Night of the Demons (2009)

Movie Info

Angela throws the best parties!

Angela (Shannon Elizabeth) is throwing a party and everyone is dying to get in.  Held at the legendary haunted home of Evangeline Broussard, everyone that is anyone wants to be at the Halloween party.  Police raid the party, and Angela and a group of her friends find themselves stuck cleaning up the mess.  When the group discovers that demons have been unleashed and that they are trapped, survival is the goal.  Getting in to Angela’s party was hard…getting out will be even harder!

Directed by Adam Gierasch, Night of the Demons is a remake of the 1988 film of the same title.  The movie premiered at London’s FrightFest in 2009, and the movie was released straight-to-DVD in 2010.  The film was poorly received by critics.

I saw the first Night of the Demons on VHS and didn’t think it was that great.  There were some tense moments (like the ending and the attempted escape), but for the most part, it just relied on T&A and gore to get by.  Night of the Demons remake does try to be more but it doesn’t have that ’80s fun vibe that made the original half-way watchable.

You want me to put the lipstick where?!?!

I liked the claustrophobia of the original movie.  The characters couldn’t get out because the house wouldn’t let them out.  Here, it is more that the house is locked up and the characters are trapped.  The demons do play games on the characters, but I like the horror of the original version.  The storyline hits a roadblock when the characters get trapped…it is like the writers didn’t know what to do with the story once they were trapped in the room.

The cast is also pretty poor.  Shannon Elizabeth anchors the movie as the party thrower Angela (who joins the demons).  She’s ok, but the role doesn’t have much to work with.  Monica Keena isn’t bad as the “good girl” who is trapped in the house with her ex-boyfriend played by Edward Furlong.  One of the stars of the original Linnea Quigley does appear in the film as a ballerina.

I bet if you are a demon and go to a demon party and there is no demon orgy that the party is a bust

The movie doesn’t have the ’80s style.  Movies like Return of the Living Dead and Night of the Demons both had that ’80s punk feel to them.  This movie is updated to the 2000s and it doesn’t hold up…though I am glad that the lipstick scene returned because it was one of the more memorable scenes in the original.

Night of the Demons isn’t a great film nor was the original.  If you have the choice, watch the original because it has some fun in it.  This Night of the Demons feels more like a chore.  The original Night of the Demons started a franchise.  Though a sequel was planned for this version of the movie (called Night of the Demons:  After Party), it never materialized…which wasn’t a bad thing.

Related Links:

Night of the Demons (1988)