One of the more interesting movies at the 2009 Frightfest was Night Of The Demons, a remake of the classic 80’s horror movie directed this time round by Adam Gierasch, who wrote the script for Dario Argento’s Mother Of Tears. I say interesting because while it was fairly generic horror that had moved on little from the 80’s version, it did deliver something very strange; some genuine jumps something I’d not experienced during the entire festival.
The story surrounds the party of Angela Field (Elizabeth Shannon) the girl who needs to have the best of everything. To add shock value to her party she has decided to host it at an old mansion which is rumored to be haunted. Years earlier a group of party goers all met their death on one fateful night. As the party begins to kick off drugs are rife, and its not long before the cops are tipped off about this illegal party. With a clutch of stragglers left behind and a strange accident the group discover a hidden room filled with skeletons, and in doing so unleash a curse that has been buried for nearly a hundred years.
Showing a good seven months before the rest of the world get to see it Night Of The Demons was not a particularly anticipated movie of the festival. It seemed for the most part that people were not looking forward to the remake, and I confess I was one of them. To my surprise I really quite enjoyed the movie, its nice to watch a horror movie that you need to give little thought to. This was typical 80’s fare bought forward to a new generation, and while it will not become part of a trend it sits alone in a list of burgeoning horror movies.
As I mentioned earlier the impressive aspect of the movie was the scares, and these were the best type, the sudden jumps. It was most impressive to watch people arms flying all over the place a number of times as various assorted creatures burst through walls and mirrors. More impressive of all was that every single one was expected, you knew it was coming but it still caused scares. At one point there were three such jumps all in close succession, giving viewers little rest.
Night of the demons does need an awful lot to be desired, but for what it was it worked very well and I personally believe delivered the festivals biggest surprises.
On the subject of surprises it was good to see the return of Terminator 2 star Edward Furlong, who stars rather ironically as a drug dealer who gate crashes the party in order to earn some fast money to pay a debt to his supplier. Furlong looks overweight and has stubby little hands and barely resembles the Furlong from Terminator. Still, the actor proved he could still act and formed the movies rather unexpected male hero.
The lead character however, and best performance comes from Bobbi Sue Luthor who plays Suzanne. Watch this actress as I’m sure we will see big things from her over the next few years, perhaps even taking the scream queen mantle from Linnea Quigley who also makes a brief cameo here as a demented ballerina. It was good to see the return of American Pie actress Shannon Elizabeth who proves that she can still act and look stunning.
At the end of the movie Adam Gierasch, Jace Anderson (his wife) Bobbi Sue Luthor and other members of the cast took to the stage for a Q & A. From the questioning the movie was well received.
Night Of The Demons opens in US cinemas from February 2010, with the rest of the year seeing the movie from next summer.
Image via Wikipedia
