Night of the Demons 2 (1994)

Powerful

Don't listen to the negative reviews

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Right, well I must start out with saying that I wasn't particularly impressed with "Night of the Demons 2", just as I wasn't overly impressed with the first movie. In fact, I feel that these American versions of the Italian "Demons" movies were just unnecessary movies. Why not just watch the originals?The storyline in "Night of the Demons 2" is every bit as simplistic and easy to follow as it was in the first movie. An ancient demon is woken from its slumber and it starts to prey on unwary people, turning them into ferocious demons in the process.Indeed a very simple storyline and an equally simple movie to keep up with. You just simply switch into auto-pilot mode and just lean back and watch the events on the screen. "Night of the Demons 2" does not challenge the intellect of the audience in any way.As for the acting in the movie, well let's just say that it was adequate. In fact, I don't really think that anyone stood out as being particularly memorable. Mind you, it was not really the acting that was to blame here, but the fact that the actors and actresses had so very little to work with in terms of script and character development.It was, however, somewhat of a surprise to see actress Christine Taylor in a movie such as this.The effects in "Night of the Demons 2" were adequate, taking into consideration that this movie is from 1994. Don't get your hopes up for anything grand or overly memorable though.All in all, "Night of the Demons 2" is a fairly standard - and I dare say generic - horror movie from the mid-1990's.On a plus side, I just found out that there is a third movie to this movie series. I didn't know that, and just found out when I searched for "Night of the Demons 2" here on IMDb. However, given the track history of the previous two movies, I doubt that I will chase after the third movie. Perhaps if I happen to come across it by some sheer random luck or cosmic fate.Back on track. I can't really say that I find the American version more enjoyable than the Italian versions. But hey, we all have different individual likes and dislikes."Night of the Demons 2" scores a mediocre five out of ten stars from me. It didn't bring anything new or exciting to the horror movie. But it still turned out to be entertaining enough for what it turned out to be.

Talking to a fellow IMDber about a number of Horror films starring "scream queen" Linnea Quigley that I have recently seen,I got told the non-Quigley Night of the Demons titles were actually very good.After watching the excellent New Zealand Horror Housebound on Netflix UK,I searched around for other horror films that were on the site,and I was happily surprised to discover that the second film in the Night series had recently been put on,which led to me getting ready to spend a second night with the demons.The plot:After a mass, mysterious killing took place at a disused funeral parlour 6 years ago,the event has entered local folk tales,due to the police finding all the dead bodies of the victims, apart from Angela-who most of the towns people believe got taken to hell by demons. Believing their eldest daughter to be dead,Angela's parents are horrified to get a card with her sig,which leads to them killing themselves (talk about starting the movie on a light note!)With their being no one to take care of her,Angela's young sister Melissa is sent to a boarding school that deals with troubled teens.Running the school on a strict religious rule, Father Bob & Sister Gloria decide that the upcoming Halloween party will not feature any loud music or booze.Sick of having to follow orders,a group of teen rebels decide to stage their own Halloween party,by taking Melissa to where her sister may have died,and performing some fake "sacrifices." Entering the funeral parlour,the group soon discover that Melissa (and the demons) are far from dead.View on the film:For the first half of the film,the screenplay by Joe Augustyn & James Penzi takes a refreshing teen Comedy tone,with Z-boy, Bibi, Shirley, Terri and Johnny's attempts to rebel against Father Bob and Sister Gloria offering a number of hilarious confrontations,whilst also allowing the viewer to warm to each member of the animated gang.Made 6 years after the original,the writers link the movies together in a delicate manner,with some aspects of the original being expanded upon (such as the red lipstick),but never overpowering the new horrors attacking the group and Sister Gloria.Undressing the "holy" image that Gloria & Bob are trying to give the school,director Brian Trenchard-Smith & cinematographer David Lewis dive into the raunchy sauce,as gliding whip-pans display every bit of naked flesh from the stunning girls,and the guys in their underwear! For the comedic elements, Brian Trenchard-Smith gives the title a gleefully wacky atmosphere,thanks to Trenchard-Smith slam- dunking from a basketball playing headless demon spraying blood over the screen,to a kung-fu fighting nun (played by an excellent Jennifer Rhodes.)Soaking the film in burning reds and green ooze splatter,Trenchard-Smith superbly keeps up with the delightfully animated cartoon gore effects with stylish first person tracking shots giving the funeral parlour a strikingly creepy atmosphere,as the group try to survive a second night of the demons.

Straight-to-video presentation is a lot more adept and slick than I thought it was going to be and it surprised me to see director Brian Trenchard-Smith attached. With this man on the project you could expect to see blood, sleaze and plenty of demonic make-up FX on show. And it didn't disappoint. It's virtually a retread of the original film, as it does connect back to it. Where it's a crazy, sexed-up mixture of laughs (mocking sensibility) and frights with an eccentric splash of special effects and non lighting. How it goes about things is like you're entering a haunted house ride. Go through the ups and downs, after a slow start it becomes frenetic just like the flashy camera shots and heavy on dark, Gothic atmosphere. After a group of friends are banned from the school Halloween party, they decide to hold their own in the old abandon house with an urban legend which saw a girl disappear and her body never found. The young cast (Cristi Harris, Amelia Kinkade, Robert Jayne, Rick Peters and Christine Taylor) do a good job with competent turns by all (Jennifer Rhodes is memorable), but what they do bring is energy. "Night of the Demons 2" is over-the-top and daft, but vividly fun."This is going to be the party of century."

Foremost reason why I like this movie better than the first one is becomes it got done way more professionally. Not sure if this movie necessarily had a bigger budget to spend this time but simple fact is that it's all better looking and way better put together all. The movie flows better and it's even a more fun one to watch as well.This movie series pretty much comes from the time that it was popular to make horror movies with lots of comedy in it. Most of them are pretty bad, especially in todays light but often they are still fun to watch. Same is the case with this movie series, that is perhaps not horrible but is nothing that stands out either.Luckily the movie is not a rehash of the first one though. At first it really seemed that the movie was going to be just like the first movie, that got made 6 years earlier, by picking a similar type of plot and with the same settings and the same sort of characters. But about halfway through it picks a different approach and it has an actual plot that it follows, while the first movie was just being about a bunch of kids who got stuck in hell house and awoke its evil demons. This time there is more a purpose to it all, so to speak.Still it's a movie that feels connected with the first one, even though it got made by different persons, with mostly different actors and it got released 6 years later. Perhaps this is also thanks to the fact that both movies got written by the same guy; Joe Augustyn, who really hasn't done much more in his career.It's obviously a movie that works out better as an amusing one and comedy than an horror and scary one. The movie still uses some great looking make-up effects and have some other surprisingly good looking horror effects in it as well.A decent and fun enough movie, that is better than the first one anyway.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/