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Night of the Demons
Stars: Shannon Elizabeth, Monica Keena, Diora Baird, Edward Furlong, John F Beach, Michael Copon, Bobbi Sue, Tiffany Shepis
Director: Adam Gierasch
Once upon a time, long, long ago, Ed Furlong starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in two Terminator blockbusters. Here hes reduced to appearing in a second-rate shocker where hes covered with fake gore. It wouldnt surprise me to learn that he was covered with embarrassment, too, at being seen in this redundant remake of the 1988 alleged cult shocker which wasnt that good in its own minor B-film right.
The most entertaining (using that word in its widest sense possible) bit is the silent movie opening sequence, shot in blood-shot monochrome and complete with period title cards, which shows a luckless lady leaping with a rope around her neck from the balcony of a New Orleans mansion in 1925, graphically decapitating herself while six people mysteriously vanished from the place.
Segue to Halloween night 1985 and a decadent party at the blighted mansion where the partygoers find themselves trapped by demons and the audience find themselves wondering when the diabolically wearisome seen-it-all-before-and-better-done-too show will come to its gaudy conclusion
Says director and co-scenarist Adam Gierasch, My aim for Night of the Demons was to make the ultimate film that my seventeen-year-old self wanted to see. Punk rock, demons, scantily-clothed women, gore and big scares
Give him his due, Gierasch has succeeded in including his movie menu in his film: but by now most 17-year-olds will have already seen and savoured these by now routine celluloid ingredients, only better written, performed and directed.
Alan Frank
USA 2009. UK Distributor: Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment. Colour.
96 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 18.
Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 3, Violence/Horror 3, Drugs 2, Swearing 0.
Review date: 15 Sep 2010