6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.2 |
A group of tenants and visitors are trapped in a 10-story high-rise apartment building infested with demons who proceed to hunt the dwindling humans down.
Starring: David Edwin Knight, Nancy Brilli, Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, Bobby Rhodes, Asia ArgentoHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 40% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
English: LPCM 2.0
Italian: LPCM 2.0
English, English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region B (locked)
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Italian director Lamberto Bava's "Demoni 2" a.k.a. "Demons 2" (1986) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Arrow Video. The supplemental features on the disc include an audio commentary with director Lamberto Bava and special effects guru Sergio Stivaletti; featurette with Italian director, writer and producer Luigi Cozzi; and a video interview with special effects artist Sergio Stivaletti. The release also comes with four-option reversible sleeve with original poster and video artwork with additional fifth artwork panel featuring all-new Jeff Zornow artwork; double-sided fold-out poster; collector's booklet featuring brand new writing on the film by Calum Wadell; and more. Region-B "locked".
They are coming...
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.66:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Lamberto Bava's Demons 2 arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video.
Similar to Demons, Demons 2 has been restored from the original camera negative by Cineteca di Bologna. Unfortunately, the presentation is far from impressive. While there are areas of the film where detail and clarity are pleasing (see screencapture #7), many of the darker sequences from inside the high-rise building suffer from various encoding and compression anomalies. As a result, quite often there are obvious image fluctuations that are easy to spot. During select close-ups, for example, tiny blocky patches often pop up (see the lower left end of the girl's face in screencapture #11). Elsewhere, where light is restricted, entire sequences are overwhelmed by various artifacts that seriously compromise detail, clarity, and depth (see screencapture #13). Color reproduction is decent, but the problematic compression also affects color depth and saturation. Again, this becomes very obvious during darker sequences, where the blacks are often destabilized. The relatively good news here is that there are no traces of problematic sharpening corrections. Large debris, damage marks, cuts, or warps are also nowhere to be seen. There are, however, at least four sequences where there is some sort of inherited image instability due to a known camera defect. In a short description provided by Arrow Video in the beginning of the film it is explained that these defects, which are part of the negative, could not be addressed with current digital tools. (One of these defects, which looks a lot like frame overlapping, could be seen in screencapture #18). (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English LPCM 2.0 and Italian LPCM 2.0. For the record, Arrow Video have provided optional English SDH subtitles with the English track and English subtitles with the Italian track.
Depth and clarity are good. Somewhat predictably, dynamic intensity is rather limited, but there are select sequences where the lossless English track does a good job of opening the film as best as possible (the clash between the demons and the residents in the underground garage is a good example). The music also benefits from the improved fidelity. The dialog is stable, clean, and easy to follow. As it was the case with Demons, some very small inherited sync issues are noticeable.
In the audio commentary offered on this release, director Lamberto Bava mentions that some of the principal actors apparently did not believe in Demons 2. I think that this is something that definitely shows in the film. I must also say that the script for Demons 2 isn't particularly good. There are entire portions of the flim that simply do not work. However, if you've seen and liked Demons, you should probably at least try to rent the sequel as there are still a few memorable sequences. As far as the technical presentation is concerned, Demons 2 definitely does not look as impressive as Demons. RENT IT.
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