Black Demons (Film Review)

As much as I do like Umberto Lenzi I prefer his Crime and Giallo over his horrors and this was pretty much the last film he directed after retiring because he couldn’t take the producers always being in control of his films and wrecking his pictures. It’s not good but it is a worthy last film for him and again I don’t know why they called this “Demons 3” as well?

But I liked the classic feel to it and it did get creepy and that’s hard for Italians in the 1990s. Still Lenzi was good at making this one as always… and he did do a good job at incorporating an idea of slaves getting revenge.

Three American college students, Dick, his sister Jessica, and her British boyfriend Kevin, are traveling through Brazil on vacation when Dick, after attending a bizarre voodoo ceremony, develops strange powers.

When their jeep breaks down near a small plantation in the jungle outside Rio, the site of a former slave rebellion one hundred years ago, Dick uses his powers to raise the dead of six executed Negro slaves, who target the college kids and the residents of the plantation to seek revenge for their deaths.

The story is pretty random most times and you have to get the feel to get whats going on…But it was pretty well done but slow I can admit. I liked the idea and how Lenzi was trying to do a revenge story of zombie slaves coming back for revenge in the 90s. Though it can be unpredictable…

Filmed with English speaking actors for larger distribution outside of Italy and is generally poorly acted, Lenzi even said during the interview he didn’t want the cast that was picked and the lead female he calls “Terrible”. Though the direction on this horror is okay and Lenzi knows his stuff with Creepy settings and lighting that we saw in “La Casa”.

The Special effects are gory but look pretty bad for today’s standards…The music was okay I guess. But our Zombies look pretty good and I did enjoy the ending scene.

Overall it’s above average at most and I have seen better by Lenzi. My final verdict is sort of recommended.

Jesse’s “Black Demons” score 61-100