Demons (Demons)

The Demons are the titular antagonists of the 1985 Italian horror film of the same name and it's 1986 sequel. Formerly humans, these extremely dangerous beings are capable of destroying populations with a mere scratch from their fingernails.

Biography


After being invited to The Metropol, a newly renovated movie theater in Berlin, to attend a free screening of an unknown film, a group of diverse characters wander around the lobby. In the middle of the room sits an extravagant display of various objects: a motorcycle and a dummy wielding both a katana and metallic mask in the shape of a demon.



Feeling a negative energy radiating off of the mask, a wise blind man warns his daughter, Liz, not to touch the thing. Unaware of his warnings, a rambunctious young prostitute by the name of Rosemary dons the mask to goof around with her co-worker, Carmen. After her pimp, Tony scolds her, Rosemary inadvertantly cuts her face as she takes the mask off, unknowingly infecting herself with the demonic plague.

When the movie within the movie begins, it is revealed to be an average run of the mill horror film in which a group of teenagers explore the abandoned crypt of famed fortune teller, Nostradamus. The group soon finds Nostradamus' journal and a mask eerily similar to the one in the theater lobby. Reading into the book, the teenagers find an entry predicting the coming of a demonic apocalypse. Also present in the book is a warning stating whoever dons the mask will eventually trnasform into a demon themselves. It proves to be too late, however, as a teenager named Jerry is already wearing it, and just like Rosemary, cuts his cheek open when he takes it off.

Feeling effects from her earlier injury, a queasy Rosemary arrives to the bathroom just in time for her infected wound to blister and pop, beginning her transformation. Meanwhile, the infected teenager on the movie screen transforms into a demon and murders his friends. Noticing how similar his situation was to Rosemary's, Carmen ventures down to the bathroom to check up on her friend, only to find that Rosemary has changed into a demon herself.

Although Carmen escapes from her demonic friend, she is a scratched by Rosemary's newly formed claws. Tearing through the movie screen and into the audience, the viewers are able to see every stage of the film's demonic transformation: First, the infected wound bursts open, excreting a foul green pus. Next, their fingernails split in half as sharp black ones grow in their place. Then the person's eyes become a yellowish red color. Finally, fangs grow through the victim's gums, expelling their permanent teeth from their mouths.

Now a demon, Carmen dives into the fleeing audience and infects Frank, a bitter old man on a date with his wife. Meanwhile on the balcony, Rosemary infects and seemingly kills Liz, her lover, and Werner.

The movie theater, which appears to be under the demons' influence, seals the building's exits, trapping the guests inside with the demons. Hoping to find an emergency exit, the movie patrons split off into groups. This event proves consequential as the majority of the people are immediately killed and turned into demons off screen as they are never shown again after this.

Making her way downstairs, the Rosemary demon chases some survivors down the hallway, successfully cornering a girl named Carla and scalping her in a storage closet. This proves to be her own undoing, though, as she is locked in the closet when the door is crushed by a vending machine. Based on her pained groaning, this scene shows that even the demons are susceptible to pain.

Realizing that the events occuring in real time are eerily similar to the ones happening on the big screen, the surviving group of guests (College students Cheryl, George, Kathy, and Ken; Ingrid, the Theater's lone staff member; Ruth, Frank's now widowed wife; Tony the Pimp; and a few unnamed people) race to the projection booth to stop the film, only to find that everything is automated. This proves the theory that the demons have some form of influence over the building as a whole. Nonetheless, the survivors destroy the equipment and retreat to the balcony. Coming across the bodies of the two lovers and the mortally wounded and infected Werner, the group contemplate throwing the infected bodies into the seats below.

Their train of thought is interrupted, however, when Frank, reborn as a demon, climbs a rope up to the balcony and attacks the group. While Tony is successful in knocking him over the railing, he fails to notice Liz and her lover's dead bodies transform into demons. As the infected Werner finds his way downstairs, the duo tackle Tony over the balcony, where he is killed and infected.

As the survivors barricade the upstairs, a teenage couple named Hannah and Tommy narrowly evade the demons running amok downstairs. Little does Tommy know, Hannah has actually been infected with the slower acting version of the demonic infection: coming in contact with a demon's bile. He finds out the hard way when Hannah transforms into a demon when they are crawling through the ventilation system, allowing her to easily infect him.

After a group of delinquents find a way to break into the building to evade a pair of cops, Werner escapes through the exit and falls unconscious in front of the officers. As the duo approach him, Werner transforms into a demon and infects an officer before being dispatched. Said officer eventually transformed into a demon himself and spreads the demonic virus throughout the city.

As the punks are killed and turned into demons down below, the survivors on the balcony hear the demons attempting to enter their hiding spot. Believing them to be the authorities, the survivors broke down their barricades and inadvertantly let the demons in. Besides the four college students, everyone hiding on the balcony is killed and turned into demons.

Escaping to the hallway, Cheryl, George, and Ken barely have time to recooperate from the demons' massacre as Kathy transforms into demon. Although Ken easily killed Kathy herself, her body proceeded to do something that know other demons had done before: an entirely inhuman demon hatches out of her back, proceeding to infect Ken. Although Ken tries his hardest to fight the demon taking his body over from within, he ultimately fails and transforms in the lobby, prompting Cheryl to hide in an adjacent room while George kills the demonic Ken with the katana on display in the lobby.



It is revealed that the room Cheryl wandered into is the main part of the theater, every victim now a demon ready to kill her. In one of the film's most infamous scenes, George rides in on the motorcycle from the lobby, wielding the katana, and proceeds to kill every demon in the vicinity.

Attracted to the noise of a helicopter falling through the ceiling, the demons attempt to ambush George and Cheryl, only for them to be sliced apart by the helicopter's blades. Relieved that the final demons inside The Metropol have been killed, George and Cheryl use a grappling hook and escape through the cieling hole.

The couple are initially joyous that they've escaped, but they quickly notice that the demonic plague has infected the entire city of Berlin. The demons relentlessly chase them through the city until George and Cheryl  come across an armed family escaping the city in their Jeep. The demons continue to chase them down the street as they make their way out of Berlin. The father in the family reveals that the city is the only location that's been invaded, so they're going down to the country to wait it out.

Looking ahead at the coming sunrise, Cheryl, who had apparently been scratched on the side of her neck at one point, quickly transforms into a demon and attacks the caravan, only to be shot to death, leaving George the only human left from The Metropol movie theater.

Methods of infection
In the films, there are four ways for a human to be infected by the demonic virus. The first method we see is wearing the mask found in Nostradamus's tomb. Once the victim takes it off, they will cut their face, causing them to slowly get sick before they fully transform. The second and most common method is to be slashed by their demonic claws. The third method is to be bitten by their razor sharp teeth. Finally, the last method of infection is to come in any form of contact with their bile infected bile. It slowly eats through the skin of the victim until it enters the bloodstream and infects them. Based on how it affected Hannah, this seems to be the slowest method of infection.