While less kind critics would probably dismiss Kevin Tenney’s Night Of The Demons as nothing more than a hokey, lesser, Evil Dead clone, the 1988 demon-fest nevertheless had the right mixture of monsters, nudity and creative gore to not only wrangle a devoted cult following, but also score itself a sequel in 1994. While still being endearingly dumb as a post, Night Of The Demons 2 managed to arguably surpass the original with a superior special effects blowout and an even greater sense of self parody thanks to director Brian Trenchard-Smith having absolutely no delusions about what type of movie he was hired to make.
However, in 1997, possessed antagonist Angela Franklin managed to score a third Night (re-named Demon House in some territories) in which she managed to get her claws into yet another clutch of idiot teens stupid enough to venture into Hull House, however while the first two movies managed to entertain by sticking its discoloured tongue into its mottled cheek – the third film ended up descending into a far worse hell than any of Angela’s victims could possibly fear. The hell of a shit sequel.
Years after the previous massarce brought about by a wholly unnecessary Halloween trip to the ludicrously haunted Hull House, we find that Angela is still up to her yearly tricks when she kills a cop stationed at her crib in order to keep trespassers out (why he couldn’t just patrol off the grounds is beyond me). However, it seems that her night is just starting after a clutch of mismatched teens dash to hide out at Hull House after an altercation at a gas station turned rather violent. You see, after unstable bad boy Vince and his similarly wild card girlfriend Lois cause a ruckus while stopping for snacks, guns are pulled, cops arrive and not only does one of the flatfoots catch a round in the chest, but one of the teens, Reggie, finds that he has a deeply uncomfortable bullet lodged in his gut. The rest of the gang – cheerleader Holly; shy friend Abby; hunky Nick and geeky Orson – freak and as they rocket away from the crime, Vince decides that they should hide out in that old abandoned building where numerous mass murders have occurred in similar circumstances. In the rest of the group’s defence, they only agree to this act of devastating stupidity because Vince is waving a stolen shotgun around, but unfortunately for them, the final results are much the same and before you know it, the demonic Angela is seducing them all one by one and turning them all into her misshapen playthings.
As the last ones to fall try to muster up as much survival instinct as the budget will allow, Angela seems set to take yet another batch of possessed teens back to hell, but can an aging detective, with only hours left on his shift until retirement, help save the kids from utter damnation.
The reasons that the third Night Of The Demons film proves to be something of a step down are a little tough to explain. You see, the main issues are fairly standard stuff when dealing with 90s, low budget horror fare as the amateur performances and hokey directorial style are more likely to make you spill your popcorn because you’re falling asleep rather than jumping with enthusiasm – but the weird thing is that all the Night Of The Demons movies have been that way to a certain extent. While I’m not suggesting that a movie series that sees people possessed by evil lipstick is a paragon of meta, self-aware laughs, the childlike energy, boffo effects and weird, sexually gnarly moments proved to give the franchise a mischievous energy that part is completely lacking. The second film in particular seemed to really dig how fucking stupid it really was and doubled down on low budget tropes such as casting people in their late twenties as high schoolers and awful villain puns.
However, Jimmy Kaufman just doesn’t have that sense of winking irony and as a result, Angela’s third go-round is kinda sluggish and dull with weird story choices all round. I mean, it’s certainly trying to replicate the deliberately obnoxious humour of the first two with such hyper-sexed dialogue as “Can you suck a golf ball through ten feet of garden hose?” being tossed around as casual as you please and another character being dismissed by the snaggle-toothed villains as a “sperm receptacle”.
Similarly, both female leads are introduced in a conversation that lasts for five minutes and sees them virtually topless the entire time (quick question: does the fact that they’re both discussing their boobs while topless mean this movie technically passes the Bechdel Test?) and later on, in an act of seduction so questionable, I’m amazed it’s not in a Troma film, the returning Amelia Kindcaid fellates the barrel of a service pistol to such an extent, she’s able to spit its bullets into the holder’s hand.
However, while this shit is perfect, Night Of The Demons fare, somehow, Kaufman makes it all dull as dish water and the subsequent special effects moments also lack luster thanks to the fact that the amazing Steve Johnson sat this one out.
Weirdly enough, the movies effects quota goes less for out and out gore this time around and concentrates more on the transformations instead, but they end up being pretty uninspired when compared to what’s come before. After all, in previous films we’ve seen lipstick pushed into nipples, breasts suddenly turn into grasping hands and a corpse bounce it’s own severed head like a basket ball. Here a guy turns into in demon Halloween mask, a woman’s arm transforms into a snake and a shy girl turns into a feral cat woman and it’s just not the same – especially when you consider that the much more extravagantly budgeted Tales From The Crypy movie, Demon Knight, did exactly the same type of “seductive demon” thing two years prior and subsequently gave us Billy Zane overacting magnificently while gore sprayed everywhere.
It’s certainly not unwatchable (at least, not to patiently forgiving gore hounds), and the fact that Amelia Kincaid’s raspy voiced Angela is that rare example of a reoccurring female horror villain us still worth noting, but with that weird dumb/knowing balance the first two entries all but dissipated and the dip in quality of the effects impossible to ignore (part 2 ended with a giant snake demon for God’s sake), Angela’s third night to dismember is ultimately forgettable as fuck.
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