Lamberto Bava’s Demons is an old favorite of mine, as I may have mentioned before. It’s full of crazy, gory 80’s Italian horror glories. The demon makeup designs are a standout, with characters spitting teeth, extending 18 inch tongues and having arms come out of their back. The best of them, for me, has always been the character of Rosemary, played by the multi-talented Geretta Geretta.
While some of the other demon characters have designs that are more gross (did I mention the tongue?), gory or just kinda cool (Michael Soavi shows up with a metal mask melted on to his face), Geretta gives the character of Rosemary (both before and after her transformation) a presence and crazy energy that makes her the most frightening and dangerous. I always felt like she could just tear her way out of the screen and eat my face or something. She seems completely deranged.
I love it.
While I’ve always enjoyed the design and the performance I’ve never really looked into the actress until recently. She contributed to a commentary track on the Synapse Blu-ray release and impressed me with both her knowledge and entertainment value. It turns out she’s a director and screenwriter in addition to an actress. While I’ve seen a few of her other horror movie performances (she’s in Murder Rock and Rats: Night of Terror) I haven’t yet tracked down her more recent work. I definitely I plan to!
But first I might just have to watch Demons one more time.
