October Horror
I saw the remake of this film recently and thought it was a cheesy fun film but I hadn’t seen the original Night of the Demons since it was released on VHS. It really didn’t stick in my mind and I hadn’t realised it had developed a cult following until I saw it mentioned regularly on IMDb message boards. The film is a cheesy fun Halloween story and has the usual cast of high school students going to a remote place to party and stumble upon a supernatural evil that wants to kill them and possess their souls. While not a very original story there’s is a bit of twisted originality in the execution
It’s Halloween and a group of high school students are going to a party held by Angela (Amelia Kinkade) at an abandoned funeral parlour called Hull House, scene brutal murders in its past. Rodger (Alvin Alexis) and Helen (Allison Barron) are riding with Stooge (Hal Havins) in his beat up old car. As they pass a grumpy old man Stooge climbs out of the window and moons him. Another teenager Sal (Billy Gallo) startles the man with a rubber rat, causing him to drop his groceries. When Judy (Cathy Podewell) stops to offer help to old man she gets a mouthful of abuse instead. This nasty old man is so evil that later we see him putting razor blades in the apples his wife bought to give to the kids
Judy goes home to get ready for her high school Halloween party and while getting changed she gets a call from her date Jay (Lance Fenton) who wants to take her to Angela’s party instead of high school. Judy is not too sure but Jay insists. When Judy opens her closet her little brother Billy jumps out wearing a monster mask and he takes the chance to perve on his sister before she chases him out of her room. Downstairs he answer the door to Sal who is Judy’s sort of ex-boyfriend. Billy enjoys telling Sal that Judy’s already got a date but Sal manages to bribe Billy to tell him where they are going. Jay picks Judy then drives to pick their friends Max (Philip Tanzini) and Frannie (Jill Terashita).
Angela is at the grocery store with her friend Suzanne (Linnea Quigley) who is dressed up as a slutty little girl and our first sight of her she is bent right over giving the store clerks and the audience a view of her arse barely covered in skimpy panties. The clerks are so distracted by Suzanne’s arse that they are oblivious to Angela filling a sack with party snacks.
Judy, Jay, Max and Frannie get to Hull House first and it’s an abandoned mess with coffins left lying around. They see another car coming and Jay suggests getting in the coffins to scare whoever it is. When he opens a coffin Sal is already there and he leaps out scaring the crap out of Jay. Jay is pissed at Sal and wantds to start trouble but Judy points out that Sal only did what was Jay planning to do. Angela and Suzanne arrive with the party supplies and then Rodger and Stooge arrive with Sal’s cooler of beer and a large ghetto-blaster. The party gets started with roaring fire in the fireplace and candles to light the place up. Everyone gets dancing to some nice 80s rock and someone switches on a strobe light. Just as the party is getting going the ghetto-blaster cuts out
As a party game they decide to play mirror seance where they all sit in front of mirror and wait for it to go black. I’m sure it was mean to be trick but the lights come on by themselves and they all start bickering at each other and miss the image of a rubber demon. Helen looks in the mirror and sees the demon and sees a vision of herself dying and freaks out. Everyone is wondering what happened. In the cellar something escapes and we see a POV shot as it leaves the cellar and comes up to the room where they are and we see it enter Suzanne.
Now its time for the fun to start with the party splitting up to make them easier to kill. Helen and Rodger just want to leave because Helen got really freaked out by the mirror stunt and Rodger is scared, Jay, Judy, Max and Frannie go exploring the house. Suzanne passes the demonic infection onto Angela with a long deep kiss then she leaves with Stooge to look for a toilet.
Sal starts getting freaked as Angela starts moving and jumping and writhing around. Music starts playing on the ghetto-blaster Stigmata Martyr by Bauhaus and Angela dances to it then the strobe strsts and Angela’s dancing really starts getting bizzare. Sal thinks Angela’s acting weird and things are getting too strange so he leaves the room. Just then Stooge comes back without Suzanne who disappeared in the toilet. Angela kisses Stooge and bites off his tongue with her sharp demon teeth.
Max and Annie leave Judy and Jay on their own to look for somewhere private. Jay tries coming on to Judy but she is just too freaked out and scared by the house. She then finds out Jay is just a creep who is dating Judy because he mistakenly thought she was easy because she dated Sal. He storms off in a huff slamming the door behind him and this jams the door tight so Judy can’t get out.
Helen and Rodger are also having problem getting out. They can’t find the gate in the wall around the house and as Rodger desperately tries to find it Helen disappears. Rodger gets into Angela’s car to wait and eventually falls asleep. Upstairs in the house Sal finds Suzanne sitting in a room playing with her lipstick and she has drawn over herself like a clown. Salthinks she’s tripping and he has had enough wierdness and wants to leave. When he’s gone Suzanne take the lipstick and pushes right inside her nipple where it vanishes .
Back outside Rodger is wakened by the car shaking and he gets out thinking it’s Stooge messing with him and discovers Helen’s body on the top of the car. He runs back into the house where he narrowly avoids Angela and runs into Sal.
Jay has come across Suzanne and he is feeling horny. They have sex but Suzanne goes all evil face and pokes her finger into Jay’s eyes. Evil Stooge is wandering the halls and he tries the door to the room Judy is stuck in but he can’t get it open so he wanders off. Max and Frannie are trying to have sex in a coffin but are finding it better in theory than in practice. Stooge comes in and snaps Frannie’s neck. Max tries to get up but Stooge slams the lid down on him trapping Max’s arm. Stooge keeps slamming down the lid till Max’s arm breaks off and Max somehow dies.
Sal and Rodger find Judy and Sal breaks the door down. Evil Angela is cruising the hallways and Rodger flees so Sal and Judy duck into another room. Unfortunately evil Suzanne is in there with Jay’s head in her lap and his eyes gouged out. Rodger Sal and Judy get chased around the house by the their demoniacally possessed friends. Rodger manages to get out of the house but while saving Judy from Angela Sal falls to his death.Judy reckons that they have to climb the wall to escape, meanwhile all their dead friends are coming after them. Rodger manages to get over then he helps Judy over too.
There’s as a nice little touch in an extra scene at the end when the grumpy old man from the start of the film gets given an apple pie his wife made from the apples he bought for kids for Halloween and he gets killed by the razor blades he put in the apples
This film is very cheesy and is just a fun film made for Halloween. It even has a cheesy Halloween animated title sequence. I thought the music was very well done and it is a nice choice of Bauhaus for the creepy music during Angela’s dance. It was nice to see some different characters from the usual and the story moves the plot along without relying too much on characters acting stupid except for Stooge who was already established as brash and stupid.
Rating 7.0/10
Nameless Horror 