Night of the Demons (Kevin Tenney, 1988)
Cheesy, sleazy, 80's horror mayhem
Night of the Demons is the kind of guilty pleasure horror movie you can stick on when you want an easy watch that is just brainless good fun.
Set on Halloween night, the film follows a mismatched group of teens who decide to ditch their high school dance and instead spend the night partying in an abandoned mansion that was once a funeral home.
After unwisely attempting a séance in this creepy venue, they accidentally awaken an evil spirit that has long haunted this precise patch of land, and it proceeds to possess a handful of the would-be partiers, who in turn begin brutally attacking the others among them.
Why? Don’t overthink it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the mayhem.
Night of the Demons is a cheesy, sleazy, horror movie that has no shame about employing tropes, cliches, or stereotypes (the main characters include a goody two-shoes, her preppy boyfriend, a weird alternative girl, and a slobby meathead thug).
It’s to the film’s credit, however, that the film doesn’t focus on these disparate archetypes in a genre rehash of The Breakfast Club.
Likewise, there is some diverse casting in the film which, while perhaps a little tokenistic, is nevertheless never commented on by anyone.
In both ways, the film projects the characters’ indifference to their differences, which actually helps ground the film and emphasizes that these people really have known each other for many years and that they’ve all grown up together. They’re all very different in various ways, but they accept each other and there’s no notion that anyone of them is an outcast or marginalized. (Not that the film ever suggests it’s interested in such considerations, but the fact that it is all present and yet never a focus is itself striking and commendable.)
The cast all knows what film they’re in and who their characters are within that context, and they clearly all have a lot of fun playing their parts. A particular standout is Amelia Kinkade as the gothic Angela who orchestrates the whole evening only to become the lead possessed.
This is a movie with minimal plot and gratuitous nudity aplenty that knows the reason for its existence is simply to see a bunch of teenagers be attacked by monsters in myriad gory ways — and it gets there as quickly as possible, then maintains the situation for the rest of the film.
With that in mind, be prepared to overlook some heavy-handed plotting and some occasional shoddy moments — it’s all in service of maximizing Night of the Demons’ meat and potatoes.
That is not a knock on the film by any means; this is a recommendation to watch, after all. And there is plenty to recommend…
There are some genuinely creepy moments (such as the revelation that the gate to the house has disappeared, literally trapping them on the walled property) and legitimately impressive special effects (the demons’ makeup, a dismembered arm that comes back to life to attack our plucky heroes).
Night of the Demons is a film that knows exactly what it is and had no aspirations greater than that. It can and should be enjoyed on those same terms.