Halloween season can’t get here quick enough. Living in North Texas, I haven’t seen rain in at least a couple of months and the temperature has hovered around 100 degrees for the last few weeks. So yeah, a cool breeze and falling autumn leaves will be a welcome reprieve from this daily inferno.
While I can’t usher in fall with the push of a button, I can at least get in the Halloween spirit with a classic Halloween film!
Night of the Demons is one of those 80s flicks with a lot of the elements that made that decade so great for horror, but it’s also not the best example of any of those elements. It’s got gore and nudity and youngsters acting foolish. But aside from Linnea Quigley’s performance, it’s a pretty mediocre horror film overall.
The plot: A group of teenagers decide to spend Halloween night throwing a party at the local haunted house, the Hull House (no doubt meant to sound like Hill House), which is situated atop a hill in a secluded area of town. The teens drink beer and dance around with a boombox playing. Then, in a sequence that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, they summon a demon that resides within the house. The demon possesses several of the teens and kills some of them and all that jazz.
There are some good moments, like when the guy gets his eyes turned to jelly. Linnea Quigley and Jill Terrashita both show off their chesticles. And the scene at the very end where the guy chokes on razorblades was really well done.
The characters are all one-dimensional. The women are either hyper-sexualized or fragile and incapable of defending themselves. The men are all super macho jerks, with the exception of the Rodger character, who we should have seen more of. There isn’t enough gore and the story lacks even a shred of complexity. And in an era when horror films were full of great tunes, the music in Night of the Demons is pretty damn bland.
I still quite enjoyed the movie, though not as much as when I was a hyper-horny teenager just waiting to see some tits.
PC3’s Horror and Exploitation Movie Scale of Awesomeness!
Gore - 6
Special Effects - 6
Nudity/Sexuality - 8
Wow Factor - 4
Acting - 3
Fear Factor - 4
Story/Plot/Originality - 3
Cinematography/Atmosphere - 7
Sound/Music - 2
Fun Factor - 8
Night of the Demons gets a 51 PHEMSA. You could definitely do worse when picking a movie to watch, but you could do better too. Especially when picking from the plethora of great horror films from the 80s. You can watch it for free on Amazon Prime.
I love Night of the Demons. An every October rewatch for me.