepy. Besides that, the movie is to slow and that is really my main issue. 5\10 stars
Rooster99
Possible Spoilers (not that it matters)I am used to some bad acting in B-horror movies, but this one really did a great job finding terrible actors. The lines are delivered in an absolutely wooden manner, obviously momentarily memorized shortly before filming. The worst by far is Jessica, "you. killed. Jose. didn't. you. He. found. out. about. you. Answer. me." <delivered in a monotone like a robot>. On top of that, she has a really big butt! Her brother is a complete joke, what a terrible actor. You have to see the incredibly bad attempt to kill his sister. He makes this really pathetic lunge at her with an axe, while she just goes through the motions of her saying her lines; "Noooo! You're. my. brother! <run away and fake fall down>" Terrible, just terrible.One thing that wasn't bad was the eerie music. And the actual production quality isn't bad either, the scenes of Brazil are pretty interesting. You just won't believe the acting. Wait until one scene where Jessica's boyfriend Kevin is attacked by the zombies. These are the slowest moving zombies on the planet. Yet when they attack, the victims just cringe, stand there, and are resigned to their fate. Instead of simply running away, Kevin ducks under the blade, but remains in place, dancing around the slow zombie blows. It would have been so easy to leisurely jog away, he wasn't even surrounded. It's almost like he is doing his best to make it look exciting but just can't pull it off. And Jose's death! Hahahaha! What a riot! You can clearly see him breathing when he is supposed to be dead. The whole movie was so fake it was worse than professional wrestling!And yet they made an effort to really play up the voodoo aspect, the ceremony was well done, the music was good, it was simply the cheesiest acting in film history. Oh and one more thing, these zombies explode if they get near an open flame. Even pouring gasoline on them doesn't just make them burn, it makes them go up like Hiroshima. Hilarious!Too bad. 2/10
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