When I saw the opening credits of Night of the Demons, I had the feeling that the animated floating demons that buzzed around the names would be more interesting than any monsters we actually see in the movie. It’s not always fun to be right.
But it’s not like Night of the Demons has pretensions. It’s a Halloween movie, better suited to playing in the background of a Halloween party than being intentionally watched. And on that level, it is adequate, if not admirable.
The set up is minimal. Judy is ready to go to the Halloween dance at school, but her boyfriend has other ideas. Creepy girl Angela is holding a party in the Hull House, an abandoned funeral parlor. It promises to be a spooky good time. Invitees include Angela’s slutty friend Suzanne; the disreputable trio of Stooge, Helen, and Rodger; and Judy’s friends Max and Frannie. Their names are about as deep as the characters get.
Not invited is Judy’s former boyfriend Sal, but he shows up anyway with vague intentions. After some boring dancing, Angela says they have to hold a séance. Since actually doing something spooky would be more than the movie’s script could bear, the “séance” consists of everyone looking in a mirror. Naturally, this summons the demon that resides in the parlor’s basement, and one by one it takes over the bodies of the party goers.
This barely-there story is lifted whole-sale from Evil Dead, which wasn’t particularly original (in its plot) to begin with. Thankfully, the film also occasionally remembers that Evil Dead and its sequel were wildly visually inventive, and so the camera will occasionally come to life and run all over the place.
As an exploitation fan, there were a few good scenes. I liked the explicit rip offs from Evil Dead with a POV shot from an invisible entity. Linnea Quiqley, playing Suzanne, paints her breasts with lipstick and then does something with the lipstick that’s gross and surprising. Angela does a particularly sexy dance while Bauhaus’s “Stigmata Martyr” plays. There’s a scene where Quigley is distracting convenience store owners by bending over where the camera is practically a stand-in gynecologist.
But I do not think it is unfair to describe Night of the Demons as cheap and stupid. There’s not a single competent performance in the cast. Most of the characters are loathsome. It’s decently shot by a cinematographer whose best film is probably UHF. Every couple of scenes he gets off a genuinely creative shot. This 4K release is a newly restored transfer. It’s a low budget film, with those inherent limitations, but this is an absolutely pristine presentation of the available material. Perhaps too pristine, since this type of film might be better served by a grittier, grindhousier look.
Now, it’s clearly not a serious horror film. The tone is horror comic. It parodies itself with some of the extreme characters, and I like some of the callous dialogue. But the problem is it’s not scary. And it’s not funny. It has the tone of comedy, but mainly because some characters are loud, and situations are absurd, but not clever.
If one is already a fan of Night of the Demons, there should be no hesitation. This is a beautiful presentation of the film, with copious archival extras and a few new ones. If you’re coming to this movie fresh… All I can say is I’m not a converted fan. It’s, as I said, seemingly tailor-made to be played during Halloween, while you’re doing something else. It’s not particularly scary, the gore is surprisingly light (as is the nudity, though the whole movie has a salacious air to it). I don’t love it, though I’m happy genuine fans have such a quality release.
Night of the Demons has been released on 4K UHD and Blu-ray by Shout Factory. Both discs contain the restored film in new transfers of the unrated version of the film, and both have their own set of extras. Both discs have three audio commentaries: with Director Kevin Tenney, Actors Cathy Podewell, Billy Gallo, And Hal Havins, and Special Make-Up Effects Creator Steve Johnson, with Tenney, Producer Jeff Geoffray, And Executive Producer Walter Josten, and Tenney, Actors Linnea Quigley and Phillip Tanzini, And Casting Director Tedra Gabriel.
New video extras on the 4K release include new “See You in Hell” (35 min), an interview with Writer/Producer Joe Augustyn; “Contortions and Coffins” (18 min), an interview with actress Jill Terashita;
“The Perfect Punk” (9 min), an interview with Special Effects Artist Nick Benson; and the International Cut of the film, in Standard Definition.
The Blu-ray video extras include “You’re Invited – The Making Of Night of the Demons” (71 min), a documentary on the making of the film; “Amelia Kinkade, Protean” (23 min), an interview with actress Amelia Kinkade; “Allison Barron’s Demon Memories” (4 min); “My Demon Nights” (14 min), an interview with Linnea Quigley; The Halloween Party workprint (88 min), the film’s working title workprint, in standard definition; The Halloween Party alternate opening title sequence (4 min); Alternate R-Rated Scenes (3 min); Night of the Demons short film (6 min) a short version of the film shown to potential distributors, and trailers, TV spots and image galleries.
