Andreas Bethmann's Demon Terror starts off in extremely muddled mode, the director jumping from one scene to another in totally random fashion, the result being utter confusion for the viewer. A rat catcher is attacked by a juice-squirting tentacle and has his face dissolved; a naked woman takes a break from her book to pleasure herself (given the lighting, I'm amazed that reading was even possible), but is also attacked by a tentacle; armed bank robbers Riccardo (Thomas Riehn) and Antonio (Carsten Ruthmann, who annoys by holding his gun in a side-grip) kill everyone in a bank (including a toddler, played by a child's toy doll) and make off with a tiny sack of money; a naked woman in the sea is attacked by a shark; a girl takes a shower after sex, and returns to find her lover has been drilled in the stomach; and several women in hell are tortured by a demon (graphic tentacle penetration shots and a drill to the skull).
Bethmann, a film-maker with a Jess Franco fixation, gives us graphic gore and gratuitous female crotch shots, but makes Franco look like a cinematic genius by comparison, the cack-handed first hour of his film making less sense than even the most esoteric '70s Euro-horror.
The last half an hour is much better (not exactly difficult, I know): the bank robbers, their accomplice Magdalena (Marion Ley), and a female hostage land on a seemingly deserted island, unaware that it is home to bloodthirsty demons that plan to take over the planet. A group of soldiers also arrive on the island, and are attacked by the fanged creatures, which leads to a gore-filled final act in which everyone clearly suffers from high blood pressure, since their claret gushes like a fountain when they are bitten or shot. Bethmann only takes time out from the carnage for the occasional bit of breast fondling. If you can imagine Lamberto Bava's Demons, but on a tighter budget with less talented performers and more blood and boobs, then you'll have a good idea what this part of the film is like.
After much messy violence, including gutmunching, dismemberment, and a sickle to the skull, the film closes with demon Maria (Katja Bienert) making it to the mainland to spread her evil across the land...
1/10 for the first hour; 5/10 for the last thirty minutes or so, which averages out at 3/10.
