If you're going to remake a horror film, why not one in which so few have emotional investment? Case in point: "Night of the Demons," an update of the 1988 video hit of the same name.
Here, Halloween becomes all too real for the young women and men who go to a mansion shindig held by hard-luck promoter Angela Feld (Shannon Elizabeth). It's soaking in booze, oozing with sex and taking place in a home where a demonic onslaught occurred in the 1920s. Seriously, just take a gander at all the corpses in the basement.
That's where Angela accidentally pricks her finger on a skeleton's tooth, thus becoming infected with a virus that turns her into a fanged, yellow-eyed, face-ripping monster. And anyone she bites — or what-have-you —? turns into a hungry beast as well. All the cast has to do is survive the night; once the sun rises, they'll be safe.
"Demons" wastes no time in getting things going. That's both a positive, because it feels like a party, and a negative, because once an hour is up, you feel like it's time to call it quits. But director Adam Gierasch doesn't know how or when to do that, so the flick goes through the motions of gore and guts and girls until, finally, even blessedly, it's over.
Not scary unless you've never seen such a film, "Demons" has a naughty streak to it that pays off in a few did-they-really-just-do-that sequences, most notably involving a trick with a tube of lipstick. If nothing else, Gierasch has assembled perhaps the year's most attractive cast of screaming starlets in Diora Baird, Bobbi Sue Luther, Diora Baird, Monica Keena, Diora Baird, Tiffany Shepis and —? sigh —? Diora Baird.
Skip the "Comic-Con Introduction" in the special features — not because it gives anything away, but because Gierasch's personality is as off-putting and obnoxious as the movie's metal music. If watched before the feature, you might not give the feature a chance. —?Rod Lott
