Night of the Demons

This film from schlockmeister Kevin Tenney is a poster child for MST3K. The intentional humor in Night of the Demons (1988) consists of utterly unfunny and atrocious puns, lame sex jokes and innuendos, and bad accents. But it's a great example of unintentionally hilarious B-horror. And I mean seriously B. There is very little to recommend this film from a critical standpoint. The few standouts (the original songs, the make-up effects) don't even come close to carrying a film otherwise littered with horrible acting, a bad script, and laughable effects. All the '80s horror tropes are upheld, with one surprising and notable exception (hint: it has to do with the chances of survival for an ethnic minority).

It's Halloween night, and ten high school friends decide to go all out for their party. They come up with the brilliant idea of holding their bash in Hull House, a local eyesore and creepy haunted house. We get all the backstory for Hull House (and I mean all of it) unceremoniously dumped on us all at once by one of the gang, who apparently has read every single thing on the subject and hangs out with vaguely mentioned 'Indians' all the time. Most recently, Hull House served as a funeral home before being abandoned. The story is a little muddled: it could be the Indian spirits that haunt Hull House, or it could be the spirits of the dead who passed through the funeral home, or it could be the funeral director himself, rumored to practice necrophilia and other arcane things. Whatever the story, the high schoolers seem unperturbed, except for Rodger, who childishly proclaims that he's the son of a preacher man and his daddy taught him not to mess with the spirits. Regardless, Rodger continues on into the house.

The party starts innocently enough, with some dancing and tunes blasting from a boombox. When the boombox mysteriously cuts out, the gang get down to more serious pursuits. Angela, the obligatory goth girl, leads them in some sort of seance, which apparently consists of nothing more than sitting in front of a mirror and holding hands. Nonetheless, something has apparently been summoned, as the mirror goes dark and a hideous demon face appears. And by demon face, I mean a bad puppetry rendition of what appears to be a cross between a dragon's head and a praying mantis's. The appearance of dragonface ushers in a world of hurt, as the demon spirits begin systematically hunting down and possessing the kids. Along the way, we are treated to a heaping helping of gore, demon make-up effects, gratuitous nudity, and of course, stupid teenagers having sex. Oh yeah, and the demons seem to have some sort of need to do erotic interpretative dance before they kill people. I dunno; who am I to question demonic motivation? Anyway, the rest of the film plays out like a slasher flick, as the demons slowly hunt down the survivors, who find themselves trapped in the house, the gated entrance sealed by demon magic or somesuch.

Basically, what we have with Night of the Demons is a cheap Evil Dead (1981) knockoff. I don't even know how that's physically possible, seeing as how the $1M budget for Night of the Demons is 3 times Evil Dead's modest budget, but nevertheless, Kevin Tenney's work seems much cheaper than Sam Raimi's. Of course, Raimi is a legendary cutting-edge cinematographer, and despite his legacy as a B-movie mogul, Bruce Campbell does have some acting chops. Which gives him a leg up on everyone in this film. The acting is clearly the weakest link. Even for schlock, this is bad. The actors deliver their lines with all the subtlety and nuance of a slab of granite, appearing to have just learned them 15 minutes before the take.

Of note among the actors is Linnea Quigley as the slut-turned-demon Suzanne. If Campbell is the king of the B's, then Quigley is the undisputed queen. With roles is such cult classics as Silent Night Deadly Night (1984), The Return of the Living Dead (1985), Creepozoids (1987), and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers (1988), Quigley had already made a name for herself in horror circles. Unfortunately, her inclusion in Night of the Demons means that she is a quite obvious 30-year-old trying to play a high schooler among a bunch of much younger actors. She sticks out like a sore thumb, and the good looks that made her a fan favorite with a nude romp through a graveyard in Return of the Living Dead are gone, ravaged by what appears to be a dependency on coke, meth, or both.

While the make-up effects by Steve Johnson (future husband of Linnea Quigley) are pretty good, other effects are atrocious, including the aforementioned dragonface demon, the obvious matte painting long shot of Hull House, and the opening credits, which drag out for like 7 minutes and look as if a 6-year-old animated them. The score sounds like it was composed on a Casio keyboard, but I give it points for being unique. The original songs, written and performed for the film by Dennis Tenney, are actually pretty cool, except for the unfortunate power ballad over the end credits. Man, was an end credits power ballad fucking obligatory in the late '80s??

I wanted to check this film out because a remake is being released later this year featuring Shannon Elizabeth and Eddie "John Connor" Furlong, as well as a cameo by Quigley. I normally don't condone remakes, but I'm looking forward to this one. Even if it's bad, it can't possibly be worse than the original. Here's to hoping they class up the production without losing the camp.

Storyline & plot: 3/10
Cinematography & effects: 5/10
Music & mood: 6/10
Performances: 1/10

The Reverend says: 4/10