I really like how these extra additions to these rare limited edition re-releases of the horror classics known as “Dremons” are really intended to connect the mythology. And yes, even in “Demons” a movie without rhyme or reason for being one of the most chaotic horror films ever made, there’s room for a good writer to create a mythology. Set in the world of “Demons 3,” writers Stefan Hutchinson and Barry Keating tell a compelling story in two graphic novels about the rise of Michel and Christopher. Along the way a man named Nostradame is plagued with endless horrible visions of the apocalypse, blood and guts, and endless turmoil caused by the rise of demonic entities that will destroy all of society and civilization.
Through incessant horrible visions that involve newborn babies being turned in to a demonic creature, to piles of bodies stacked along roads, the three characters take detours in to different times and plains of space to where the world has been infiltrated and corrupted by the demons. Nostradame is a man who is intent on giving people his vision and showing them what he sees. He views a world where the demons have brought down the walls around them, a world where new technology and new advents of communication have allowed the demons to rip through reality and take over. But alas, like all generally visionary men, the kingdom he inhabits will not heed his dire warnings.
Along the way he jumps in to different time periods again and again watching each society fall before his, and before he can escape the demons are only a few feet behind him, prepared to follow him in to the next world. The art by Jeff Zornow is absolutely horrifying and often demented, filled with endless streams of blood and gruesome imagery that perfectly expands upon this world where demons inhabit every reality and seek to dominate the world. Stefan Hutchinson and Barry Keating perfectly take three of the most random and hopelessly anarchic horror films and find ways to take threads and bring them together in to one coherent series that will make perfect sense to fans of all three films.
Thankfully though the books do jump back and forth between time and characters, Keating and Hutchinson make the book more than coherent and readable, as well as very compelling. By the time the final pages roll around, we’re given reasons for the existence of the mask, the reasoning for the demon emerging out of the television in “Demons 2,” and the reason for the metal man who gives out the tickets of doom in “Demons.” It’s a brilliant pair of books for any horror buff, and I’m interested in seeing the three films of the series now, thanks to the fine work by both writers of this limited series. Look for them in Arrow’s release of “Demons 3.”