Reviewed by

Christopher Armstead

I had just gotten through watching the remake of this movie ‘Night of the Demons’ which admittedly was fairly run of the mill as far as horror movies go. The thing is I had no idea that that movie was a remake until well after I saw it, so my next mission to track down the original version of ‘Night of the Demons’. Well, that was mighty easy. ‘Night of the Demons’ circa 1988 was available to see in all of its entirety for absolutely zero dollars via the magic of the Internet. Just go to Hulu or Fancast and if you’ve got the right hookup, like I have the right hookup, you can have it stream straight to your television. Albeit with more commercial interruptions than your average Sci-Fi Channel original. Outstanding. Hulu and Fancast owe me money if anybody goes there to see this movie after reading this.

The story is as old as Methuselah. A group of crazy horny kids are off to some out of the way location to have a party and get slaughtered. Since this was 1988 at least we don’t have to worry about our kids having crappy cell phone reception. Our kids consist of Judy the virgin (Cathy Podewell) who is out on a hot date with Jay (Lance Fenton) who judging by his attire has clearly seen one too many episodes of Miami Vice. On their way to the party these kids pick up Max (Phillip Tanzini) and his smoking hot girlfriend Frannie (Jill Terashita) which cements a long held belief… not held by me mind you… but a long held belief that when hot Asian American women are choosing men to date, any old average white guy will do. Moving along we will meet the boorish Stooge (Hal Havins) who is driving his friend Helen (Allison Baron) who he constantly calls a bitch, and in the back seat is Rodger the Black Guy (Alvin Alexis). Rodger, as it will turn out, is one of the more incredible fictional characters in movie history. Throwing this party will be the freaky mystically enhanced weirdo Angela (Mimi Kinkaid), who is accompanied by her best friend Suzanne the Super Slut as played by the legendary Linea Quigley. And we can’t forget the Brooklyneese character of Sal the Obnoxious (Billy Gallo).

So it’s party time. The music is playing, the kids are drinking, Angela’s dancing and Rodger is scared shitless. The music cuts off which means its unadvised mystical

demon summoning party game time. Something goes terribly wrong during this little mini game, weird sounds are heard and Rodger bolts. Everybody else is pretty cool with what is going on and decides to explore a bit. We thought Jay the Sonny Crockett wannabe was a nice guy but he just wants to get into Judy’s pants. Asshole. Rodger has learned that the gate leading out of this horror compound has somehow become bricked over. This frightens Rodger. He hides in an available automobile.

Back inside the house The Possession has begun. The Slut has killed Sonny Crocket and Angela has eaten Stooges face. Rodger, who is outside, has found the missing Helen. Needless to say Rodger gets scared and runs away. What all we have left is Sal, who is somewhat heroic, Judy who is completely useless, and Rodger who is a total bitch-ass sissy. Just so you know if Judy is to survive this night her fate rests completely in the hands of Rodger. Good luck with that Judy.

First things first. The remake of this movie has done something that I think filmmakers should be doing anyway when it comes to remaking movies, and that’s remaking crap movies. Why keep remaking classics like ‘True Grit’ and ‘Let the Right One In’ when there are so many awful movies that you can remake which will lessen the scrutiny of your remake? I didn’t judge the remake of ‘Night of the Demons’ against this movie and the remake was better, all things considered, but I don’t think it was nearly as entertaining. There are those out there that that love this movie, and while there’s a lot to love about this movie, these people love this movie as a slice of classic horror cinema. That I don’t really see. This had to be one of the worst acted movies in the history modern cinema and it wasn’t all that scary either, but the makeup effects were cool and the constant demon grunting sound effects weren’t too bad either.

What makes this movie fun, outside of the ridiculous dialog, Angela’s penchant for nasty dancing at the drop of a hat, and Jay’s wardrobe… note that Jay didn’t have a costume in this movie, being that it was it was 1988 and all, but today his costume would’ve been the best costume. No sir, Judy and Rodger made this movie awesome. If there were a pair of more annoying and worthless final characters in a horror movie, I’d love to see them. Monster coming… Judy screams and collapses and Rodger flees in terror. I mean Judy was completely worthless in this movie… except… well, except when she realized that Rodger was the only thing standing between her and certain death. Only then did Judy rise up. Rodger fled at even the thought of danger in this movie. Rochester from those Charlie Chan movies was thinking Rodger should’ve manned up. I’m pretty sure that one of the requirements for Alvin Alexis in this movie was supreme physical fitness considering how much running he had to do. ‘He Won’t Get ME!’ Rodger would exclaim as he leaps headfirst through a plate glass window leaving Judy alone to fend for herself. Yet again. You want to survive this movie? Then just follow Rodger. Good luck keeping up with that brother.

Why anyone would want to remake ‘Night of the Demons’ is beyond me but it did spawn three or four sequels so somebody loved it for what it tried to deliver, so go figure. I loved it because of Judy and Rodger. ‘Watch Rodger run like a Bitch’ would’ve been a much more appropriate title.