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Night of the Demons Anchor Bay – 1988 Directed by Kevin Tenney Starring |
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| An eclectic group of young
adults meet up in an old funeral home called Hull House to party for Halloween. Angela
(Amelia Kinkade) a stereotypical Goth girl runs the party and tries to get everyone in the
mood by having a séance. During the séance a monstrous demon appears in a mirror,
causing one of the girls to knock the mirror over. Talk about bad luck, shortly thereafter
Angela becomes possessed, performs a strange dance that leads to her passing the demon
spirit to another girl via a kiss. From that point on NIGHT OF THE DEMONS literally
becomes one continuous chase around Hull House. After each person gets killed, they join
the others in trying to demonize every last person. This is a movie that I wanted to like, because it has a pretty cool poster/box cover, the name of the movie sounds promising, but it’s not as fun or scary as you would hope. One of the main problems I had with the film is that the characters are so different that it’s hard to believe that they all could be friends. It doesn’t help that the actors cast in the roles are too inexperienced or under trained to make the characters work. I actually think NIGHT OF THE DEMONS is a step down for Kevin Tenney because he had better actors and a stronger story in WITCHBOARD. Tenney does try to infuse some energy by moving the camera somewhat aggressively and the lighting overall looks nice. Steve Johnson does provide some memorable make-up effects; especially noted would be the Linnea Quigley lipstick into her breast scene. The animated opening titles were in the spirit of the Halloween holiday and the music score, though a bit over the top gave the film a liveliness missing from the script. If the characters would have been a little more than cliché and if Tenney would have tried to make NIGHT OF THE DEMONS a little more serious at times, the film would have been better. The extras include a 14-minute interview with Linnea Quigley that scream queen fans will relish. There is also audio commentary with Director Kevin Tenney, Executive Producer Walter Josten and Producer Jeff Geoffray. |
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