Night of the Demons
Review by Peter Syslo

Night of the Demons (1987), is like a companion to the movie Witchboard. It is directed by Kevin S. Tenney and you could definitely see that he has a certain 'style', within his movies. I actually saw this movie for the first time, a week or two ago, but I first heard about this movie when I bought Witchboard, back in 2004. I wanted to review these two movies together because I think that they make a great horror double-feature, and as I stated in my other review, I think that they are underrated.

Night of the Demons basically stars lesser-known actors, except for Linnea Quigley, who has starred in many independent horror features (she is billed as a 'scream queen' on the DVD). It takes place on Halloween night and for that fact alone, I like the movie (if you like Christmas movies, you just love the atmosphere of the Christmas setting - it's the same thing with me and Halloween). A group of teenagers go to an abandoned funeral home to have a party, hosted by the 'goth' girl outcast, Angela ('Mimi' Kinkade). The legend surrounding the house is that murder took place, within the family that used to live there, and they all died in the house. It turns out that Angela is into the occult and the teenagers perform a 'magic ritual', involving a mirror, which awakens a demon 'spirit' that is living in the basement of the house. Unknowingly, one of the girls becomes possessed by this demon and starts acting strangely (there is the parallel with Witchboard). One by one, people start disappearing and Angela figures out that a demon may have been unleashed. She is soon possessed and her demonic presence is actually pretty creepy (there is a way that she glides along the hallways which is surreal). A few try to escape from the house and find that it has trapped them in; they learn that they have to survive until daybreak, in order to be free and to finally vanquish the demons.

The movie is reminiscent of Demons, and other 'possession' movies but I really did enjoy it. I think that Witchboard is the better of the two films, but this one is a good movie; especially considering that I just saw it for the first time, well into my horror-viewing career (I liked it, even though I have seen similar movies). As in Witchboard, you have some of the 80's staples: the wise-ass, punk-kid (who at times is a little annoying), a lot of gratuitous nudity (the first scene about 5 minutes in, I think), some odd-looking make-up effects (but they fit the movie), and the hilarious dialogue and scenes that lead up to the horror (there is one scene where Linnea Quigley's character is distracting sales clerks in a store, so Angela can shoplift - words can't do it justice, I was laughing out loud). Like the movie itself, this is sort of a 'party' movie; something that you would really enjoy watching with a group of friends (kind of a theme with my reviews this week). There is a serious undertone to all of the horror, which balances out the silliness and there is even a tag storyline (a la the opening and closing of Creepshow) that deals with an old man putting razor blades into apples. In short, it's a good Halloween movie and it is something that I will watch again, perhaps as that double-feature with Witchboard.