Night Of The Demons – Edward Furlong takes on the horror comedy

Is it Halloween already? No, it isn’t, so why exactly is this DVD fodder being released in September? Presumably to get the DVD out by the end of October…one thing’s for sure, by the end of November it will be in the bargain bin.

This tries to pull off the very difficult trick of being a scary horror spoof, and, despite some strong moments, it fails. A group of kids go to a Halloween party in a big house in New Orleans, where everyone is dressed as a demon, but, shock horror, some of the demons are pretty convincing – for a good reason. Yep, you guessed it, they are real, and it’s up to our heroes to work out who is who – with some ‘twists’ along the way. It turns out the mansion holds some secrets – 80 years ago, six people disappeared without trace, and the owner hanged herself.

The cast is what you would expect in a teeny horror film, basically some ‘babes’ – Shannon Elizabeth, Monica Keena and Doira Bird, plus Edward Furlong – yes, John Connor himself. They begin to unravel the mystery – the demons need to claim seven victims of their own to break free of their curse, and will use any trick to lure the party-goers – sex, basically.

Night Of The Demons – Red Band Trailer

To be fair, the actors throw themselves into their roles with some gusto, and there are a few well-staged sequences. One, where a witch lures Furlong by pushing a finger into her nipple, is even disturbing, but the overall tone is so nudge-nudge it’s difficult to build up any tension. Director Gierasch mentions Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson in his notes but rarely achieves the visual vim of either of them. The make-up artist does deserve a special mention though for some clever, are they or aren’t they, faces.

Night of the Demons is the sort of movie you could play in the background of your own Halloween party to set the mood – it has some arresting visuals and loud, brash music. Watching it in a cinema though is a different proposition.

Overall verdict: Daft, silly horror spoof which never makes up its mind whether to be scary or funny, and ends up being neither.

Reviewer: Mike Martin