Night of the Demons

I managed to watch an hour of this film before turning it off. Remakes of 80's horror films are a dime a dozen nowadays. Some go straight to DVD, some to the theatres, some with big budgets, some with small.

Although well versed in cinema and movies, the original 'Night of the Demons' has evaded my radar and so I had no memories of the original 80's film (soon to be watched though).

Regardless of whether the original was a good film or not, this updated version is a waste of time. Shannon Elizabeth should have words with her agent, as I don't think her career has derailed to the point that she needs to be doing cheap horror films. Edward Furlong is clearly in it for the money and you can sense that he knows he has yet again signed up to appear in something cheap and crap.

The film premise is simple...party goers at an old abandoned house discover skeletons in the basement. One gets bit and possessed by a demon who in turn ends up getting others possessed. Blood and death follow. We've seen it many times before done a lot better.

The acting is poor, the script is basic and flawed. The direction is standard with nothing inventive thrown in.

I used to say to my friends that you'd never get away with making some of the horrors of the 80's in this day and age. The 80's was a glorious time for cheap, cheesy, silly films which are fun and enjoyable with ridiculous stories and ideas which would not pass as well on modern audiences....but it seems we are getting a new wave of these films. Problem is, they aren't as entertaining and magical. It doesn't work for the modern era. Instead, films like this just come off as cheap, careless and crap.

Right here we go, I have watched this film quite a few times, and always enjoyed the film. Can't understand all the negative reviews here. I thought the special effects were good and a lot of horror went into the film. Also the actors worked well, and it certainly entertained me, as a horror buff. Best wishes jacey out.

Paying respect to a film by trying to remake it DOES NOT always pan out. This is the case with the 2009 version of Night of the Demons. Being a smaller than normal budget film and having to mediocre stars in Furlong and Elizabeth as leads did nothing for this movie. In my honest opinion NOT a very good film choice for Shannon Elizabeth. The first film in 1988 scores an almost 7 out of 10 with originality and this barely hits 5.

The plot is generic as college age kids party at an abandoned house that has a haunting secret. Typical scenario as police raid and bust party and half dozen young adults get locked inside. They roam the house, find strange markings, skeletons in a secret room and demonic hell results. The dialogue is bland, full of "f***s" and "s***s", the acting is tragically phoned in and there is no scare tact at all.

It is a simple supposed to be gore fest that fails at most levels. I would NOT recommend but if in need for a filler for the afternoon you can watch this flat remake of a 1988 cult classic. 4/10

Night of the Demons (2009)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Remake of the 1987 cult classic has a group of people throwing a party in a mysterious house where decades earlier a Halloween party was thrown and six people disappeared. Flash forward to the present day and the party takes a turn for the worse when one person gets transformed into a demon and starts killing the others. A lot of people are going to hate this movie because they're fans of the original. A lot of people are going to hate this film because it's a remake. And even more people are going to hate this movie because it's unoriginal and not very inspired and it's this group that I fall into. I wasn't overly crazy about the original film but this remake is a complete mess from the word go and by the fifteen-minute mark the thing is out of gas and it was rather painful to make it through to the end. The biggest problem is that the screenplay really doesn't offer us anything fresh, original or worth watching. The characters are all poorly written and I think they're all rather unlikeable. It doesn't help that the performances aren't that good but this is a horror movie so that shouldn't matter too much. I'm not sure what it is but it seems a lot of current horror movies are forgetting to include characters that you either like or care about. Instead we have to watch people we don't care for get killed. It's just boring when there's nothing extra to connect you with the characters. Another major problem is that there isn't a drop of atmosphere and there are certainly no scares. The film is certainly lazy because it's yet another that tries to scare you by cranking the soundtrack up high and having loud noises go off to make you jump. Hopefully future films will get over this cheap trick because it doesn't work and it's simply lazy and boring. Edward Furlong of TERMINATOR 2 fame gets to play the lead here but he doesn't seem very into it. The violence in the film is rather graphic but the CGI effects are rather cheap and silly looking. NIGHT OF THE DEMONS was meant for a theatrical release but it ended up only playing a few dates before its eventually DVD release. The film isn't the worst ever made but the laziness and lack of imagination really seals its fate.

I put off watching this for years because of the poor reviews. I'm a fan of the original, as in it is one of my favorite horror movies, so I really didn't want to like this. Going in, I expected the worst but I have to say, it wasn't half bad. The original poked fun of itself constantly and knew what it was, a cheesy good time, this was no different. While not nearly as good or dark as the original, this is still worth a watch and is far superior than Night of the Demons 3. Is it cheesy? Yes. Is it bad? Yes. Is it supposed to be? YES! I had a great time I'm sure you will too. It also has a killer soundtrack including Type O Negative, Concrete Blonde, etc.