Confronting THE DEMONS in 35mm

Here are some thoughts from Mick Cantone on yesterday's 35mm showing of Jess Franco's THE DEMONS at the ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES in New York City. It will be shown again on November 9th, at 7:15PM

by Mick Cantone: Regarding the print of THE DEMONS, it was a VERY battered print that had turned reddish, as Eastmancolor films tend to do. It was the 79-minute US theatrical print as per the Dutch VML video release. This print, however had two scenes grossly misplaced. The scene with the Mother Superior masturbating was shoved in the middle of the scene where Lady De Winter and Renfield are examining Kathleen and Margaret in the convent. Also, the scene where Lady De Winter is orally pleasuring Margaret was inserted into the middle of the scene where Margaret kills her. After seeing this print, I came to the conclusion that the scenes were snipped out by a sneaky projectionist for his private collection and then crudely inserted back into the film proper. One of the highlights was finally getting to meet Mirek Lipinski. Very cool guy.