Was drawn into seeing 'Night of the Demons', with a cool poster/cover, an intriguing and quite creative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. Haven't seen the original 'Night of the Demons' yet so can't judge. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.
'Night of the Demons', simply put, turned out to be a terrible, worse than feared film with next to no redeeming values and so much done catastrophically wrong. Very nearly one of the worst films seen in a while, which is saying a lot for somebody who on the most part has been encouraged by their film/television watching and has more often than that been quite generous. Decent idea, very bad execution.
Lets start with two positives. The scenery is atmospheric, if wasted by the schlocky way the film is shot and particularly edited.
The demon effects are remarkably pretty good.
However, the story does feel over-stretched, the whole film is dull and it takes forever to get anywhere, and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their irritating and illogical decision making and behaviours insult the intelligence. Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The acting is also terrible, with only Shannon Elizabeth trying (Edward Furlong phones it in) trying, while the music is cheap and inappropriate.
Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace is uneven, dragging in a lot of the second half and never is it exciting. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness and the lack of tension and suspense. A large part of the problem being the excessive gratuity of the elements thrown in to "spice things up", especially the gore that it feels tasteless.
A lot of the film completely fails to make sense, both in underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations. The demons look pretty good but don't act very scary and they're used poorly. Momentum is nowhere and the atmosphere completely falls flat. Everything feels both overdone and tame.
Summing up, very bad. 2/10 Bethany Cox
'Night of the Demons', simply put, turned out to be a terrible, worse than feared film with next to no redeeming values and so much done catastrophically wrong. Very nearly one of the worst films seen in a while, which is saying a lot for somebody who on the most part has been encouraged by their film/television watching and has more often than that been quite generous. Decent idea, very bad execution.
Lets start with two positives. The scenery is atmospheric, if wasted by the schlocky way the film is shot and particularly edited.
The demon effects are remarkably pretty good.
However, the story does feel over-stretched, the whole film is dull and it takes forever to get anywhere, and some of it feels vague, under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their irritating and illogical decision making and behaviours insult the intelligence. Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The acting is also terrible, with only Shannon Elizabeth trying (Edward Furlong phones it in) trying, while the music is cheap and inappropriate.
Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace is uneven, dragging in a lot of the second half and never is it exciting. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness and the lack of tension and suspense. A large part of the problem being the excessive gratuity of the elements thrown in to "spice things up", especially the gore that it feels tasteless.
A lot of the film completely fails to make sense, both in underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations. The demons look pretty good but don't act very scary and they're used poorly. Momentum is nowhere and the atmosphere completely falls flat. Everything feels both overdone and tame.
Summing up, very bad. 2/10 Bethany Cox