Night of the Demon Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		5.0
Overall		2.5

Night of the Demon Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 19, 2022

The ostensible director of Night of the Demon, James C. Wasson, is on hand on one of the discs in this two disc set offering a rather long interview which reveals him to be a kind of odd but lovable goofball, but one of the things he discloses (repeatedly) in the piece is that he's never seen the finished film, though it's not clear whether or not that was overtly due to producer Jim J. Ball intentionally tweaking the "product" after shooting had supposedly wrapped, adding a bunch of graphic gore sequences which were not part of Wasson's original formulation. And yet Wasson is also up front stating that those additions are probably what "saved" Night of the Demon, since even Wasson admits that early screenings of the version without any gratuitous violence were met with outright guffaws from a disbelieving audience. There is absolutely no denying that quite a bit of Night of the Demon will come off as unintentionally hilarious, due not just to its overall extremely low budget ethos, but associated aspects like not quite ready for prime time performances, though part of the humor may simply be due to the fact that everyone in the film seems to be incredibly earnest. And there's an unabashed earnestness to Wasson himself in the interview, with Wasson admitting up front he thinks what he did was pretty darned good, all things considered, and that the actors were all well suited to their roles and delivered believable work. Perhaps saliently, though, Wasson also admits he fails to see what's funny about anything in the film, which may indicate a creator's vision may come with blinders, so to speak.

One of the kind of passingly curious things in that regard is that Wasson explicitly mentions that the first laugh the film received when he attended an early screening was when blood fills a very large footprint in the mud as the credits begin to play, but that would then beg the question as to how things get bloody and whether or not Wasson's original version showed the first of several body immolations. Suffice it to say that if you think watching Sasquatch rip a guy's arm off provides sufficient gore, you ain't seen nothin' yet, and if you need more of a clue, let's just say this film may make you think twice about ever relieving yourself by the side of an apparently abandoned country road.

The film is told in flashback (and actually in flashback within flashback at times, apparently due to Ball's tinkering and insistence on injecting at least a little bit of gratuitous nudity and associated bigfoot mayhem). A team of doctors and a policeman surround the bed of hilariously swathed professor Bill Nugent (Michael Cutt), who begins to tell the assembled mini-tudes that all those famous stories about a murderous creature in the woods are true. That then leads to the main flashback of Bill and a team of intrepid students, including a girl whose own father perished in the woods, to seek out the beast.

But that's when things start to take a decidedly more gonzo, slightly Gothic, turn when a feral country woman named Wanda McGinty (Melanie Graham) becomes a focal point. Suffice it to say, one Rosemary Woodhouse has nothing on Wanda in terms of mating with a supernatural being and giving birth to a child, though in this case, it's all played for florid melodrama, with Wanda a kind of poor, abused woman on any number of levels.

Night of the Demon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Night of the Demon is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The back cover of this release states "now scanned in 2K from the recently discovered 35mm answer print". I frankly can't even remember whether or not I first watched this film on VHS or DVD, but contextually speaking at least, Severin is providing fans another surprisingly strong looking transfer of a cult item. That said, expectations had probably best be tempered a bit, because from the looks of things, the source element definitely has a few issues, mostly just in the form of inconsistencies in saturation, color temperature, detail and grain structure. Niche fans who are used to these kinds of typically often poorly curated elements may have some idea of the pretty wide variances that can be in store when watching this transfer. There are parts that actually were beautifully vivid and decently sharp, as seen in screenshots 5 and especially 13. Unfortunately, these tend to be the exception rather than the rule, and a lot of this element has some pretty badly faded colors and just a kind of overall washed out anemic appearance. Some scenes have a slight blue undertone which can marginally affect blacks. Other scenes look much more brown, with a coarser grain field. This is a somewhat hard transfer to assess as an organic whole, since there are such wide variances on display, but that may in and of itself indicate what rough shape the answer print was in to begin with. My best advice is to parse through all of the screenshots I've uploaded to accompany this review, as I've attempted to give a gamut of aspects like palette reproduction, detail levels and grain structure. When taken as a whole, there's no doubt this looks remarkably intact, and I can't imagine fans of the film not being generally well pleased with the look of things.

Night of the Demon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Night of the Demon features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono. The audio track is kind of thin and tinny sounding, making some of the electronic effects a bit harsh in the highest registers. Some of the goofy synth stuff, as well as the (to me) hilarious pop cues featuring flute and piano are surprisingly full bodied. Dialogue and the occasional sound of appendages being ripped from bodies encounter no significant issues. Optional English subtitles are available.

Night of the Demon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One (Feature and Extras)

• Just a Little Green Kid Outta Waco, Texas (HD; 22:12) is an often hilarious interview with producer Jim L. Ball, who opens by (in an obviously joking manner) calling Night of the Demon a "family picture with, you know, disemboweling." He recounts a really interesting background, which includes his musical adventures, which ties into his relationship with James C. Wasson.


• The Demon Made Me Do It (HD; 26:28) is a really enjoyable interview with James C. Wasson, who seems somewhat amazed that he's even being interviewed. He has had a somewhat amazing career including a long stint as a backup vocalist for the likes of Glen Campbell, and he's quite the raconteur.


• Eye of the Demon (HD; 20:59) is an interview with cinematographer James Quick, who talks about his background in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as well as his work on the film and Fraternity of Horror.


• Fraternity of Horror (SD; 1:07:58) is a previously unreleased 1964 feature in black and white produced by Jim L. Ball and shot by John Quick.


• Trailer (HD; 1:15)

Disc Two Bigfoot and Video Nasty Extras

• Cryptid Currency: Transgression Aggression in Bigfoot Cinema (HD; 18:26) is a fun and interesting video essay by David Coleman, who wrote Bigfoot Filmography.


• Tales from the Cryptid (HD; 37:11) is an interview with Stephen R. Bissette, co-author of Cryptid Cinema.


• Deconstructing Patty (HD; 23:13) is an interview with William Munns, author of When Roger Met Patty, a book about the so-called Patterson Gimlin Film (Patty is the name given to the supposed bigfoot seen in the famous footage, and Roger was the guy who shot it out in the woods that day). This is a lot of fun, no matter whether or not you believe the "truth is out there".


• Mondo Bigfoot (HD; 26:53) is an interview with Kyle Blackburn, who is a kind of "cryptid hunter".


• Ban the Sadist Videos! (SD; 53:35) is an archival piece that documents the whole "Video Nasty" movement. There's some really interesting information in this (I for one wasn't aware that a lot of laid off mine workers bought the first video rental shops in the UK).


• Ban the Sadist Videos! Part 2 (SD; 44:11) continues the story, including with information about the BBFC and then nascent home video markets.


• My Nasty Memories (HD; 27:58) is a fun interview with David Gregory, director of both of the Ban the Sadist Videos! listed above, but more saliently one of the head honchos at Severin Films, a label he kind of comically says has released more video nasties than anyone. This is a really almost sweet hearted reminiscence by a guy who grew up in the video nasty era and who was obviously affected by it.

Note: The above have a Play All button on the Main Menu, but are individually accessible via the Special Features submenu.

Additionally, packaging features a nicely designed slipcover.

Night of the Demon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is another cult release from Severin where fans of the film are going to love just having it in high definition, but where those who may in fact find the film completely "nasty" (so to speak) may well get a kick out of a really appealing and nicely assembled group of supplements. The answer print used for this transfer definitely has some variances on display, as I've attempted to show in some of the screenshots, but as usual Severin has assembled a package with generally solid technical merits and great supplements, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.