'Night of the Demons' (2010) DVD Review

A competent but uneven remake.

In 1925 New Orleans, Evangeline Broussard invited her lover and his friends over for a Halloween get-together at mansion. By the next morning, her guests had disappeared, and Evangeline had hanged herself in front of her home. Party pooper.

Eight decades later, Angela (Shannon Elizabeth) decides to throw a Halloween party at the infamous and abandoned Broussard Mansion. The police raid the place, however, sending the guests scattering, and only Angela and her circle of friends -- good girl Maddie (Monica Keena), her drug-dealing ex Colin (Edward Furlong), party girls Lily (Diora Baird) and Suzanne (Bobbi Sue Luther), Lily's ex Dex (Michael Copon) and his pal Jason (John F. Beach) -- are left to clean up.

When they dig around the house a bit, they find a collection of skeletons in the basement -- presumably Evangeline's missing party guests. Angela accidentally scratches herself on the teeth of one skull and becomes possessed by a demon that has been lurking there since 1925.

Angela kisses Dex, he has sex with Lily and before you know it, everyone except Maddie, Colin and Jason are possessed. It's up to them to survive the night and prevent the demons from spreading their evil beyond the confines of the mansion.

While it's solidly entertaining as a direct-to-video fright film, the Night of the Demons remake lacks the style and magic of the original '80s cult classic. The creature design isn't as frightening (one of the demons has tentacles for some reason), the atmosphere isn't as creepy and Shannon Elizabeth's stiff performance can't hold a candle to Amelia Kinkade's Angela.

On the bright side, there is plentiful gore and T&A (If cleavage was scares, this would be the most terrifying movie ever.), the cast is solid and the spotty attempts at humor occasionally hit their mark. Genre vets Keena (Freddy vs. Jason) and Furlong (Pet Sematary) are particularly engaging, even if they seem a bit too old for their parts.

The script tries to throw in more mystery and demonic back story than the original, but it adds little to the film and might actually distract from the gory goodies. The film can't seem to decide whether it's straight horror or a horror-comedy (or maybe that's an indication of how flat the humor falls), with some scenes playing awkwardly flippant in comparison to the content.

Fans of the original should enjoy seeing that Linnea Quigley, the original Suzanne, has a brief, albeit disturbing cameo in which she's ogled by...two 10-year-old girls?

The DVD

Special features include commentary and featurette.

Movie: C+
DVD: C+