Night of the Demons

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.

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.

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.

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.