Night of the Demons (2009)

I had decent hopes for this one, being a fan of the cheesy and fun original, but alas, was disappointed yet again. First off, other than demons, in a house and the title, nothing else is similar to the original. Calling this an update not a remake would seem more apt.

I was surprised to see a few decent B-actors in this film, as when I first heard about it, figured it'd be a bunch of no names with maybe a brief cameo or two. There is one brief cameo I noticed, Linnea Quigley answering the door for trick or treater's.

To the actors, Shannon Elizabeth looks about mid 40s in this film. Definitely not the hottie "Nadia" in the first 2 American Pie films, or sexy like her Maxim Days or for that matter, Scary Movie. Doira Baird looks good, real good if you like your women with breasts the size of pumpkins. Monica Keena, looked amazing. What a body! Not that you get to see anything under those clothes. And Edward Furlong. Not sure what his story has been the past 15 years, but he looks like a bloated drug addict. Not just this movie either. As far as the acting goes, its serviceable, but don't expect major thespian work here.

The directing was all over the map. I think the best parts were in the beginning with the whole silent film tactic used for the back story. It was well done, and although re-used throughout parts of the film, could have been nicer to see more of.

The demon effects were well done, but the gore was hammy. And although there is loads of blood on screen, there isn't much gory deaths. Basically total cheese fight encounters that make you groan in disbelief than getting pumped up for. Seriously, watching a couple young kids playfight in the backyard would seem to have more choreography.

In closing, the film could have had a lot more. Better kills, cleaner fights, more nudity (why just show a quick peak?), cleaner direction, better story. It plays like a comedy with horror undertones, which if the tables were flipped into a horror with some comedy, would have been much more entertaining. Not the worst thing I've seen this year, but far, far, far from the best or even mediocre. 3/10

Fmovies: I found this surprisingly enjoyable with pretty decent directing and cinematography. As an example, notice how the flashback hanging scene was filmed. Notice also the peculiar angles chosen and the transitions between characters at the party. This was not just standard-TV movie quality with minimal effort. The acting was nothing to write home about but I found Edward Furlong (the kid from Terminator 2) really looking and acting the part of the messed up, desperate, drug dealer-addict (how much acting was involved is another question ;) The girl playing Maddie was fine and I found the goth hostess of the party, Shannon Elizabeth, pretty appealing and seductive. I even felt a bit sorry for her.

The plot itself involving demons having to corrupt and possess several people on Halloween night in an enclosed manor was serviceable, and had a few nice twists, and a few bad ones near the end as well. I found the make-up effects on the demons rather good, especially for the girls. I can't say I was ever really scared, but there was suspense. Pretty fun B-movie fare with above-average directing, yet once the survivors got in a room protected by spells, things started going badly. Badly as in illogical or very convenient things happening that shattered my sense of disbelief. I kept asking myself how could this happen (demon hands through walls), why the demons acted this way or just didn't do anything (when someone climbs down a rope), why this character did these stupid, unnecessary things (going out to shoot demons and what comes afterwards). Seems to me the writers painted themselves in a corner with that protected room and had to start "cheating" so the rest of the film wouldn't just be boring waiting. I would have given a 6 (good), perhaps more, for the movie until that room and 4 (poor) for that part after. I suppose it averages to 5.

Rating: 5 out of 10 (average)

Firstly, the plot of this film slightly differs from the NIGHT OF THE DEMONS from 1987 that we all know and love. There are new elements introduced that explain the backstory of the possessed house where teens get turned into demons. But explaining evil is fruitless, it can't be done without sounding generic, and that's the way it sounds in this movie.

The writing, directing, and acting are all horrid. Edward Furlong looks and sounds like he is still on the same hard drugs that cost him his role in TERMINATOR 3. The others are no better, as the characters get on your nerves less than five minutes into the movie and things never improve from there.

The writing consists mainly of clichéd "chick" dialogue, as well as nonstop blatant profanities. The direction is clichéd MTV style, with swooping, rapid-fire camera-work at every turn, and production values that are far too glossy. Any chances at scares are ruined by the terrible direction and gratingly abrasive heavy metal music.

Since there is no suspense or mood built whatsoever, the gore scenes are rendered incredibly boring, so gore cannot be recommended as a reason to watch this mess. Despite having an obviously higher budget than the original, the makeup effects in the original are far superior to this film! The filmmakers were obviously too inept to take advantage of the money and new technology they had.

The nudity cannot be recommended, as the girls have ridiculous (and quite disgusting) fake breasts. Even the sex scenes and gratuitous girl-on-girl kissing scenes are as unsexy as they can be.

Speaking of disgusting, the famous lipstick scene is reenacted in a much more repulsive manner, which (like everything else in the film) seems to be done for the sake of being disgusting.

ZERO stars, NOTHING to recommend, not even of a "so bad it's fun" level -- a crappy movie you'll regret paying for. My faith in Screamfest definitely went down for showing this drivel in its 2010 lineup.

Night of the Demons fmovies. 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.

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.

Film 4 frightfest premiere 'Night of the demons' is all over the place as a film. Unfortunately it tries to be a teen comedy and a scary horror. It fails spectacularly at both. The gore despite being brutal is quick and can barely be seen and the scares unoriginal. Everything that happened in the film felt like the director was constantly winking at the audience. If this film was so self-knowing then why did the characters descend into parody. This film was all over the place. It wanted to be Scream and Friday the 13th. There is the worst exposition you'll ever see when the demons are explained. But I think the director thought he was being funny. I just thought it was stupid. The bad taste was totally misjudged, there were some scenes which were so over-the-top, yet everything else seemed restrained.

'Night of the demons' is a very odd film. See it only as a curio of why modern horror has gone badly wrong.