La noche de los demonios

Of Edward Furlong in that case. And while he still has Charisma, he might be the weak link of this movie. He just doesn't fit into this movie. I can't really explain why, but he doesn't seem to feel comfortable when he is on screen. Which is a shame really, because he could've carried this Remake.

It's a long time since I last saw the Original, which wasn't the greatest Horror movie ever, but still pretty decent (especially for the money it did cost). The Remake does have the money, does have a few good ideas (one of them being of the sexual kind) and does have a killer soundtrack (no pun intended). If that's enough for a Rock'N'Roll experience for you, then ho ahead and watch. If you need more to enjoy a movie, you will be disappointed (not that much gore, not that much story, characters not really likable etc.).

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.

"Uh okay. So, they're demons."

Lots of pretty, B-level actresses in slutty Halloween costumes being killed. Lots of dumb guys. A decent amount of gore. A paper-thin plot about some demons haunting a house in New Orleans on Halloween. Not very scary. Ample amounts of chessiness and campiness. Some okay monster designs. An amateurish script. Late-night TV quality production values. Some really terrible Halloween-themed rock music. A powerful urge on my part to fast-forward a lot.    

That's basically my experience with Night of the Demons, in a nutshell. I can't compare this to the original movie, as I haven't seen it. But on its own merits, it's not funny or scary enough to really be worthwhile. But hey, boobs. Check the cast list and see if that makes this pretty mediocre flick worth watching for you.

Hey, perhaps if all remakes were as unpretentious and amusing as "Night of the Demons", people wouldn't complain so much about the deterioration of the horror genre in general… This one is several hundred miles away from being a good or even semi-memorable horror movie, but it's entertaining while it lasts and offers plentiful of adequate make-up effects, a suitably light-headed atmosphere and a whole lot of yummy voluptuous actresses in revealing Halloween costumes! In all fairness, I also have to admit that it was pretty impossible to mess up a remake of the modest 1988 cult-favorite. The original "Night of the Demons", as well as both of its sequels released during the 1990's, was a very simplistic and unpretentious little flick also and it's rather easy to accomplish a present day update for the post-2000 horror audiences by making just a few minor changes left and right. The titular night still refers to the Halloween celebration, but instead of an abandoned funeral home like in the original, the party mansion is now a sinister family estate where once – in the roaring 20's – a horrible tragedy occurred when a desperate woman tried to win the love of a man trough a séance, but she ended up awakening seven demons that were even exiled from hell for being too bloodthirsty. To reign again, the demons require seven human bodies to possess, and let this just happen to be the exact number of idiots that remain loafing around the house after the police rudely interrupted the party. Hostess Angela is the first victim to mutate, and through seductive games and lesbianism she gradually causes the rest to go demon too. The mansion's history records may have altered slightly, but director/co-writer Adam Gierasch nevertheless blatantly copies the main trumps and highlight sequences of the 1988 original. Most notably the infamous sequence with the lipstick receives an update and furthermore the movie revolves on luscious twenty-something people that flirt, drink and cannot keep their hormones under control. The kills and make-up effects are well-handled, but nowhere near as imaginative as in the old installments and there's zilch tension, logic or sympathy for the characters. I presume that supporting actresses Diora Baird ("Texas Chainsaw Massacre: New Beginning") and Bobbi Sue Luther ("Laid to Rest") were exclusively cast for their large bra-sizes and their willingness to share their beautiful boobs with the rest of the world, whereas Monica Keena ("Freddy Vs. Jason") has the tough responsibility to depict an amiable and more or less intellectual heroine. "Night of the Demons" also features two relatively washed up stars of the 90's in the shape of Shannon Elizabeth and Edward Furlong. The former hasn't appeared in anything significant since she went topless in "American Pie" and the latter will probably always remain the kid from "Terminator II" and "American History X". But seriously, Edward Furlong looks terrible these days… Pretty much like he's consuming nothing but drugs and alcohol since the year 2000. Oops, I just quickly checked his biography here on the site, and it actually appears to be true. Sorry, Edward.

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.