Ahhhhhh when in doubt for a viewing choice . . . you could always do worse than pick a title that was given the notorious "video nasty" label in the UK in the 1980s. Of course, you could also always do a lot better, but I am a simple man of simple pleasures. Watching Night Of The Demon was a weird experience for me. It's one of those films that I started to suspect I had seen before, many years ago, but couldn't recall exactly when. I'd either watched it before I started to get better at keeping track of my ratings and reviews, or I'd seen bits of it back when it would have been viewable in contraband VHS form. Or maybe it just has that feel of so many other video nasties I have seen.
The plot is, quite frankly, bobbins. An anthropology professor (played by Michael Cutt) takes a load of his students into the wild to track down some kind of Bigfoot creature. Oh, the creature has spent some time mutilating and killing people it has encountered, but that doesn't dissuade this group of determined disposable victims.
This is the kind of film that makes up for a lack of budget and technical ability with some scenes that really wallow in grime and grottiness. Not that any of it is truly shocking, certainly not nowadays, but there's still something satisfying about watching a film from this era that feels as if it has a certain edge and unpleasantness to at least warrant some of the over-reaction to what was becoming more accessible via VHS throughout the 1980s (predominantly). Despite it being murky and overacted throughout, this at least tries to deliver on how it was sold. Things happen, there are some gruesome moments, and there's even some gratuitous nudity thrown in there to upset modern viewers against that concept.
It's no surprise to see that this was the only screenplay written by Mike Williams, just as it isn't surprising to see that director James C. Wasson never did anything to match this dubious success, but I applaud them for presenting something here that feels very much like an unabashedly trashy and fun horror ride. This would make a surprisingly decent double-bill with something like The Funhouse (a film I have never loved as much as most horror fans), or you could maybe slot it into a line-up full of much less eventful "Bigfoot" movies. Just don't accidentally line it up after Harry And The Hendersons, I don't think anyone could handle that traumatic juxtaposition.
The cast all deserve some praise for participating, considering some of the more unpleasant scenes, but there's nobody here you will immediately recognise from many other movies. Cutt went on to have a number of other roles in film and TV, as did Paul Kelleher (who plays the Sheriff here), but many, such as Melanie Graham, Shannon Cooper, William F. Nugent, and Jody/Jodi Lazarus, appeared in very few, if any, projects after this.
There's so much to dislike here, but I liked this, despite the fact that it's the kind of film that gets you a side-eye from people if you mention it as something you have enjoyed. Okay, maybe I am being a bit more positive BECAUSE of that, pushing back against those who can't appreciate all of the wide and varied movie entertainment that comes under that big umbrella of cinema. That doesn't alter the fact that I would watch this a dozen more times before I would watch the interminably dull Willow Creek though, which is something I hope they put on any advertising when this is re-issued for some glorious 50th anniversary cinema release.*
*never going to happen, I know, but I would support it nonetheless.
6/10
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