Night 7 of 31 Nights of Horror

Ummmm… some of the camera work was pretty good? There’s a lot of spoilers in this one because I just don’t care.

Yeah, I didn’t like this movie. The premise is sound, a group of friends get together in an abandoned funeral home to party on Halloween, they perform a seance and summon a demon that kills them one by one. It should work but it all just felt kind of… meh. First off, there’s only ten people at this party (one wasn’t even invited) and half of them don’t seem to like each other. The dialog feels off, or maybe it’s just the actors delivery of it, probably both. A lot of time these movies will have a call back to something earlier (Chekhov’s Gun), and the audience goes “Ah!” when it pays off, like a reward for those paying attention. Well you don’t have to pay attention in this, Judy literally goes “Rodger, remember when Angela said ‘blah, blah. blah’ at the beginning of the movie? Remember? That’s what she said, isn’t it? Remember?” like she was explaining to the audience because the writers knew they’d lost them a while ago.

There’s a dance scene at the half way mark who’s purpose is unknown to me. Was it supposed to be sexy? Unsettling? It was neither, so I’m still confused by that one.

The movie could have been significantly improved with just a few changes. Even though I felt the acting was weak, it wasn’t terrible, I’d leave the cast alone, but I would have added a bunch of extras. Make it a bigger party, and it would have added to the body count and terror factor with more people running around screaming and trying to get out or find a place to hide. It also would have felt more alive and natural. Second, have a script doctor polish up the dialog, as lot of it felt forced. They could even add in a throw away line to explain why Stooge was there. He was a dick to EVERYONE and nobody got along with him, Rodger and Helen could have said he had a car and was the only way for them to get there. One line would have explained his whole character which made no sense otherwise. Also, Judy’s pervy little brother is spying on her from her closet and the only thing she’s upset about is the fact that he tried to scare her? Not that she was naked thirty seconds before?

I also would have liked more background or story about the house, or the demon(s) because…. I’m confused by that as well. The title is Night of the Demons, plural and someone (I think Angela) mentions feeling three presences. But we only see one demonic face in the mirror and at the end of the movie. It starts by one POV camera going into Suzanne and then she spreads the possession by kissing Angela, who then kisses Stooge, so is it one demon possessing people by physical contact, or was it three moving from one person to another and if three, why did they all start in the same person? Does it even matter? Because later in the movie everyone who dies seems to come back possessed, why?

I have no plan to watch the sequel (and I was shocked to learn there was more than one) so maybe someone can tell me what happened to Suzanne? Unlike the others, she didn’t die and her body suffered no damage (except a lipstick tube being inserted into her breast, which was a very well done special effect, but weird as hell)

No, I didn’t enjoy this film, I’m not Con Air levels angry about watching it, but I am annoyed that I started it late and skipped practising the guitar because of that.

You can stream Night of the Demons for free on Plex, if you REALLY want to watch it, or you can rent it from other streamers, but I wouldn’t.