As discussed in a previous column, I had fallen down the rabbit hole of unofficial Demons entries. The Ogre, advertised as Demons 3: The Ogre, has nothing to do with the original series. In Germany, it was labeled as a sequel to Umberto Lenzi’s Ghosthouse, having nothing to do with THAT series either. I had bought a bootleg copy of it off eBay on VHS and it has been easily approaching 30 years since I have seen it.
Synopsis:
An American horror writer, haunted by childhood nightmares, moves to an old mansion in Italy with her husband and young son only to discover the nightmares were real.
IMDb: 5.1
Rotten Tomatoes: NA
First things first, the music and atmosphere in the beginning scene is something straight out of Suspiria. The lightning storm. The dreamy lighting and gothic setting permeate every frame.
The main theme is incredibly hypnotic, and I would expect it to be by Goblin, but it appears to be by Simon Boswell, who seemingly scores the Italian films NOT scored by Goblin, including Phenomena and Demons 2. His scores are pretty famous, working with Lamberto Bava a lot, including all of the films of the Brivido Giallo series. Damn you, Simon, I am finding myself whistling the theme as I type this.
Did I mention that the kid is annoying? I hate him. He bullies his father, scares his poor mom unnecessarily and is way too old to be cuddling with a stuffed animal in bed. He’s got to be like 12 or so. (They later say he is almost 10…yeah, right) Junior high will be tough for this kid if he doesn’t do some growing up.
The actress has a bit of Barbara Crampton to her, which is welcome in my book, since BC is easily my favorite scream queen of all time, up there with Heather Langenkamp. Of course, she’s a bit of a limp character, as her husband smacks her around, controls her, and treats her like she’s crazy, all while she longs for this ogre to ravage her naked body. She even writes a book called “A Drawer Full of Teeth,” perhaps her response to her fantasy of getting revenge on her abusive husband, or perhaps it is a reference to her own teeth ending up in a drawer.
The whole property is gorgeous, and I must say, whoever scouted this location, found an amazing one. The garden has a shrubbery maze on it and it’s eerily similar to The Shining, only shorter in height. If this place still exists today, George Clooney must own it, I swear. And he probably paid 20 million bucks for it.
Everything about this film is amazing……except the plot. It moves like a slug. Nothing happens of merit. We have constant flashbacks to her as a little girl. We see this monster thing which looks like it just came off the set of Troll 2. Adult Cheryl is scared of the place. She sees cocoons dripping lime green slime straight out of Nickelodeon’s You Can’t Do That on Television. Yet they still stay there, per standard horror movie logic.
Some people do bite the big one, but relatively bloodless. Then the movie hits its climax with about 4 minutes left in the movie. With the final seconds of dialogue, it makes it seem as though the ogre getting killed meant the people who died in the film ended up not dying after all. Then the film just ends.
So yeah, not much plot. Not much for gore or on-screen kills. Just atmosphere, cinematography and music, all of which are top notch A+ efforts. But to slog through this film is a chore that just isn’t worth it. Watch it if you are an Italian horror film fan. It’s easily the best of the four films that make up Brivido Giallo. You just might like it. However, I like a little more action to hold my interest.
