The title
of this movie confuses a lot of fans. First off because it is so similar to
Night of the Demons which is a completely different movie that spawned several
sequels. Second people don’t expect this one to be a Bigfoot movie since it
isn’t mentioned in the title, but demon is. Though to be fair to the filmmakers
if you watch the movie the title will eventually make sense. With that out of
the way let’s talk about some sleazy sasquatch action.
The action
starts off with a man in a hospital bed with the lower half of his face covered
in bandages. We find out that his name is Professor Nugent and he is explaining
to the authorities what happened to the students he took into the woods looking
for the legendary Bigfoot creature. In flashbacks we see the group wander into
the woods and along the way meet up with a reluctant witness that eventually
lets them know about a woman called Crazy Wanda who lives deeper in the woods.
On their way there they find some hillbilly cultists and start making
connections between the locals and Bigfoot. After that they end up under siege
at Wanda’s cabin with the monster trying to smash his way in. We also get
several flashbacks with in the flashback to fill things out as various
characters tell different encounters that others have had with the creature.
Listening to them I seriously wonder why the hell they would ever have
considered wandering into the woods a good idea.
This was
one of the Holy Grails of my days skulking around the horror section at the
local Mom and Pop rental store. Stories were told of dick ripping and Bigfoot
rape, which no one really believed was true. It had to be an exaggeration, even
it if was one of the Video Nasties in England. No one could have actually made
a movie with that stuff in it… could they? Well they did, and Night of the
Demon does deliver the goods. Not only do you have the aforementioned twisted
encounters, but there are girl scouts being forced to stab each other, a death
by sleeping bag that predates the same kill by Jason Voorhees by many years, guts
are used as a whip, faces are cooked on stoves, and graves are defiled. You
have to appreciate the effort made to squeeze all this into what could have
been your run of the mill Bigfoot movie.
For the
most part I dig Night of the Demon. While I think they could have cut maybe ten
minutes of the students and professor Nugent wandering around for the most part
the pacing is okay. The last twenty minutes of the movie are the best as the
creature attacks the cabin and dispatches most of the cast. The kills and gore
are well done on the smallish budget they had to work with. They keep the
creature in the shadows or shot from behind for most of the movie. When we do
get the reveal, it isn’t terrible for a low budget creature. They didn’t go for
the monkey suit that far too many Bigfoot movies use. I also enjoyed the ending
with our survivor being sedated and considered crazy, while we the audience
knows that the creature still stalks the woods. I dig that a lot.
I was
promised some messed up sleazy stuff involving Bigfoot and the movie gives me
that. In no way is it a perfect movie, but I’m always entertained by it. How
much more can we ask for from a movie? I recommend Night of the Demon in all of
its sleazy glory.
© Copyright
2019 John Shatzer
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