It stars Hugh Quarshie, Tomas Arana, Barbara Cupisti, Asia Argento, Feodor Chaliapin, Jr. and Giovanni Lombardo Radice.

In medieval Germany, a band of Teutonic Knights massacre a village of supposed devil-worshippers and bury their bodies underground, building a Gothic cathedral over the mass grave as a means to contain the demonic evil within.

He meets Lisa, an artist supervising a restoration of the church's elaborate frescoes, who introduces him to the surly Bishop and the kindly Father Gus.

Having a moment of clarity, the sacristan rushes to the confession booth, and tells Father Gus that he has become demonically possessed and fears losing control.

Gus tells Lotte to flee, and he makes his way to the chapel hall as the dead bodies of the massacre victims buried beneath the church slowly begin to rise.

Before the evil force can be fully set free, Gus finds the architect's mummified body hidden beneath the floor, and activates the self-destruct mechanism.

[2] The third Demons film, whose story was developed by Franco Ferrini and Dardano Sacchetti, involves a group of passengers that find themselves on a volcanic island after their airplane is forced to make an emergency landing.

"[4] The decision of re-starting the screenplay from the beginning led to Bava leaving the project as he began working on a set of television films in October 1988.

"[4] Soavi made some changes to the script, including a new opening scene influenced by John Milius' film Conan the Barbarian.

[1][2][5] Soavi described his filming experience as exhausting, noting that he "was free, and I could do what I wanted... but I also suffered a lot because of the difficulties, the vicissitudes, the delays.

"[5] While preparing for the film, Argento learned that Keith Emerson would be interested in writing the score, having worked with him previously on Inferno.

[7] For the rest of the score, Soavi inserted two tracks by Philip Glass and relied on Fabio Pignatelli who is credited as Goblin.

In an interview with Cinefantastique, Soavi explained that he wished to move beyond with his creations following the film's release, and because of that he parted ways with Argento, ending their long-time creative partnership.

"[9] In comparison, the biggest film of the year in Italy was Roberto Benigni's Il piccolo diavolo which grossed 17 billion Italian lire.

[2] In a contemporary review, Variety referred to the film as a "technically proficient but empty horror exercise", praising the score by Goblin.

[11] Jason Buchanan of AllMovie gave the film a three star out of five rating, referring to it as a "gothic-drenched apocalyptic nightmare" that builds "a suffocating sense of quiet dread".