My review of 'Night of the Demons (2009)'
Source: http://www.freewebs.com/mhnod
I hope you enjoy it!
NIGHT OF THE DEMONS (2009)
(Directed by Adam Gierasch)
"Stupid, but entertaining as hell."- Signed by MartialHorror.
Plot: Some college punks find themselves at a party in a spooky mansion. But demons are unleashed and the night becomes a fight for their lives.
Review:
I'm not really sure what to make of “Night of the Demons”. On one hand, it is a remake and that is generally a bad thing. On the other hand, remaking the original “Night of the Demons” isn't the most daft idea within the world of remakes . While I never saw “Night of the Demons 3”, the general consensus is that it's more-or-less worse than “Night of the Demons 2” (which I didn't care for), so the franchise had already run its course. The 80's style of film-making and gore, however, made the first two films fairly unique, and the advancement in technology tends to mean “it looks even more fake" because low budget films suck when it comes to CGI. But since the sequels were so bad, all this remake would have to do is be better than those for it to not be a failure. So how did it end up? It is better than the sequels and is a surprisingly entertaining direct-to-DVD splatterfest. We don't have a horror classic at all, but it is a generally agreeable film for what it is,.
I won't list who the main protagonist is for two reasons. For one, I did appreciate that the film was ambiguous as to who would become the main character. Two, I honestly don't remember their names as the characters are often generic and one dimensional. The only ones that need to be mentioned are Angela (Shannon Elizabeth) and Colin (Edward Furlong), because we know who the actors are. Angela's hosting a party in a big spooky mansion that has a haunted past, so all of the main characters show up for their own reasons. The party is crashed by cops and the stragglers find themselves stuck for the night. Then one is possessed and starts killing/possessing the rest of the guests as the night becomes a party from hell.
Let me begin with this, for all of the problems I have with the film, I do respect everyone involved. I never felt that anybody was slacking off. The cast and crew, behind and in front of the camera, all appeared to be doing their best in order to deliver a solid product. Sure, that doesn't necessarily make it a good film, but it angers me when I feel that the filmmakers are just cashing in on the name value of something with a following ("Tekken", I'm looking at you). Director Adam Grierasch, a novice, makes a lot of bold and daring decisions regarding his film. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. There is definitely a lot of experimentation going on, such as having the prologue be shot as if it is an old school silent film. You'll either find it creative or distracting. Unfortunately, the film does tend to look like something produced for television, except with more gore and sex. Some of the transformations- especially the latter ones- reminded me of the stuff I'd see in that Buffy T.V show or maybe one of its imitations. The scenes where the possessed would move their head around super fast was a bit of a misfire too. It was cheesy, but in a bad way, not the endearing way that made the 1988 film so charming.
The first 30-40 minutes were engaging but a bit too much time was spent on the set up. Colin, a drug dealer, has his own subplot that I'm not sure was necessary. It establishes faulty relationships but never seems to know what to do with them. They have characters feuding for unclear reasons and introduces some character quirks that are never really needed. The dialogue ranges from grating to fairly clever. My problem is that at times it felt overwritten. Characters like to say *beep* a lot, and are generally too raunchy. When Angela shows up to give her first big speech, it just felt 'fake' to me. Still, the actors do the best they can with what they have to work with. It was especially refreshing to see Edward Furlong (the kid from “Terminator 2”) lounging around, even if he looks like a washed up star who might be on the substance that his character is trying to sell to everyone. Strangely, the drug dealer gets to act as a voice of reason, pointing out some of the problems I had with the script. He's the guy who calls people out for playing spin the bottle when they've just seen a bunch of skeletons in the basement. The film has a lot of “hey, we're poking fun at the badness of the script, but since we are referencing it, then is the script bad?” moments. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's irritating.
When the action gets going, we get to see a lot of sex and gore and some of it is surprisingly creative and vicious. While there is some CGI, most of the gore/make up is pulled off with practical effects, so that's always nice. My main issue is that it seems like people die too quickly once the *beep* hits the fan. It almost starts moving too fast. With that said, the film does contain some nice locations, interesting lighting and it is even fairly suspenseful and intense. The movie continues to get better and better with its wild and crazy attitude until they reach a room that wards off the demons. This is where the movie starts to falter. For one, the exposition becomes too heavy and the revelations are contrived. Up until this point, the film at least seemed intent on being a grisly horror film. But when we reach that stupid room, then the movie becomes a parody of itself. Characters spew one liners, hard rock plays during the horror sequences and everything becomes too goofy. It is sometimes funny, but imagine “Night of the Demons”'s second half being replaced with the second half of “Night of the Demons 2”. Tone is very important when it comes to horror films. It is possible to pull off a horror/comedy (like the original) but this movie tended to feel either too serious or too silly at times, so it just didn't gel very well.
How does it compare to the original? Well, the original was a celebration of 80's horror films, so it had all of what we loved about the 80's. It was creative, funny but freaky and felt like a horror party come to life. This film is fairly creative too and has some funny and freaky moments, but in general it just feels like a step down. It's party atmosphere drops rather quickly and Angela is kind of lame this time around. Still, because it sometimes captures the spirit of the original and is surprisingly good for a direct-to-DVD remake, I can't bring myself to hate it. It is very entertaining and bold, and that edges out my complaints. Once again, thanks to everyone involved for doing your best. It at least made for an acceptable viewing.
Violence: Rated R worthy. Pretty hardcore.
Nudity: A fair amount of it including some graphic sex and even some lesbianism.
Overall: “Night of the Demons (2009)” is worth seeing if your curious. It's not great but it is pretty fun.
2.5/4 Stars
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