Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

MARIO GAUCI I hated Lamberto Bava's bafflingly popular DEMONS (1985) and DEMONS 2 (1986); later unrelated Italian horror films were inexplicably passed off as sequels to them – Michele Soavi's THE CHURCH (1989) and THE SECT (1991), Bava's own THE OGRE (1988) and THE DEVIL'S VEIL (1989), and this one by Cozzi (which is also known as DEMONS 6: DE PROFUNDIS, actually the title borne by the copy I watched)! Truth be told, neither does it have anything to do with Edgar Allan Poe – despite fleetingly irrelevant appearances by the titular creature (by the way, the same source also inspired Sergio Martino's YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY {1972}, Lucio Fulci's 1981 namesake and, again Dario Argento's episode in the two-part compendium TWO EVIL EYES {1990})! This 'version' also purports to be an unofficial continuation of Argento's "Three Mothers" saga (complete with cues from the famous SUSPIRIA {1977} soundtrack), years before the third entry got made! Whatever the film strives to be, it is perhaps the effort which definitively put the lid on the "Euro-Cult" style that had flourished for some 40 years! Anyway, the plot revolves around the attempts by a long-dead witch to stop an actress from playing her on-screen in a proposed movie about her exploits (I wonder whether she demanded a casting director credit!). That is it, basically – but the result displays a stupefying ineptness in every department and, as was often the case with this type of film, the script does not make a lick of sense (at the climax, the actress is possessed by the spirit of a dead child in order to combat the witch's evil force – with extraneous cutaways to outer space reportedly lifted from Cozzi's "Hercules" flicks)! The latter 'recruits' a number of people for this purpose – including fellow actress and rival for the part Caroline Munro, temperamental wheelchair-bound producer Brett Halsey, his female secretary, a refrigerator repair-man(!), a young boy, the heroine's baby's nanny and, in the very last shot, the toddler itself!; on the side of good, we get the scriptwriter (Munro's husband), the director (the protagonist's own hubby and Munro's lover!) and a female occult expert (who spectacularly expires from an exploding heart!). As I said, events follow one another without any rhyme or reason – which is not necessarily a bad thing, when it manages to create a dream-like aura (and the only such instance here is a nightmare sequence in which the actress attempts to stab her own child under the witch's influence, is stopped by her husband, whom she then attacks but he, in turn, removes the knife and sticks it in her) yet, as a rule, here it is just a succession of repugnant make-up and cheesy effects.

Michael_Elliott Demons 6 (1989) * (out of 4) Here's yet another example of the Italian horror genre and their crazy titles. Lamberto Bava made DEMONS and DEMONS 2 but when DEMONS 3 had its title changed to THE CHURCH the producers then took Bava's THE ORGE and made it DEMONS III. Then, for no reason, Michael Soavi's THE SECT was released as DEMONS 4 while Mr. Bava made THE DEVIL'S VEIL, which was pretty much a remake of his father's BLACK Sunday, only it was released under the fake title of DEMONS 5. Then, that same year, director Luigi Cozzi made a film called THE BLACK CAT, which then was released as DEMONS 6. Oh yeah, Cozzi also intended this to be the third chapter of Dario Argento's at the time incomplete "Three Mothers" series, which had SUSPIRIA and INFERNO. I'm certain most fans aren't going to consider this to have anything to do with the Argento movies and I think it's fair to say that in reality there are only two movies in the DEMONS series. The rest were simply named to cash in on something.The film has an actress (Florence Guerin) and her director husband (Urbano Barberini) getting ready to make a movie based on the witch in SUSPIRIA. They plan on making the movie but the actress/wife begins to be haunted by the witch who doesn't want a movie based on her. Soon bodies are starting to pile up as the actress slowly loses her mind and crosses over into the world of possession. No matter if you call this DEMONS 6 or THE BLACK CAT, there's no denying that this is one major disaster that doesn't work on any level let alone fit in with the Argento films or even the earlier DEMONS flicks. There are several scenes where the Argento movie is mentioned so director Cozzi certainly wanted to at least link his films to SUSPIRIA but let's get real here. This is just a major hack fest that doesn't have a single thing going for it. For starters the screenplay is a downright joke as it never really makes too much sense. We start off with the actress making a version of Poe's The Black Cat and then we jump back and forth to other events. Most of her visions have the witch showing up in a mirror and one sequence has the mean witch puking up green slime and blood. There are a couple gory deaths scenes but they too look incredibly silly including one where a woman's heart begins beating so fast that it explodes out of her chest. Another throat slashing doesn't impress either. The performances are hard to judge thanks in large part to the horrid dubbing but Euro favorites Caroline Munro and Brett Halsey appear as another actress and producer.

capkronos Anne (Florence Guerin), a popular horror actress, takes the lead role as Levana (a legendary witch burned at the stake in 13th Century Prague) in her director husband's (Urbano Barberini) newest effort; described as an updating of SUSPIRIA. Levana seemingly returns from the grave as a clawed, maggot-infested, lumpy-faced ghoul who causes death for the cast and crew members and makes Anne have a LOT of disorienting nightmares/delusions. Adding to the fun/confusion are scenes in outer space (?!), a TV set that spews guts and green slime, a helpful little girl "fairy" who shows up on a TV, a neck slashing, an exploding body, sexy Caroline Munro in a bubble bath and in lingerie (sorry fellas, no nudity!), a car going through a house and lots of pointless shots of black cats (the movie has nothing to do with Poe, although the full screen title is EDGAR ALLAN POE'S THE BLACK CAT).Cozzi's nutty movie is chock full of Italian horror movie references, as he pays due homage to the inventive directorial styles of directors Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Everything is drenched in bright color and the camera-work, music score (borrowing riffs from SUSPIRIA and even the White Lion's cover version of "Radar Love!") and sets are good, along with special attention made for Bava-esquire zoom shots. Though this is not really a very good movie, it's enjoyable absurd and definitely interesting enough.

HumanoidOfFlesh "The Black Cat" is regarded as a third part of Dario Argento's Three Mothers trilogy(two first parts are "Suspiria" and "Inferno").Of course it's not as good as those masterpieces,but it's quite atmospheric and enjoyable.The gore effects are well-done,the script is okay,but the acting is pretty bad.Overall I liked this one so check it out for yourself.Cult actress Caroline Munro("Maniac","Kronos")and Urbano Barberini("Opera")are among the cast.