Night of the Demons 88

working draft
Word of warning: this review contains nudity

Damn kids.

I think that energy can really translate well on screen. If those involved in a movie have enough talent and there’s a really strong joy involved in the making of a movie, not just going through the motions and trying to push out some sort of shit hoping to turn some sort of profit if possible , then magic might can happen. 

You can have a cast that shouts dialogue and has overly animated performances, the movie burdened with obnoxious characters spewing rather earsplittingly garbage dialogue (shit like “dropping a load” and “playing with his pet snake”, “sun dried poodle turds”, and people calling each other pussies and bitches and whores), but if enough skill and fun can transport from their hearts to ours it can somehow persevere. It has remained a cult favorite. Well, we do have Linnea Quigley in a ballerina outfit, and her first scene has us looking right at her ass. She spends her time in the mirror because she just wants to look good for the boys. We all appreciate the effort, honey. 

Oh, boy, but does Hal Havins grate on my nerves. This portly, loud-mouthed cretin with a hog snout, named appropriately “Stooge”, who ingratiates himself with those around him by constantly shouting and ridiculing them, wears out his welcome immediately, unless you find his sort of boob amusing. The Hull House has a surrounding underground stream with a brick wall on top. This demon possessed former funeral home with an owner that practiced the black arts and necrophilia, a bloody night that marks the place with a notoriety that brings stupid kids willing to party and spend the Halloween there. The script gives those able to survive not being possessed a way out if they can cross over the wall. Not that easy. “Barbequed maid..no wonder she didn’t keep the house clean.” Yeah, nice joke. “Flaming asshole, Count Dingleberry of Transylvania.” I can’t make dialogue like this up. No one excelled at portraying “the girl you wouldn’t bring home to mama” quite like Quigley, as evident when she shakes her ass to heavy metal music from a boom box as the guys gathered ogle her with ear-to-ear grins of approval. “Holy shit, any of your idiots ever heard of Duracel!”  “It’s just a mirror..what harm can it do?” 

The through-the-eyes-of-the-demon POV perspective was a technique all the rage, Evil Dead popularizing it, director Kenney utilizing it here as a séance and the use of a found mirror provide access for the evil inside Hull House to come out to play…and possess. “The noise, the stink, and the chill…all signs of demonic infestation.” Die, Hal, Die. Cool stiff breezes from the butthole, this from Hal’s brain for our perusal. “Maybe I’m in the mood for pork tonight.” I’m with a lot of the fans of this movie in regards to two particular showstoppers. The lipstick boob effect and the “Dance of the Damned” (well, my name for it, anyway) strobe lights sequence where Angela Kincaid, possessed after a kiss from Quigley, loses herself in the hard rock as Sal can only watch in bewilderment. Good thing about Stooge’s demise, he gets his tongue bitten out..we are spared from further irritation thanks to demon Angela.

Tenney, I thought, does a hell of a job formulating the disorienting dark and labyrinthine maze that seems to be the Hull House, and when our last remaining members of the party that are unpossessed try to find an exit or a path out of harm’s way, doors shut and the night does them no favors. And, man is the place dark. Again, this setting is fab. And the make-up work is first-rate for such small budgeted affair, the demon face very much akin to Evil Dead (this film seems inspired thematically, the way its shot, and the demonic look of those possessed; I don’t mind this since I have a soft spot for surreal demon possession horror comedies). I have seen directors/filmmakers not take advantage of an abandoned location, exploiting as much out of the “production value” provided as possible (umm, talking about you, Death Tunnel), without getting in the way through bad camera work or that damned technique where the lens remains up and close to the faces of the characters instead of establishing space and setting.

First, let’s pray. My daddy told me how to pray real good.