In his latter days, Lucio Fulci declared himself "perfect and strong" when he undertook the compromised by intriguing callback DEMONIA, on Blu-ray from 88 Films.

University of Toronto archaeologists Paul Evans (Brett Halsey, RETURN OF THE FLY) and Liza (Meg Register, BOXING HELENA) arrive in Sicily to excavate the ruins of a Greek settlement outside the village of Santa Rosalia. A dabbler in the occult, Liza is mysteriously drawn to a hilltop medieval convent that none of the locals will speak about. She is even threatened by local butcher Turi (Lino Salemme, DEMONS) not to go digging into the past, and even underwater archaeology colleague Porter (Al Cliver, ZOMBIE) warns her and Paul about offending the local culture. Despite Paul's insistence that they focus on the more enlightened ancient Greek civilization than Sicily's corner of the dark ages, Liza discovers walled up crypt in the convent hiding the crucified and mummified corpses of five nuns including the abbess. Learning the dark secret of the convent from local occultist Lilla (Carla Cassola, THE HOUSE OF CLOCKS), Liza resolves to forget about the convent; however, a series of grisly murders start among the archaeological team and the locals. Is the killer someone trying to keep the past buried, a psychopath with an interest in history, or supernatural retribution of the damned.

After two years out of commission between MURDER ROCK and his atypical erotic thriller THE DEVIL'S HONEY, Lucio Fulci's attempt to resume his career as a horror director in the late eighties saw him helming and "supervising" a series of poorly-budgeted gory made-for-television horror films, the CARRIE-meets-PATRICK telekinetic horror film AENIGMA, the modern-day Bluebeard gorefeast TOUCH OF DEATH, ZOMBI 3 (which would be finished by Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso), and the "Houses of Doom" pair THE HOUSE OF CLOCK and SWEET HOUSE OF HORRORS – part of a quartet of films with Umberto Lenzi's HOUSE OF WITCHCRAFT and HOUSE OF LOST SOULS which were made for television but released direct to video – before DEMONIA which was intended as a throwback to his early eighties gothic horrors. The film has direct visual references not only to THE BEYOND and CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD but also THE PSYCHIC and even DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING (although it reserves another fate for its occultist character). The idea is interesting and the Sicilian locations – including a creepy deconsecrated church – are striking; however, the problems with the film seem to be not only budgetary and scheduling but also a waning enthusiasm on the part of Fulci. The opening sequence featuring the crucifixion of the nuns is a callback to THE BEYOND but is nowhere as grueling or gory and the flashbacks depicting the blasphemous behavior of the nuns is incredibly tame, while the gory murders are let down by poor effects work. Latter day Fulci regular Giuseppe Ferranti was presumably responsible for the film's requisite eye violence but the location effects work was presumably the work of Franco Giannini (RATMAN) in which the prosthetic appliances never match the skintones of the actors (which manages not to spoil a grisly drawing and quartering effect a la Ruggero Deodato's CUT AND RUN). Although the film runs less than ninety minutes, DEMONIA is padded with investigation scenes featuring Fulci as an Interpol detective and trying to make Evans into a suspect even though we have seen that the supernatural is responsible for the first murder. Another big letdown is the synth score of Giovanni Cristiani which ranges from a moderately effective main title to an inappropriately upbeat end theme. In contrast to DEMONIA and the handful that came before it, Fulci's films CAT IN THE BRAIN, VOICES FROM BEYOND, and DOOR INTO SILENCE could not help but seem like minor steps forward.

Unreleased theatrically in the US or the UK, DEMONIA first turned up in these territories during the DVD era, as one of the earliest releases from Media Blasters' Shriek Show line, sporting a non-anamorphic letterboxed transfer, a short behind the scenes segment, and "scream access" to the film's gory highlights. Nothing better turned up subsequently in other territories until Severin Film's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.66:1 widescreen Blu-ray from a new 4K scan of the original camera negative (previously available as a mid-year sale limited edition with slipcover). The film always looked gauzy on SD DVD, and there are several shots where cinematographer Luigi Ciccarese (AFTER DEATH) utilizes scrims in front of the lenses (including some wide angle shots where the weave of the material is visible onscreen), but the new transfer reveals sharpness and texture where there previously was none in the location exteriors and interiors. Most surprising is the revelation of more than a few arresting compositions and more considered lighting choices than were apparent in the older transfer which raise one's appreciation of what Fulci attempted to do here. English and Italian mono tracks are available in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono along with SDH subtitles and English subtitles for the Italian track (which suggests that the uprising against the nuns may have been spurred by the villages largely unseen women since some remarks like "No more unfaithful husbands" are heard during the opening sequence).

The film is accompanied by an audio commentary by Stephen Thrower, author of "Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci", who seems to share the opinion that DEMONIA is an intriguing concept let down by the execution, noting the mismanagement of producer Ettore Spagnuolo (AENIGMA) whose name and production company A.M. Trading remain on the film credits but the sale of which at the international film markets was handled by Lanterna Editrice. Thrower notes the presence of late actor Grady Clarkson – who came to Italy to promote Terry Gilliam's THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN and ended up staying there and taking small roles in films like Charles Band's ARENA and Roger Corman's FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND – and draws on interviews with actors Salemme and American Michael Aronin (CRUISING) who plays the COLUMBO-reading police lieutenant who both attest to the production troubles, including the Bishop of Sicily getting ahold of the script and discouraging cooperation with the production that local though was a pornographic film. While it is likely not the Fulci film Thrower was chomping at the bit to do a commentary for, the track provides some nice context to a minor film.