Several nights ago, I don't remember when exactly, because most of my nights have run together due to my aversion to working (read: laziness), I drank copious amounts of vino and watched NIGHT OF THE DEMONS for about the ten millionth time, crying actual tears at its greatness as the story flickered across my retinas. Now, I fucking love NoftheD because it's goddamn good (and I'm about to tell you why) and I dare anyone to challenge me on this fact. Aaron, that does not mean I am challenging you to another duel. In fact, we've been getting along lately, so let's continue in that vein.
Reasons why NIGHT OF THE DEMONS is Cavalcade approved super awesome fun time:
1. Linnea Quigley. Two words and they are Linnea Quigley. I love this glorious scream queen in all her movies, but I especially love her here. She's working with her then husband Steve Johnson (on FX) and he makes her stick a tube of lipstick in her boob. Great stuff. If my husband was ever like, here - stick this tube of lipstick in your tit on camera while you're pretending to be possessed by demons, I don't know if I could. But I would if I was Linnea fuckin' Quigley.
2. FEAR is on the soundtrack. Don't lie. You like FEAR. You like you Bauhaus, too, and you'll hear them here as well.
3. The frame story is gold. You've got an old guy who hates Halloween and gets his comeuppance in the end by the hand of his old lady with some inspiration from an old Halloween urban legend. Razor blades in apples, anyone? Razor blades in apple pie, for that matter?
4. Amelia Kincaid as party hostess, Angela. Love her in her black wedding dress, love her as the creepy goth chick that invites all sorts of jocks to her party at an abandoned haunted funeral party just to fuck with them. Love her even more for for fellating the bullets out of a gun in part III. Had I been half the goth chick Angela was in high school, I would have thrown similar said party and gotten all the assholes to come and then subsequently unleashed demon forces on their asses.
5. Practical effects, lots of cheezy dialogue, lots of stock characters and the ability to not feel old and boring. It's effectively spooky, fun, and Halloween-y. And as we move into Christmas and I get the urge to watch all sorts of Christmas-themed horrors, I can still watch NIGHT OF THE DEMONS any time of year and feel good about it.
As the wine takes effect (I know it's early, but I actually have to go to WORK tomorrow - the HORROR), I'm waxing nostalgic and getting all sentimental. That, and I watched RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD III last night, another one that gets me all weepy in that the practical FX are grand, the casting superbly bad but in a good way, and the premise ridiculous. I feel fifteen again. Not bad for a cranky old heavily tattooed cat lady like me.
My buddy Justin is doing some sort of retrospective article on NotD (and the sequels, to a lesser extent) and has scored tons of interviews with most of the principle cast. he got to interview Stooge, for cryin' out loud! Too cool. I am "teh jealous".
ReplyDeleteI love Night of the Demons...it's a chldhood favorite and I recently bought the special edition and watched it again for the first time since the old VHS days. Which means almost fifteen years.
ReplyDeleteThe movie is incredibly slow for the first 45 minutes, but it's so entertaining either way and when the action starts, it goes balls out!
As for Linnea, her introduction in NotD is so hot and even when she is all fucked up and shoving lipstick in her nip, I would still bone her. On a side note, I used to idolize Steve Johnson when I was a kid...he was an amazing FX artist, and still is to this very day.
Astro, that is fuckin' cool. When and where can I read your friend's article?
ReplyDeleteSuzaka, I need a special edition copy as well. I still kick it old school with the VHS. And I still wonder why I bought an HD television. And yes, Linnea's introduction in the gas station convenience store is uber-hot - even in that ridiculous pink dress. 'Do you have sour balls?'
Creepy goth chicks in black wedding dresses, cheezy dialogue, Bauhaus on the soundtrack and a possessed Linnea fuckin' Quigley with a tube of lipstick on her tit?! MUST. WATCH. THIS. FILM.
ReplyDeleteCool review, Jenn. Short, sweet and succinct.
Hope work wasn't too horrific for you.
:P
Haha, awesome review. Linnea's always a hoot -- that joi de vivre that separates a Scream Queen from a topless screaming chick. I think my favorite role of hers is Spider from Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama (http://radiation-scarred-reviews.blogspot.com/2009/08/sorority-babes-in-slimeball-bowl-o-rama.html)
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the kind words on The Giant Gila Monster -- '50s B-monster pictures were my bread and butter growing up and I still love them dearly. The dialogue, the special effects, the bullet bras...all gold.
But seriously, I've seen mountains less craggy than Steve McQueen's face. And when he gets intense? Jesus, that's a face full of scowl that could cow anything.
And as for dark rooms and cute girls...I've had a little experience with both and...yeah, I still haven't seen The Good, The Bad and The Ugly all the way through. Darn you, cute girls for distracting me from movies!
NotD is the 1980s. You cant make films like it anymore, period. Modern cameras simply cant accept that much awesome, it fries their futuristic computer plasma techno whatsits.
ReplyDeleteThe cover of this and NotD2 generated several urine-bed inversions back when I was a kid.
"Night of the living dead 3" is easily the best in that series and one of the most ludicrously under-rated horror films of all time. By the way, i want to bugger Linnea Quigley and Mindy Clarke (as they were when they were 18, not as they are now obviously).
ReplyDelete@James. You need to grab yourself a copy of this, sir, and watch it right now this very instant. Report back to me when you're done in a no less than 1500 word essay. j/k - I can be a cruel school mistress.
ReplyDelete@Bill. I liked Linnea in SORORITY BABES as well. But she wins hands down in HOLLYWOOD CHAINSAW HOOKERS. I met Gunnar Hansen years ago when he came to speak at my school and show TCM and I asked him what Linnea was like. He said that since her career was so huge at the time when HCH was filming, he didn't interact with her much, which is in direct contradiction to her autobio - where she gushes on about Gunnar and how starstruck she was by him. Just a little interesting sumthin sumthin I had picked up.
@Carl. Here, here, brother. And damn if those eyeballs in the martini didn't scare the crap outta me as a young thing! But I couldn't not look at it every time I went to the video store.
@s(h-p)s. You say that about all the girls ;P And I do beg to differ, nothing beats Return on the Living Dead, the original. Why? Cause Linnea's in it! (Well, that an a host of other reasons I'm not going to get into right here.)
Thanks for reading, guys!
Your blog rocks!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Francesca! I appreciate that :)
ReplyDelete"a cranky old heavily tattooed cat lady", Judging by yr photo you look like a NICE cranky cat lady, haha. Pretty cool blog you've got (I found it though yr comment on Mark Savage's blog). It's amazing how many cool blogs there are when you start looking, it's like a never ending discovery. xD
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jack. I love Savage's blog and I was stoked to give him kudos for appearing in last month's Rue Morgue. Stick around...I have a good time here at the Cavalcade ;)
ReplyDeleteI downloaded this in error as I was looking for Night of the Demon. I cant believe everyone is gushing over this crap. It must be nostalgia I suppose. I generally like dumb dialog but the dialog in this is beyond crap, the story was by someone who knows nothing about horror and all the characters are so stupid. The gate is locked and they cant find another gate, why not just climb over it.
ReplyDeleteI really loathed this movie, I was determined to watch until the end but gave up after the fake daylight scene I just couldnt take another minute of the boredom. I may have liked it if I had seen it in the 80s but it would just have been for the nudity.