Review of Night of the Demons (1988) by Craig W — 10 Jun 2008

They just don't make them like this anymore...

Drawing on the teen movie zeitgeist of the era, director Tenney has a ball illustrating a set of enjoyably recognisable archetypes and providing each with just enough impetus and distinctiveness for an audience to engage with without going too far into sympathy before the terror and splatter begins.

Everything about this film is pretty much perfect; the cast (not least the infamously lewd Linnea Quigley and elegant Amelia Kincaid) chew their way through the superbly barbed dialogue like the juiciest of candy apples; the cinematography is fittingly moody and ridiculous in all the right places; the gore and splatter effects are executed with a distinct panache and grisly inventiveness; most importantly, the overall tone is consistently wedged in a very particular groove of dark and grisly humour.

From its 'Revenge of the Nerds'-esque setup to its delicously obscure non-sequitur of an ending, this is the film by which all others of its genre ought to be graded. In fact, if there is a course in how to formulate the perfect teen horror/splatter flick, then 'Night of the Demons' ought surely to be a mandatory text. Seriously, considering the state of the genre in the past decade or more, we badly need another Kevin Tenney to come along with a gem like this.

As both a document of the time and climate in which it was produced and also as an example of an intelligent yet unpretentiously entertaining slice of hokum, this movie ought to be celebrated; perhaps even assigned its own official day in the calendar year.

If you can't find it in yourself to love this movie, you officially have no soul and the privilege of watching movies ought to be stripped from you by law. Period.