Night Of The Demons (2010 Remake)

Directed by Adam Gierasch
2010
Rated R
93 minutes

Summary from Netflix: When she set out to throw the ultimate Halloween party, Angela Feld (Shannon Elizabeth) picked the spookiest site she could find: the rumored-to-be-cursed Broussard Mansion. But by "ultimate," she didn't mean for it to be her last. Still, thanks to gates that have inexplicably locked, Angela and her friends (Edward Furlong, Monica Keena, Bobbi Sue Luther, John F. Beach, Michael Copon and Diora Baird) are now trapped inside with no way out.

My rating: ★★★ out of 5

It takes a lot of guts to remake a horror cult classic like the original Night Of The Demons but I assume it was time for a fresh new take on the characters since nothing good has been done with Angela since the 2nd movie way back in 1994. Since filming in New Orleans has been a real advantage for Hollywood and Louisiana lately they moved the setting of the haunted mansion from some unknown state into a large plantation owned by the Broussard family who all vanished after a party they held in 1925.

Angela in this version is a well known person in the Big Easy circuit for holding the wildest and biggest parties drawing in quite a large audience. This year she planned on outdoing herself by holding the ultimate Halloween party in the alleged haunted mansion of the Brossard family. It's quite a success as the house is nearly standing room only and becomes quite the showcase of costumes and popular music that everyone is enjoying. Three young college girls arrive at the party to find that a few of their ex-boyfriends also are in attendance as well as the hunky punk guy they all have a crush on. Of course Angela also discovers that the local drug dealer has decided to sneak in to make a cash killing for those needed something a little extra to get a buzz outside of the wet bar. Once Angela makes her nightly introduction to her guests and starts making her rounds the police arrive and shut down the party chasing off nearly everyone who isn't willing to help clean up the mess.

While exploring the basement they discover a hidden door leading into a chamber where several corpses are laid in a pattern around a larger guy in the middle. Angela notices that the larger guy has a gold tooth and on impulse tried to pull it from the mouth of the skeleton but somehow it bites her finger. The group goes upstairs to kill time while one of the girls starts to explain the legend of Evangelina Brossard who messed with black magic trying to get a man she was obsessed with to fall in love with her. She started communicating with spirits beyond that told her that having a party and holding a séance would give her what she desired most. Something went wrong during the summoning and all those who attended the party had never been seen again until they discovered their remains. Angela starts to not feel well and leaves to the bathroom where some demonic force takes over her body and returns her to the party moments later.

One by one Angela starts seducing her remaining party guests until she possesses enough of them to start taking the more resistant victims by force. One of the survivors named Colin remembers there are tunnels under the mansion which were put in place during the prohibition but they find them blocked off. They fight their way past the demons into a room that seems to hold them at bay and discover under the wallpaer and plaster was tons of strange writing and symbols. It seems that very room belong to the family maid who used voodoo magic mixed with other black magic spells to create a safe hiding place until she was found alive later by police and sent away to an asylum because nobody believed her story of demons attacking after the séance.

I will not spoil the ending but it's quite different from the original film and once again leaves Angela open to return for sequels and taking more victims at further Halloween parties at the mansion. While I was entertained by this new take on the original film I was not horribly impressed with the writing and all of the special effects were quite underwhelming as they didn't look realistic at all (the gore effects looked extremely fake and the CGI just didn't blend in with the live action part of the shots at all). Sure this film didn't have a lot of star power in actors (especially digging up Edward Furlong as the washed up drug dealer Colin) but I will have to admit casting Shannon 'American Pie' Elizabeth as the new Angela was a stroke of genius. And just to put in a wink wink nod nod to fans of the original film Linnea Quigley makes a cameo appearance in the beginning as a mother giving away candy to trick or treaters and dressed in a ballerina outfit similar to what she wore as Suzanne. It was a nice visit back to the franchise and definitely far far better then Night Of The Demons 3 (aka Demon House).