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Night of the Demons, 1988
Judy (Cathy Podewell) accompanies boyfriend Jay (Lance Fenton) to an abandoned house to attend a Halloween party thrown by outsider Angela (Alelia Kinkade). But when the group decides to hold a seance using a large mirror, things get out of hand as something (okay, look at the title) gets out of the mirror and into the teens.
I'll admit that this film was a bit of a letdown, and I'm not exactly sure why. Yes, I'm familiar with the title and that some people have affection for it. I've certainly seen the cover about a billion times.
Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of fun to be had. The performances are delightfully over the top. The practical effects are solidly gory. The way that the demon spreads itself out through the group is insidious and gruesome. I particularly liked a shot of all of the teens reflected in the shards of a shattered mirror.
But the film is, like so many of its brethren, annoyingly leering. Every female character appears topless or bottomless or both, or we get extended shots of their butts in thongs or inexplicable scenes of them standing around in a bra. This isn't a problem when there's any kind of parity, but 99% of horror films are too chicken for anything like that (sorry, I should say that we do get to see maybe 20% of one male character's chest). In a month where I'm watching a ton of horror, this is really thrown into relief and at this point I'm just finding it obnoxious. It's one of those elements that makes me feel like I'm not actually the intended audience for most of this genre and that's annoying. As Meegan would say,
I did like Podewell as Judy, even if she was just a bit hapless. But the final dude, Rodger (Alvin Alexis) is kind of his own version of hapless, so they make a good pair.
Fine, but I was expecting more. I hoped that more films this month would crack that 4-star rating.
Night of the Demons, 1988
Judy (Cathy Podewell) accompanies boyfriend Jay (Lance Fenton) to an abandoned house to attend a Halloween party thrown by outsider Angela (Alelia Kinkade). But when the group decides to hold a seance using a large mirror, things get out of hand as something (okay, look at the title) gets out of the mirror and into the teens.
I'll admit that this film was a bit of a letdown, and I'm not exactly sure why. Yes, I'm familiar with the title and that some people have affection for it. I've certainly seen the cover about a billion times.
Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of fun to be had. The performances are delightfully over the top. The practical effects are solidly gory. The way that the demon spreads itself out through the group is insidious and gruesome. I particularly liked a shot of all of the teens reflected in the shards of a shattered mirror.
But the film is, like so many of its brethren, annoyingly leering. Every female character appears topless or bottomless or both, or we get extended shots of their butts in thongs or inexplicable scenes of them standing around in a bra. This isn't a problem when there's any kind of parity, but 99% of horror films are too chicken for anything like that (sorry, I should say that we do get to see maybe 20% of one male character's chest). In a month where I'm watching a ton of horror, this is really thrown into relief and at this point I'm just finding it obnoxious. It's one of those elements that makes me feel like I'm not actually the intended audience for most of this genre and that's annoying. As Meegan would say,
I did like Podewell as Judy, even if she was just a bit hapless. But the final dude, Rodger (Alvin Alexis) is kind of his own version of hapless, so they make a good pair.
Fine, but I was expecting more. I hoped that more films this month would crack that 4-star rating.