Night of the Demons   Starring: Shannon Elizabeth, Monica Keena, Diora Baird and Edward Furlong Kaleidoscope Home Entertainment RRP: £12.99 KAL8079 Certificate: 18 Available 11 October 2010

Angela is throwing an extravagant Halloween party at the notorious Broussard Mansion. Eight decades before, six people disappeared and the owner hanged herself. However, the party is in full swing when the police arrive to break it up. Afterwards, Angela, friends Maddie and Lily, and ex-boyfriends Colin and Dex return to the house. In the basement they find six skeletons arranged in positions which suggest black magic was involved. Angela attempts to pull a gold tooth from one of them but the jaw clenches, leaving her with a serious bite. She quickly changes as she is possessed by a demon. The others try to escape but find that they can't leave the house. As the skeletons in the basement are revived as former demons, the quartet of desperate survivors retreat to a room daubed with protective symbols, the only place the demons won't go. But can they last the night...?

First let me complain about the disc I received for reviewing purposes. It isn't even a check disc in the conventional sense; it is a basic recording on to a blank DVD-R. Furthermore, the print carries a warning message which remains present throughout the running time. I feel it is pertinent to point this out, because I received with it an elaborate nine pages of information and colour pictures from Organic Marketing singing its praises. No marketing company should treat reviewers like shadowy black market villains - after all we are the ones promoting your film. The disc says Organic Marketing, so I buried it in the garden.

Regarding the movie itself, this is a remake of a 1980s film which probably has a more prominent reputation than it deserves. The premise is solid enough: the demons are trying to complete the ritual began eighty years before. They are obliged to possess seven people in order to break through from the demon realm and wreak havoc in the real world. The original owner of the house, Evangeline, took her own life to prevent herself from becoming the seventh victim. There is a similar scene at the conclusion of the the film, but this one has a clever twist.

The make-up and prosthetic effects are well-handled, if a little over-applied, but once you have seen the demons crawl on the ceiling and witnessed them being shot and impaled with no permanent result, the film becomes a bit of a zombie-like run-around - if an averagely enjoyable one. Director Adam Geirasch has had a solid tutorage, working under or alongside such horror luminaries as Tobe Hooper, Dario Argento and Clive Barker.

All the boxes are ticked; including, Punk Rock music from The Misfits, a haunted house, multiple demon designs, visceral attack scenes and, most importantly for teenage boy viewers, large-scale partying and sexy, half-dressed women. Personally, I consider plot and characters to be most integral to any good story.

The acting is pretty solid considering what little characterisation they are given to work with. Only one character seems properly fleshed-out to me, and that is Colin. He is a small-time selfish drug dealer with no backbone, ably realised by Edward Furlong of Terminator 2 fame.

This film is well-made and will no doubt satisfy many horror fans; however, it has no real scares and possesses little depth, hence its average scoring here.

5

Ty Power