Night of the Demons (1988)

It's the night of the high school Halloween dance, only some students think it's just for nerds. Instead, a small group ventures out to legendary Hull House for a party hosted by the school outcast. What begins as a night of dancing and spooky party games, turns into a fight for survival against demonic forces. By the late 1980s, the Horror genre had been really exhausted. Every Tom, Dick and Harry with a camera could make a scary movie and get it out there. Often times the result was amateur city, but once in awhile the turnout would be a real gem.

Apart from the Halloween series, there weren't too many memorable Horror films set on the holiday. Kevin Tenney and Co. must have realized this when developing this project. But rather than have a bunch of wild teens cut to shreds by a killer, they gave us something more akin to Evil Dead. All the elements fans look for in a great b Horror film are here: blood, sex, monsters and rock 'n' roll. It wasn't a monster hit like some other flicks of the time, but has enjoyed a big cult following.

One thing about this film that's hard to forget is the animated opening titles sequence. Filled with all kinds of twisted images, the filmmakers really know how to open a film. Keeping things in the family, Tenney's brother did the fantastic score that's pretty eerie. Plus, there are some kick ass songs like "Stigmata Martyr" by Bauhaus used to great effect. It helps that the location is so dark and ominous looking, like something out of those old haunted house films.

The film wasn't going to win any awards for the acting, but the cast does all right. Everyone seems to be having fun, especially Scream Queen Linnea Quigley as ditzy Suzanne. Though quite a dark and sometimes gruesome movie, there's a good helping of humor too. I particularly like the convenience store sequence early on. In fact, there's quite a bit of imagination that went into the script and imagery. I won't spoil any of it for those who've yet to see the film, but some like the lipstick scene are so out there.

In a movie involving demons, one would hope that the effects are better than average. Not to worry, because the super talented Steve Johnson and his team were brought aboard for those duties. The prosthetics are spectacular and have held up well after all this time. There are also some visual effects, like the giant demonic skull, that still look pretty neat. And for those who haven't seen the film, the unrated version is definitely the way to go.

At 86 minutes, the pace flows rather well despite it taking a while to get to the point. There are plenty of fun Halloween hijinks to keep the film from getting bogged down. Not so easily digestible however, is the fact that each character is a stereotype. We have the token black guy, the slut, the virgin, the the storyteller and so on. Also, apart from a few imaginative touches, there are still a number of haunted house and dead teenager movie cliches. Night of the Demons isn't perfect, but has a lot going for it and should be required viewing at a Halloween party.

8/10