Most of us who grew up weaned on 80s VHS horror marathons will likely remember Night Of The Demons, even if you never actually rented it. That cover art stuck out and always got my attention when I was in the video store, and I’ll always have a soft spot for ‘Angela’ in my lil’ ol’ horror lovin’ heart. 

The first film takes place on Halloween night as a group of ten teenagers head up to an old abandoned funeral parlor for a little party action. Dubbed Hull House, the building is supposedly built on a cursed area of land that has a dark history of evil about its past. In fact, there is even a wall built overtop of an underground stream that surrounds the home, to keep people out with brick and mortar, and also to keep out those evil things which cannot cross running water. 

After drinking and dancing to some quality music (Computer Dating Service, anyone?), our cliché band of youths hunker down in front of big vanity mirror in hopes of performing a 'past lives séance.' As dumb teenagers were apt to do in eighties horror films, they awaken the evil that lays within the house and soon enough, they find themselves trapped in Hull House and are one by one possessed by the demons that call it home. 

Night Of The Demons starts of pretty poorly and really only offers up some bad stereotypes from the decade it was made in. Eventually though, starting with the memorable scene where Angela (Mimi Kinkade) dances in the abandoned funeral home to Bauhaus’ Stigmata Martyr, the film takes a pleasant turn into the realm of some more serious scares and once the boy crazy Suzanne (Linnea Quigly of Return Of The Living Dead) goes nuts and inserts a tube of lipstick into her body through her nipple, the movie does indeed get more interesting. 

If you’ve got a high tolerance for campy humor (you’ll need it to get past the first thirty minutes) and a love for schlocky horror and gore effects, you’re probably already familiar with the film as it’s never really been that hard to come by, and like I said, at least in my area, it was a staple of the video shelves at rental joints around town. Most of the characters aren’t terribly unique (we’ve got a bad ass crass punk guy named Stooge, complete with bad mullethawk and an anarchy symbol on his shirt; a slutty girl who is one of the first to become possessed; a token black character; a virtuous girl who makes it out alive; and of course, a tough talking guy with a heart of gold) but it’s to be expected and the film doesn’t try and pass itself off as anything more than mindless entertainment. On that level at least, it’s quite successful, even if a lot of the dialogue is cringe-worthy at best. 

The version presented on this DVD is the uncut version, which features some slightly gorier (the razor blade scene, the eye gouge scene, and the throat tearing scene) moments as well as the much beloved ‘Have you guys got sour balls?’ line inserted back into the convenience store scene. Import junkies may have seen this version on DVD courtesy of German DVD company, Laser Paradise, who back in 2003 released their Night Of The Demons trilogy set. Sadly, that release, though uncut, was cursed with a shoddy fullframe transfer and far less than stellar video quality. Luckily Anchor Bay has gone ahead and given us a great anamorphic widescreen transfer that really brings a lot more out of the film as far as the visuals go (but more on that later). Seeing the movie again courtesy of the Laser Paradise edition didn't really do that much for me, but I will admit to having enjoyed the movie considerably more seeing it on this release, where you don't have to try and figure out what's going on in certain scenes because the image is too dark. 

So yeah, it's eighties cheese - no doubt. But it's a fun movie with some inventive kills, a fun soundtrack, and no small amount of nostalgia for those of us who grew up in the decade in which it was made.

Whereas the German set had only trailers as supplements, this Anchor Bay release has quite a few nice extra features hidden inside. First up is a running commentary with director Kevin Tenney, Executive Producer Walter Josten and Producer Jeff Geoffray. The three are full of facts and anecdotes about the film, its cast, and the behind the scenes shenanigans that occurred on set. There's no shortage of information here and the track is a fun listen that is worth your time.

That's not all though, nope. There's also an all new fourteen minute interview with Linnea Quigley entitled My Demon Nights. The world famous scream queen is plenty happy to talk about her work on the film, after all, she does have one of the more infamous scenes in the movie. She's an amiable woman and has a few stories of her own to share about her work on the film and her time on the set.

Aside from that, Anchor Bay have also dug up the film's original theatrical trailer, the film's video trailer, a semi-length promotional reel, and a few television spots to boot. It's interesting to compare the various promotional bits as in some ways they're very similar but there are a few distinct differences in each one as well. The disc comes with an insert that has a reproduction of the film's one sheet on one side and the list of the movie's sixteen chapters on the other side.