Cheryl (Natasha Hovey), a student in West Berlin, travels the subway where she encounters an eerie masked man ('Phantom of the Opera' style), who offers her a free ticket to the cinema. Intrigued she asks for a second for her girlfriend Hannah (Fiora Argento). That evening they arrive to the Metropol, a long closed theatre on the night of its grand reopening. The premiere movie is a horror flick as if taken from the annals of "Evil Dead" (they even find a Necronomicon type ancient book). Swiftly and deadly the fiction on the silver screen transforms into reality as cinema-goers start changing into zombie-like demons...
I can't help but feel that the undeserved high ranking of the movie is given in a large part due to the participation of the legendary Dario Argento, an icon of horror movies and poster boy for Italian cinema in general. But in general this movie is a total bust with over-the-top kitsch gore, bad acting and no interesting plot to hold it together. It's not frightening or entertaining and the special effects do not withhold time well (unlike i.e. the aforementioned "Evil Dead"). Additionally the storyline basically is a not too clever take on zombie flicks with a slight movie-becoming-reality twist. One of those movies which show that Dario Argento was slowly losing his edge in the 80s (albeit he is only culpable for scriptwriting to awful excuse for a movie).
Somehow this gory pointless flick got a second outing and given it has no atmosphere or point I am audaciously surprised with the high marks this movie has. I fail to understand the cult status and stay by the opinion that this thing is almost as bad a "The Ghoulies".
I can't help but feel that the undeserved high ranking of the movie is given in a large part due to the participation of the legendary Dario Argento, an icon of horror movies and poster boy for Italian cinema in general. But in general this movie is a total bust with over-the-top kitsch gore, bad acting and no interesting plot to hold it together. It's not frightening or entertaining and the special effects do not withhold time well (unlike i.e. the aforementioned "Evil Dead"). Additionally the storyline basically is a not too clever take on zombie flicks with a slight movie-becoming-reality twist. One of those movies which show that Dario Argento was slowly losing his edge in the 80s (albeit he is only culpable for scriptwriting to awful excuse for a movie).
Somehow this gory pointless flick got a second outing and given it has no atmosphere or point I am audaciously surprised with the high marks this movie has. I fail to understand the cult status and stay by the opinion that this thing is almost as bad a "The Ghoulies".