Party til You Drop Dead: “Night of the Demons” Review

On Halloween night, Angela Franklin and her friend Suzanne are throwing a party at Hull House, a local mortuary abandoned years ago after the Hull family was murdered by an unknown member of the family within its walls. They have invited the usual assortment of party guests, including the class reject – Stooge, the resident tough guy – Sal, the preppy – Jay, the token black guy – Roger, the virginal heroine – Judy, the quiet girl – Helen, and another couple – Max and Frannie.

On the way to the store the teens victimise an elderly gentleman in a Green Ascot flatcap calling him names and telling him to “Look in the mirror” flashing a moon out the window. The old man stands up for himself. He is then terrorised by one with a rubber rat and nearly punches the teen in rage. When Judy tries to help him with his fallen bags, he insults her by calling her nasty names. The seemingly harmless old man shows a true twisted dark side, intending to put razor blades in apples to give to Trick or Treaters with a disturbing laugh and a gleeful look in his eyes.

Deciding to skip the annual school dance, Jay convinces Judy to attend a Halloween Party being thrown at Hull House by a classmate of theirs named Angela Franklin. Reluctantly, Judy agrees. Judy’s younger brother Billy later answers the door to Sal, Judy’s ex-boyfriend, whom tells him that she is attending a party at Hull House. Soon after, Jay picks her up along with their friends Max and Frannie. Meanwhile, Angela decides to shoplift at a local convenience store for party food while the salesmen clerks are distracted by Suzanne bending over, revealing her panties. Once outside, Angela reveals the plan is to scare everyone who attends.

One of my favorite slasher-undead movies of yesteryear, “Night of the Demons” is a rousing, gory, razor-in-the-apple type of horror pick. The actors are terrible, the pacing sucks, and the cinematography is mediocre. Hell, sometimes it is hard to even see what is happening on screen. What makes this film work? The rousing energy from the cast and crew and some of the best gore effects to come out of the 80’s. You want to see eyeballs gouged out? A tongue ripped out? A tube of lip stick stuck through a nipple? It’s all here and in a spectacularly gory fashion. “Night of the Demons” was one of the few genuine horror hits of the late 80’s and observably so. This movie is a blast from beginning to end and I appreciate the amount of energy that went into this production. This movie has its share of problems but everyone looks like they had their hearts in the right place—right on the bloody screen where we can see them.

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