October 21st - NIGHT OF THE DEMONS (2010)

 Why do I do this to myself?

This is the remake of the 1988 semi-cult horror film that is neither better nor worse than the original film. I still don't understand the love the original film has. I find it overly silly, dull, unoriginal, and obviously cheap. The best thing I can say is the remake looks like they had more money to spend.

The plot is kind of strange to me. It's Halloween, and a huge party is being held at a mysterious mansion hosted by a girl named Angela. Angela is known as the local slut apparently and after the party, some of the friends and Angela play spin the bottle and make out. When they all split up to go their separate ways, skeletons are discovered in a basement room where a brutal massacre happened many years ago. When Angela gets her finger scraped by one of the skeletons, she turns into a demon and tries to bite and eat everyone else, turning them into demons. You've seen this in a bunch of films (if you want a better film that is very similar, rent Lamberto Bava's Demons) and all done better with more originality.

But what makes the plot strange is we get a subplot involving one of the girl's ex boyfriends (a bloated and embarrassed looking Edward Furlong) who owes money to a mobster. I am still unsure what the whole point of this subplot was for and why it is so out of left field. It was as if the writers came up with an idea and scraped it while filming the movie and the editor forgot to take this scene out.

Shannon Elizabeth plays Angela, giving her no personality at all and being downright dull. I think Elizabeth really needs to fire her agent. And poor Eddie Furlong. Looking at him, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the guy. From starring in one of the biggest summer films ever made to co-starring in direct to DVD horror films and looking like a mid-30's Joe Spinell, it really is shocking.

Night of the Demons continues to have really bad one-liners and out of place comedy like the original film and it's sequel.. If that's your cup of tea, I guess you'll be happy. I will say it is the first horror film where a woman becomes a demon by being sodomized by her possessed lover. And the "lipstick in the nipple" scene is back from the original. I bet you were all dying to see that again. The make-up effects are ok but the filmmaker relies too much on awful CGI and quick-cut editing that is the norm now. Too bad too as the creatures do look more frightening this time around when they are shown.

I have seen much worse but that doesn't mean that this film isn't crap. I would love to hear from fans of the original film or it's sequel to tell me why they like these movies so much.