'Night of the Demons' review

A group of 'teens' have a Halloween party in a house that's possessed. Soon things get vaguely 'Evil Dead' and the mayhem begins.

Our buddy George was very keen to see this again, to the point that he was a bit disappointed that it wasn't already in my collection. For $6 I changed that and we watched it Saturday night. Some of the group dismissed it as 'cheesy' not long into the movie. While not necessarily disagreeing, I've been pondering the use of that term ever since. The early sections that they had issue with just seemed more of the time (late '80s) than cheesy to me. Perhaps, as I was still young at the time the movie was released and they were barely born, I have a concept of how life was at that time and it felt less cheesy because of such? Am I thinking too hard about this? Definitely. Moving on.

The problem is that there isn't much going on during the set-up portions of the movie. In theory, this is the section of the film where we establish the plot, the rules, and the characters. The rules take seconds to establish. There really isn't a plot apart from 'survive the party' so that doesn't take long. Since the characters are all stereotypes (goofy fat guy with sidekick, italian guy, virginal blonde, weird witch girl, etc), there's nothing to develop there. A couple of the young actors try to shade their characters with depth or at least relish the stereotype to a point where it becomes fun but, on the whole, not much happens for the first half of the movie. It's not creepy enough or funny enough or story filled enough to hold the interest. There's a little bit of trying from every side to keep things moving but it never completely comes together. Some of the acting is just not good. I thought one of the characters was annoying on purpose but after more time I realized the actress just couldn't bring it together.

On the plus side, when things get moving, they stay moving. The fx are good to excellent. I don't recall a really awkward 'yeah that's fake moment' in the bunch. The standout is a tube of lipstick going somewhere it shouldn't. We saluted it with a chorus of pained groans. Once the movie turns the corner to 'survival horror', there are a couple of 'oh, really?' moments but for the most part it holds together. The characters get separated right before the mayhem starts and I never lost track of who was where and what had last happened to them. The 'witch girl' also gives a dance that managed to be creepy and sexy at the same time. There is some attempt to subvert the stereotyping of these films at the end. Despite my complaints about the stereotypical characters, one of the female roles was played by an Asian and it was never mentioned as important in the film, as it should be.

In short, it was worth the $6 I paid for it. Recommended only to those who have an existing interest in '80s horror. I don't think this would interest anyone else. I mean, one of the guys that declared it 'cheesy' has such an interest so how would it appeal to someone without that interest? It's fun, has moments, but on the whole is nothing spectaular.