(Not) Demons III: The Ogre & Black Demons

We've already covered the one film that's been semi-/ quasi-released as Demons 3: Michele Soavi's The Church.  In fact, I've covered all the films that have been as the subsequent sequels, too: The Sect a.k.a. Demons 4, Mask of Satan a.k.a. Demons 5 and The Black Cat a.k.a. Demons 6.  But there are two other movies that have also gone out under the banner of Demons 3, and they're fun ones!  (Honestly, there are no un-fun Demons flicks.)  So I'd feel downright remiss if DVDExotica didn't tackle 'em.

So I guess it sorta makes sense why The Ogre would be dubbed the next Demons sequel, at least compared to any other random I horror title.  For one thing, it's another Lamberto Bava flick.  And in 1988, it's not the film he made immediately after Demons 2, but it's pretty close on its heels.  Also, the leading lady had a bit part in Demons 2, Simon Boswell is back doing the score and, y'know, it has some kind of monster in it.  What more do you need?

What this really is, though, is the third of four made-for-TV horror films, collectively known as the Brivido Giallo series.  It really does not play like a Demons film, instead focusing on a relaxed, slow moving, almost fairy tale-like vibe.  In brief, an American author of horror novels used to dream about an ogre in her basement, and as an adult, she moves into a castle which has that very same basement.  Is her imagination overriding her sensibility, or is there really an ogre creeping around the premises?  That's the question.  And while we don't get any action and barely any violence, the film does have a real castle, a neat underwater Inferno-style sequence, a bad-ass ogre that hatches out of a cocoon like a gooey spider (a scene they repeat over and over) and a catchy soundtrack.  But unlike a Demons film, it's pretty shamelessly boring, almost designed to make its audience fall asleep on the couch.  Then you kinda half remember a few key scenes, and you're not sure what you legitimately recall and what you dreamt, just like the main character.

2003 Shriek Show DVD top; 2026 Cauldron Films BD bottom.

Shriek Show originally released this on DVD in 2003, and it wasn't too bad for its time: anamorphic widescreen, slightly windowboxed to 1.79:1.  The only real drawback was that it was interlaced.  But a lot of time has passed, and even in progressive, that kind of transfer doesn't pass muster.  But it's all we had until finally, in 2025, Cauldron Films released a 5-disc (including a soundtrack CD) boxed set of all the Brivido Giallo films.  And just this summer, they broke that set up into two much more affordable 2-disc sets.  These are 1080p BD-only releases, but all four films have been crafted from fresh 4k scans of the original 35mm film negatives.  Here, the film's been pillar-boxed to 1.67:1, but as you can see, unveils considerably more picture than the previous Shriek Show framing.  Of course the picture is no longer interlaced, with colors and detail (we can finally read the "SAN CARLO" chip bag logo in the first set of shots, for instance) much more natural and photo realistic than the comparatively washed out, pixelated DVD.  Grain is a little soft and inconsistent - it would've benefited from a genuine UHD release.  But it's a massive upgrade and exceeds expectations most would have for such an off-beat title as this.

Shriek Show just provides us with the basic English mono (though at least this film was shot in English) in 2.0.  But Cauldron not only bumps that track up to lossless DTS-HD, they also offer us the Italian track, also in DTS-HD, with optional subtitles for both tracks.  These guys know how to do Italian horror right.

Back to giving them credit, Shriek Show did scare up a pretty good interview with Bava for this release.  They also included the trailer and four bonus trailers.  Cauldron carries over Shriek Show's interview and trailer, then adds a bunch of stuff, including their own, new interview with Bava (which does cover different ground).  There's also a decent expert commentary by Rachael Nisbet, an interview with production designer Massimo Antonello Geleng, and another one with his assistant Roberto Ricci (who I don't think worked on The Ogre; he certainly doesn't mention it, but does have a little I horror history to share).

Even broken into 2-disc sets, I still couldn't upgrade just The Ogre, so let's quickly look at the other BG film in this set, Dinner With a Vampire.  I don't have a DVD for this one because, frankly, it's a Bava title I've always steered clear of.  It's a comedy, and a pretty doofy one at that.  Still, it has its qualities.  George Hilton plays the count, an ancient vampire who longs for death.  So he holds open auditions and selects a singer, a dancer, an actor and a stand-up comedian (don't ask why; this film never explains it) to come to his castle and kill him.  But if they don't figure out how to do it by midnight, he'll kill them!  So, this film is well shot, Hilton has some charm as the count, the special effects aren't bad (Sergio Stivaletti!), and they have another cool castle... not as cool as the one in The Ogre, but still a good location.

2026 Cauldron Films BD bottom.

Dinner is also pillarboxed to 1.67:1 and looks just as good as its companion.  Once again, it's based on a new 4k scan of the original camera negative, and the encode might even be a bit stronger with more consistent grain.  Colors are attractive without feeling unnaturally saturated.  These Cauldron films look so good, I think they're genuinely raising my appreciation of the BV films.  And once again, they're giving us both the Italian and English mono audio in DTS-HD with separate sets of subtitles for each track.  They may be a smaller label, but they're doing first rate work to rival Arrow or whichever boutique is your favorite.

And that includes in the extras department, where they start us off with an admittedly somewhat irritating commentary from some familiar experts: Eugenio Ercolani, Nathaniel Thompson, and Troy Howarth, who have frustratingly little to say about the movie at hand.  The track spends about half of its running time just naming and discussing other vampire movies.  More rewarding are three new interviews with Bava, Geleng and Simon Boswell (who talks about all four Brivido Giallo films, so even if you only care about The Ogre, check this one out).  Then there's an audio interview with Hilton, conducted many years ago because he's no longer with us.  Unfortunately, he doesn't mention Dinner With a Vampire at all, but his life story is pretty interesting.  Finally, they include the trailer.  According to Cauldron's site, only the editions in the boxed set have reversible cover art, but the individual copy I ordered from Amazon has it, so I guess they changed their minds.  Still, buying the 2025 limited edition (to 2500 copies) set was the only way to get the slipbox, four exclusive posters and the aforementioned soundtrack compilation CD.

Fun Fact: The Ogre was also released in some territories as Ghosthouse 2.  Of course, it has no connection to that film either, except in the very tenuous sense that Ghosthouse was directed by Umberto Lenzi, and so was the other Demons 3: 1991's Black Demons.

Anyway, "Demons" might be in the title, but "zombies" would be a much more accurate description (slow moving, voodoo powered).  And while this movie isn't as gonzo as Nightmare City, it's still a highly entertaining zombie flick, which leans more towards gruesome atmosphere than running amuck.  It's called Black Demons because they're literally black people - Brazilian slaves back from the dead and taking revenge on the landowners when a couple of bungling college students awaken them in their former plantation.  I'm not saying the racial politics are handled with grace and eloquence, but it's basically a story of historically wronged people finally getting their gruesome justice.  It's main crime is just being slow with some cheesy actors.  But the zombies look good, the locations are authentic, and the kills are gory.  I don't understand why this film doesn't have a better rep; I enjoy it every time.

2003 Shriek Show DVD.

Unsurprisingly, this is a similar situation to Shriek Show's Ogre DVD: anamorphic widescreen (1.67:1, despite the back of the case saying 1.85:1), but interlaced.  It's a bit washed, soft and pixelated with maybe a little bit of edge enhancement, but apart from the interlacing, not terrible for DVD.  Having just seen how much better The Ogre could look, however, I'm practically dying for a new HD edition.  And as with their Ogre DVD, Shriek Show's Black Demons disc just your basic 2.0 English track with no subtitle option.

By way of special features, Shriek Show gives us a nine minute interview with Umberto Lenzi, a brief follow-up with Lenzi and his wife/ co-writer Olga Pehar, the trailer and bonus trailer for four Zombi films.  More would be great, but these interviews definitely enhance the viewing experience.

So hopefully they will be ported over when somebody finally upgrades this to HD.  Not that there's ever been any indication, but it's blowing my mind that such an effective Italian zombie horror from one of the more celebrated directors keeps getting overlooked.  If anybody takes anything away from this post, I hope it's a home video label realizing they need to put this film on disc.  Then we could finally have all the Demons films done right.  But hey, we just finally got The Ogre, so I'll remain optimistic.

Nightmare City from Arrow and Everybody Else

Ugh. When I look at all the recent and upcoming zombie movies like Maggie, Rec 4, The Battery, Pride and Prejudice With Zombies, Scouts Guide To the Zombie Apocalypse, World War Z, World War Z 2, Pandemic, Resident Evil Part... 8?, Rise Of the Zombies, Navy Seals Vs Zombies, Cockneys Vs Zombies, Pro Wrestlers Vs Zombies (yes, these are all real movies), Zombies Vs Strippers, Warm Bodies, Zombie Hunter, Night Of the Living Dead: Resurrection, Night Of the Living Deb, Night of the Living Dead: Darkest Dawn, and so forth and so on, I just want it to end. All these hacks with their cute, little pun titles need to have stopped like ten years ago. But, on the other hand, I've found I still have time for the classics. Having just picked up Arrow's recent restoration, I'm happy to say I can still have as much fun as ever with Umberto Lenzi's Nightmare City.

If you don't know, 1980's Nightmare City is known as the original "fast zombies" movie, where they run, plan and use weapons. I had a film professor tell my class that 28 Days Later was the first, but he was off by about 22 years. And yes, I know, the director insists that these monsters aren't zombies, just people who can only be killed with a shot to the brain and that are infected with a virus that turns them into an army of literally blood thirsty killers whose bite turns their victims into more of them... but that's practically is the definition of the modern zombie. It's certainly what you have in 28 Days. I mean, I see it, but it's a very thin distinction; and come on, in America, this film was released under the title City Of the Walking Dead. You can't blame us for seeing them as zombies now.

But anyway, besides the fact that these zombies run, what's this movie all about? Well, it's a Spanish Italian co-production (hence it's star, Hugo Stiglitz) where zombies basically enter a city and lay waste to it for the entire film. Our hero's a reporter who really can't do anything but try to stay one step ahead of the tidal wave of death that's wiping everybody out. Even faster than the zombies is the pace of this film, which just rushes from one wild set piece to another. This is a big film with tons of extras and plenty of locations, all chock full of zombie mayhem. Occasionally, the film eases off the throttle to give us a more suspenseful moment, but then it's right back to the chaos.

It's not exactly a deep film, and of course the dubbing can only further spoil performances that probably weren't very good in the first place. But, who cares? It's a blast. You've got a great soundtrack by 1/4 of Goblin, a unique look for the zombies, and one thrilling set piece after another. This film successfully creeped me out as a kid, too; because it's just so nihilistic. Characters are introduced, just to narrowly escape the fate of dozens of others getting killed all around them, just to run into another situation they can't escape. There's no getting away from it, and the situation's only spreading and getting worse. But if you're worried this film is going to get too grim for you, just look at this shot of zombies rampaging through a TV studio chasing spandex-clad disco dancers:

Now, this isn't my first time at the Nightmare City rodeo. I used to own the old VHS tape, which I happily upgraded to the awesome, widescreen special edition DVD from Italian Shock. But when televisions made the switch from full to wide, I realized it wasn't anamorphic, so I begrudgingly double-dipped on the 2008 Blue Underground DVD, which was just a reissue of the Anchor Bay DVD I originally passed on. But then when I read about Arrow's new high def restoration with a bunch of fresh, new extras, I was happier to triple-dip. But Arrow's is an interesting case: they actually wound up giving us two different transfers to choose from. And it's a blu-ray/DVD combo pack, so that's four. Plus, I've got the two older DVDs... Hoo-boy, if you're not already sitting down, you really should now, because we've got a lot of screenshots to compare.

Wash those windows, man!

Before we begin, though, you might be asking why is Arrow giving us two transfers in the first place? Well, it's like this. They first made a brand new 2k scan of the original camera negative, which looks mostly awesome. But unfortunately, the negative has been chemically damaged while in storage, so you get stains and discoloration like that yellow junk in the shot above. It's most noticeable in the first and last minutes of the film, but recurs intermittently throughout. Because of this, they went to Raro, who already released this film on blu in 2013 and licensed their transfer. That one's an alternate HD transfer taken from the 35mm reversal dupe negative, which doesn't have the damage... but also doesn't have the same level of detail or quality image, and also has had some DNR and other effects done to the image (by Raro, not Arrow). So do you want to watch the higher quality but damaged version, or the lesser but cleaner version? Arrow lets us choose. Personally, though, I'd go with the new 2k scan of the damaged negative and pass over the older HD transfer as nothing more than an academic exercise. But here, let's have a look.

1) Italian Shock's 2000 DVD; 2) Blue Underground's 2008 DVD; 3) Raro's 2013 DVD;
4) Arrow's 2015 dupe DVD; 5) Arrow's 2015 OCN DVD;
6) Arrow's 2015 dupe BD; 7) Arrow's 2015 OCN BD.

So the first set of shots gives us a look at some of that chemical damage, or lack of, depending on which disc we're inspecting. It's honestly not too intrusive, though it's definitely strong enough to catch your attention. Besides the obvious yellow stains, it also cause the image to flicker, which you can only see in motion, and the color sometimes drops out of areas of the picture, turning almost black and white for a few frames. Personally, I didn't find it annoying, and I am the type to notice these things.  😉

Every release preserves the film's 2.35:1 aspect ratio, which is nice. Well, the Italian Shock and Blue Underground are a smidgen off, at about 2.33, but it's close. Blue Underground finds a little touch of extra information on all four sides, and then Arrow finds even a little more. Of course, being non-anamorphic makes Italian Shock pretty unacceptable right out of the gate anyway. It's also got a lot of edge enhancement and other nonsense; you'd never mistake it for a new release. Blue Underground, meanwhile, is a bit excessively true to their name with a bluer-looking image.

Between the two blus, the Arrow's Raro transfer looks very smoothed over. Grain and detail are much clearer on Arrow's blu. I'd almost even take Arrow's DVD of the OCN transfer over the blu of Arrow's Raro's dupe. Almost, not quite. The compression issue still puts the blu-ray over the top. So, just suck up the damage. The negative is now intrinsically damaged, so it's not like we can hope for Scream Factory or anybody else to come along and fix it. Well, maybe Synapse could come along and give it a frame by frame digital cleaning, but realistically; I don't think we'll see this movie look any better than this.

Another nice improvement we get with the Arrow blu (and, to be fair, the Raro blu) is the inclusion of the Italian language audio track with English subs. The previous DVDs only featured the English dub. Both blu-rays offer both in LPCM mono.

So now let's look at the extras! I'll start with the Arrow set, because that's the edition you really ought to be getting. First, it's got an audio commentary by former Fangoria editor-in-chief Chris Alexander. It's fairly entertaining, but not as interesting as his commentary for Contamination. There's a brief interview with Eli Roth, too, which is engaging enough but not terribly enlightening. Actually, the interview I was most excited for was Maria Rosaria Omaggio, because we've never heard from her on any past releases. Then there's an interview with the man himself, Umberto Lenzi, which is quite good - he seems pretty on board for Tom Savini's upcoming remake - but of course we have heard from him before. Then there are a few smaller bits, like a brief featurette explaining the two transfers, an alternate opening credits sequence with a different on-screen title, and the trailer. The set comes with reversible artwork and a 12-page booklet. All in all, a pretty strong package.

Speaking of strong packages, I'm hanging onto my Italian Shock disc. That has a long, 50 minute interview with Lenzi and even an audio commentary by him! Admittedly, it's not the best commentary, with literally the most extended periods of dead air I've ever heard on an audio commentary in my life (and I've heard a lot!). But when he's going, he's pretty interesting, and between that and the interview, you get more from him than on any other release. It also has the complete soundtrack album (on the DVD), plus a photo gallery and the trailer.

Blue Underground's disc (and the Anchor Bay one before it) just has their own interview with Lenzi, which is good, but doesn't contain anything not said on the other discs. Well, that and the trailer. And the Raro blu-ray has the longer Lenzi interview from the Shock disc, but lacks the commentary. It also has two trailers, plus a booklet.

Basically, the Arrow set is all most people interested in Nightmare City will need, in terms of transfers, audio options and special features. And it's a clear step up from everything that's come before it. But if you're a hardcore Lenzi fan, you might want to track down the old Italian Shock disc for the other extras. Once you've got those, you can totally forget the other releases, unless you're just collecting for collecting's sake. Arrow has handily claimed the "Definitive" title on this one.