Cast

 

Tatyana Kanavka ... Evangeline

 

Michael Arata ... Louis Devereaux

 

Shannon Elizabeth ... Angela

 

Linnea Quigley ... Ballerina Lady

 

Bryce Arata ... Trick or Treater

 

Addy Rome ... Trick or Treater

 

John F. Beach ... Jason

 

Michael Copon ... Dex

 

Zachary James Bernard ... Bully

 

Diora Baird ... Lily

 

Monica Keena ... Maddie

 

Bobbi Sue Luther ... Suzanne

 

Edward Furlong ... Colin

 

Irina Beskaravaynaya ... Irina

 

Jamie Harris ... Nigel

TMP RATING: 3.5/5

I got a chance to see this film at a film festival before it’s release. And I was excited because I was waiting for this film for so long. But the longer I waited, the longer they pushed this film back. It left like this film was delayed for what seemed like a decade.

 

You can see its delay in the fact that it stars Edward Furlong and Monica Keena.

 

As it’s a Halloween movie, it never made much sense to watch it until October rolled back around, so we’ve finally made our return to Hull House.

 

(Oh, it’s the Broussard House now? Carry on.)

 

It is indeed the Broussard House in this version, as that’s where a Halloween party took a tragic turn back in 1925 when a lady and her friends decided to conjure up some demons.

 

85 years later, Angela, played by Shannon Elizabeth, is throwing another All Hallow’s Eve bash, which gets busted up by the cops; however, she gets stuck in the house along with Maddie, Colin, and some other partygoers/victims.

 

After a game of spin the bottle, some of them go exploring and discover some corpses in the basement, and, before long, those same decades-old demons are back to possess everyone in the house.

 

I imagine that this is the Night of the Demons film I would have wanted to see when I first heard about the remake. But it isn’t made for the original fans.

 

It is made for the new viewers ages 14-18.

 

It’s loaded with big boobs, lesbian make-out sessions, blood, guts, and all around general stupidity. And I’m cool with that. I enjoyed it very much.

 

You can tell it’s not going to have a serious bone in its body because it starts out with a discussion of girls’ waxing habits and proceeds to some Halloween night pranks.

 

All the while, we’re being introduced to some loud, obnoxious personalities that no one would really want to go to a party with., and I personally started making my list of who I want to see get killed off first.

 

The plot unfolds swiftly from here, as the demons just show up without being summoned this time around, which I suppose is fine since we’ve got this new, cumbersome backstory that explains why they’d be there anyway.

 

All of the background information doesn’t do much besides allow the characters to connect the dots all too easily. My 13 year old self couldn’t have anticipated stuff like the horrific CGI gore that engulfs this film. This is to be expected these days.

 

Some of these gags would be downright impressive had there been any budget behind them, which is really the biggest problem--it’s not so much that they didn’t go practical, it’s that they opted for super cheap CGI. The rest of the production is fine, as, in this day and age, anything with a little bit of money thrown at it will look sleek even if it’s direct to video.

 

This also has those distracting Saw-inspired quick editing tricks that it seems like all DTV flicks seem to have these days. Basically, it’s what you’d expect in that it’s nearly the complete opposite of the original, which feels every bit of its low budget with its grainy, washed out photography and overall creaky production values.

 

And if you are going to remake a film, in this fashion…I agree with going the complete different direction. My biggest issue with this film was the look of Angela. I grew up with the original, and that is how I saw her. The horns is where they lost me.

 

Granted, I’m glad they didn’t just carbon copy the original make-up, but they should have used it as a starting point. But they went the Minotaur route, and that’s fine.

 

If you haven’t seen this film, there is no better time than now to do so. I know what I said about this film is kind of confusing. And I am sorry about that. But, this is one of those films that I sit on the fence with. I love it and I hate it. But the film is a part of this memorable franchise, and needs to be mentioned for what it is.

 

Till Next Time Kiddies…

 

-RJ