Night of the Demons (Remake)
Starring: Monica Keena, Edward Furlong, Shannon Elizabeth
Writers: Jace Anderson & Adam Gierasch
Director: Adam Gierach
****Spoilers throughout****
The story starts in 1925, with Evangeline Broussard wrapping a noose around her neck and jumping off a balcony, resulting in her head popping off and rolling down the front steps of Broussard mansion. The dude on the balcony tried to stop her, reassuring her that he is his true self. But after she jumps, he looks over at the aftermath and his eyes flash yellow. Booyah, he's a demon.
Flash forward 85 years:
Angela is emailing invitation reminders about her Halloween party at Broussard mansion. It's a huge success, until cops bust it for Angela not having a permit. Leftovers at the party; Angela, Maddie, Lily, Suzanne, Jason, Dex, and Colin. When the fuzz showed up, Colin dumped a bunch of drugs down a grate, which ultimately leads everyone downstairs where they discover tunnels and hidden rooms... one of which has a bunch of dead bodies from some crazy fucked up events that happened at the Broussard mansion years ago. Angela goes gold digging in the mouth of one of the cadavers and it bites her. Next thing you know, demon stuff is happening.
Wow, I really hated the shit outta this. The original is a low budget 80's delight. Sure, it's B-horror, but it's made well enough to prove that everyone involved cared. This remake is just a hipster version of Tenney's film, with a lame story full of annoying characters. The teenage group in the original weren't fleshed out thought provoking people by any stretch, but at least they have a good deal of wit drawn into them. Some of them were easily likable; no one is in this remake. There are attempts at giving sympathetic value to a few characters, but they're all too artificial and irritating to give a fuck. I didn't care that Angela may end up homeless if her party isn't a success. I didn't care if certain characters were going to mend broken relationships. I didn't care if a single person survived. There could have been a fucking bomb dropped on the mansion right when the party started, and I'd have been thankful that a gigantic explosion saved me from undergoing about 80 minutes of bullshit.
Most irritating are the homages that try to chime in with the original series. Straight away, we get a cameo appearance from Linnea Quigley, wearing her same pink outfit from the first film. She even replicates her bend over shot. Only this time, it's not to preoccupy a couple of horny counter clerks at a convenience store; she's flashing her ass to a couple of trick or treaters, and it's kinda disturbing. Another bad reference- at the party later on, one of Angela's friends make an almost mumble-manner mention of a failed séance involving a mirror at a previous party. Give me a fucking break. Also, the Shannon Elizabeth version of Angela tries to channel the pistol blow-job skills of Amelia Kincaid in Night of the Demons 3, by deep-throating a wine bottle and the horn on the head of a demon. Is that all? No. The epic lipstick scene gets a makeover, too, with different finishing results that I guess are supposed to make it more extreme. It worked in the original as it was because it was some crazy shit. I'd never seen anything quite like it. Anyways...
As for direction, there's a couple of carefully concocted split-focus shots used, with very little blurring. Unfortunately, none of the scenes are interesting enough to warrant use of this technique. It's just like “Hey, look what we did!” I appreciate deep focus when it's used to give a situation more meaning and/or artistic value; I don't give a shit that the back of Edward Furlong's head is right up in my face and in focus, as well as someone walking around in the same room he's in. It just didn't matter to me. There's also use of the frantic shaky-cam stuff when the action is “intense”. Tenney's Night of the Demons had a lot of style and creativity to it by way of camera work, and much of it was used to make the less exciting scenes more interesting. It worked. Here, it seems to just be flashy and hip for the sake of it. I did enjoy the story opener, which is a call out to the silent film era. For those few minutes I almost thought I may be in for a treat. I dunno, overall the camera direction is good, but it's not enough to save the movie.
I couldn't really tell if the acting was bad or just okay, because the characters are completely see-through. Monica Keena (Freddy Vs. Jason) plays the leading heroine, Maddie, probably the least nerve racking personality in the film. She has some smarts about her that are displayed in the final segments, but I had honestly hoped the film was going to end the way it appeared to just seconds before the reveal. Anyhow, like said, Keena is alright. Diora Bard and Bobbi Sue Luther (Laid to Rest) portray her sidekick besties, Lily and Suzanne. Both dressed as slutty pussycats for Halloween, the two are hot as hell. Still, they are extremely fake and overly pestering characters. Sure, they are thrown into sexual situations and reveal a thankful amount of skin, and you may think that would be enough to forgive how uninteresting they are... but the sex aspect of this film is more corny that erotic, so it doesn't help. We also got the Mr. Comic Relief and Mr. Cool buddy duo, Jason (John. F. Beach) and Dex.(Michael Copon). Utterly forgettable.
I was really disappointed in the Shannon Elizabeth- Angela. She isn't some dark and mysterious chick that people are wary of; she's a popular 30+ year old wearing a mall-goth outfit. A hipster, just like everyone at her party. Elizabeth's performance is alright, I just really dislike the character. And fuck, Edward Furlong, boy, he has fell off. I mean, maybe he wasn't ever great, but I used to dig him enough. Here, he looks like a severely worn out alien in the situation at hand. He plays Colin, a drug dealer at the party, and also Maddie's ex --bullshit, no way. There's a scene at one point where the remaining survivors think they have won the battle with the demons, and Furlong gives a ridiculous 30 second victory giggle. Hah, it's terrible. I'm over it.
Special effects are honestly pretty good, and the film gets fairly fucking gory. Even if I didn't like the overall look of the demons, it's obvious that a lot of work went into the designs. A favorite is one of the female demons that had her face ripped off before she gets possessed. Didn't like the look of Angela; it's too clean looking. I also disliked how the transformations unravel. There's just a bunch of rapid fast body wiggling type shit and “waalaa!”, appearance goes from human to demon. Bleh. Another transformation comes from doggystyle sex with a ghoul, once the male entity uses the backdoor, the girl becomes a demoniac, too. Jeez. Other makeup and gore are displayed in scenes of a demon orgy, breast flesh removal, gut eating, a broken leg with protruding bone and the aforementioned lipstick revival segment.
Soundtrack? It's mostly a bunch of metal techno goth sounding stuff. I'm sure some people are into this, not my thing. It's worthy of noting that there are songs by Type O Negative, Concrete Blonde and Goatwhore.
I'm sure there are some fans for this remake, but it didn't do anything for me, other than kind of piss me off. I'm not a hater of all things “remake”; there's actually a few out of this new wave I stand by (Aja's The Hills Have Eyes and Piranha), but I place Night of the Demons way down in the barrel right beside the Platinum Dunes Elm Street and Columbia Pictures' reboot of The Fog. In other words, I won't be watching this again.
P.S.- I didn't need a back story for the demons.
