Jessica, her half-brother Dick and her boyfriend Kevin are on vacation in Brazil. Dick's had a nervous breakdown in the recent past and, because it's the thing to do in that situation, sneakily witnesses (and tape records) a "voodoo" ceremony and acquires some otherworldly powers (because . . . . well one does, doesn't one) which he uses (because . . . . I got nothin') to raise from the dead six slaves from a slave rebellion 150 years previously. Oh, wait a minute . . . . so the title BLACK DEMONS should really be BLACK ZOMBIES and the "black" in the title means the RACE of the zombies?!?!?!?
Oh. Not sure I would've gone with that title, Umberto. Even if the English language isn't your jam. The word "negro" is bandied about quite a lot and that would've been inappropriate in 1991 let alone now. Another problem I have with the film is that, oddly, it seems like this is one Italian-made film from this time period that was shot with live sound instead of the usual dubbing later. Particularly with Italian horror movies, every actor speaks their native language and no sound is recorded during filming; later on the film is dubbed into whatever language it's being sold to. Here every speaks their lines in English with their various accents evident. This perhaps unfamiliarity for filming with live sounds finds much of the movie dialogue muffled as if the actors were not mic'd properly. Third problem is the reference to "voodoo" for this movie which, being set in Brazil would probably be more like Macumba. One character finally, after an hour in, does refer to Macumba. But either way, there's nothing accurate about the depiction of either religion here. The zombies have ropes hanging around their necks and carry sharp instruments like axes, machetes, knives and sickles. They also have chains trailing from their wrists and feet which make them probably the slowest of the slow zombie genus of horror films. They are also the most polite zombies I've ever seen. In one scene, a zombie is sneaking up behind a guy and, when the noise of someone else coming in, the zombie politely backs away! What, was he afraid of getting a police record if seen by a witness?!?!?!? Being an Italian zombie films helmed by Maestro Lenzi, there is gore (particularly of the eye trauma variety) and some nice "rotting zombie faces" make-ups, so for a Lenzi zombie flick it's still pretty entertaining. And really . . . . what's better than having your film's heroine constantly running around calling for "Dick! Dick! Dick!"?
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