Home
Home

Night Of The Demons (1988)

DVD Cover (Anchor Bay)
Add to Collection
Sign up to add this to your collection
Add to Favorites
Sign up to add this to your favorites
Overall Rating 63%
Overall Rating
Ranked #3,639
...out of 20,319 movies
Check In? Sign up to check in!

Connections: Night Of The Demons

Ten teenagers party at an abandoned funeral parlor on Halloween night. When an evil force awakens, demonic spirits keep them from leaving and turn their gathering into a living Hell. --IMDb
User Image
Review by Tristan
Added: August 19, 2008
Who doesn't love free movies? There's nothing better than walking out to your mailbox and picking up a package you don't remember ordering and looking inside to see movies you didn't pay for. Could it be a mistake, or did someone just owe you from two months before and finally got off their lazy ass and came through on their word. Nine times out of 10 it's the latter, and such is the case here. This is one of those movies I've known about since I was probably 5 years old, but never got around to seeing. Like most of the horror movies of the last 20 or so years, I have had to catch up in the last decade as I lived a very sheltered life. Not a lot of horror films floating around my house. I suppose I more than make up for it now, but it's still a treat every time I get to see one of these great gems of the past. That is assuming of course, that it's not a piece of complete and utter garbage as this movie was.

It's Halloween night and Angela (Amelia Kinkade) - the school outcast - is throwing a Halloween party at the local abandoned funeral home: Hull House. Apparently the normal high school parties are too timid, and she thought she'd invite a few classmates out to the old place for a creepy Halloween seance. It just wouldn't be a movie if there wasn't some kind of spooky legend, and of course it wouldn't be a movie without some dipshit geek with the 411 on what went down. According to the legend, one of the family members who lived in the house snapped one Halloween night and murdered everyone before killing themselves. However, because everything was such a bloody mess, nobody could figure out who did what to whom. So, with the hokey legend out of the way, the kids crank their music, drink their beer, and get ready for a night of partying. Everything seems to be going just fine until a past-life seance awakens the spirits that possess the house, who in turn possess the kids one by one and turn them into murderous demons.

You'd think a storyline like that would be a great platform for some great 80's splatter-horror comedy. This couldn't be further from the truth. What started off as a great horror comedy quickly fell into one of the cheesiest and worst movies I've seen recently. This movie was chock full of cliched characters and horror devices to the point where I thought they intentionally did it to be ironic. Negative. From the slut, the jock, the goth right down to the nerdy kid who just happens to know everything about the house, it was just too predictable. Maybe when it was released 20 years ago it wasn't as big a deal, but by today's standards, this doesn't hold up in the least. For a movie claiming to be "full of gore and violence" there certainly wasn't much to be seen. I could count on one hand the amount of times there was any sort of special effect or blood on the camera, and even these were pretty sad. I could of course go into how awful the acting was, how bad the dialogue was in certain scenes, blah blah, but I'll spare you the ramble. Just take my word for it that it was almost a complete waste of time.

A complete waste of time once the horror kicked in. Sounds odd, I know, but for the first 30 minutes or so, I was having a great time. It was funny and rude, and seemed as though it would build up into something fun. Stooge (Hal Havins) was the typical obnoxious rowdy guy, but time and time again he had me laughing pretty good. Maybe it was the actor, or maybe it was just the script, but he delivered some great one liners that really made the movie. "Eat a bowl of fuck, I'm here to party" tops every scene in that movie, and it was right in the first 15 minutes. I think it was unintentionally funny, which I admire in a movie. Another positive aspect to this movie - Linnea Quigley. She was 30 when she made this one, but still looked pretty damn good. Plus with the success of Return of the Living Dead, it only made sense to put her in another movie where she could de-robe and not have it scoffed on. Imagine that, a horror movie where she does full frontal nudity for no apparent reason. It boggles the mind.

Needless to say, I'm just glad I didn't have to spend any money on this one. It spawned two sequels so there must be a fanbase out there somewhere, probably consisting of 95% Linnea Quigley fanboys. Congratulations boys, she's 50 and looks like Estelle Getty. Aging did not treat Ms. Quigley well, and it certainly didn't do this movie very well either. Even for you 80's horror purists out there, take a pass on this one. You'll thank me for it. One point for the bowl line, and another point for Ms. Quigley removing a few layers of clothing. That brings us to the whopping total of 2. I must be feeling generous this evening.

2/10.
Nirrad #1: Nirrad - added August 19, 2008 at 12:56am
Ouch! 2/10?...............Happy Birthday!
bradbunson #2: bradbunson - added August 19, 2008 at 7:20am
I really enjoyed this movie, it wasn't a 10, but damn I laughed quite a bit in this movie.
Sarcastos #3: Sarcastos - added August 19, 2008 at 2:02pm
I too enjoyed this movie. and from reading what The Fecal Kid has to say on this site about most movies, he doesn't like them unless notable critics and 90% of the population do.
Nirrad #4: Nirrad - added August 19, 2008 at 2:31pm
Oh wow! Burn. Nice one.
bluemeanie #5: bluemeanie - added August 19, 2008 at 3:22pm
"Night of the Demons" is definitely an 80's horror film, but it's no worse than any other 1980's horror movie that you've given countless positive recommendations to. Not perfect, but definitely a 7/10.
grain of sand #6: grain of sand - added September 4, 2008 at 3:52pm
I loved this movie in Junior High, never saw the ones to follow but I will eventually.. Only to find out what the hell that ending meant.

Lipstick boob, c'mon.. 7/10
Tristan #7: Tristan - added September 4, 2008 at 6:00pm
"It's no worse than any other 1980's horror movie that you've given countless positive recommendations to."

Sorry to bust your bubble, but I went back and checked my reviews. Two 10's, two 9's, three 8's, two 7's, a 6.5, two 6's and two 5's. So countless really translates to 14.
bluemeanie #8: bluemeanie - added September 8, 2008 at 10:22am
Thanks for proving me correct. It required less work on my part.
Chad #9: Chad - added September 22, 2008 at 6:48am
Yeah, someone ate a bowl of idiot while writing that review. This movie was classic eighties cheese, and though not perfect (it did start to drag towards the end), I thought it was pretty damned good. 8/10.
Crispy #10: Crispy - added November 8, 2010 at 12:10am
Animated intro ruled. Everything after that was garbage.
Bill Wolford #11: Bill Wolford - added October 31, 2011 at 4:44am
oh those young memories. I was 20 when this came out. 8/10
Lucid Dreams #12: Lucid Dreams - added October 31, 2011 at 10:48am
I was 4 : /
Jack Desmond #13: Jack Desmond - added November 7, 2012 at 4:50pm
I liked this film. It wasn't worth buying, but definitely a Nexflix rental. Great photography, excellent makeup effects, some good dialogue and of course some Class A Tits & Ass. I would rate it a solid 7 for what it is.
Sign up to add your comment. Sign up to add your comment.
Recommended Movies
Night Of The Demons 2 Night Of The Demons 3 Night Of The Demons Witchtrap Witchboard The Basement Poltergeist II: The Other Side Poltergeist III Halloween 4: The Return Of Michael Myers The Video Dead Ghosthouse Paranormal Activity 4 Witchery The Gallows The Gallows Act II The Evil Dead WNUF Halloween Special V/H/S
Layout, reviews and code © 2000-2024 | Privacy Policy
Contact: Join us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Review Updates