Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Night of the Demons 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Devilishly funny.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 14, 2013

Did any of you ever attend a parochial school? These religiously affiliated institutions are perhaps less prevalent today than they were back in the day when I was in my elementary years, but as an alumni—or perhaps that should be survivor—of what was considered a pretty tony private learning establishment, I can state with some certainty that the memory of the experience is a lifelong phenomenon. Now the school I was sent to (in a somewhat funny decision by my parents, who were attempting to keep me from the overweening Mormon influence that overran Salt Lake City public schools) was a fairly low key Episcopalian concern, but for reasons I never fully understood until I was an adult, there were actually nuns lurking about the halls at least during my Kindergarten year, if not first grade as well. (It turns out there had evidently been some sort of mishap at a Catholic parochial establishment, and so my school offered to share space until their facility could be fixed.) In one of those seemingly trivial occurrences that probably meant nothing to the adult but which seared my childhood synapses like few other experiences, I received permission to run to the rest room one day, managing to run smack dab into a rather imperious looking nun, who glared down at me and nastily asked, “Where do you think you’re going?” I managed to stammer that I was headed to the rest room, at which point she took the ruler she had been holding and smacked it rather deliberately against her palm, and with a rather menacing growl told me, “Well, hurry up then.” I was literally terrified, and while ruler clutching nuns have become something of a cliché, I can vouch for the fact it’s a cliché immaculately conceived from a certain reality. There is in fact a nun in Night of the Demons 2, and she does in fact clutch not just a ruler, but a yard stick (talk about taking things to extremes), but it’s part of this low rent film’s modest charms that she doesn’t just threaten her charges with it, she practices her fencing moves with it in the privacy of her office. That may give some indication of the sort of cheeky, subversive humor that is at work in this film, a rather unexpected (and some would say unnecessary) follow up to 1988’s Night of the Demons. (That film received a fitfully stylish remake which Entertainment One has released twice now on Blu-ray in slightly different packaging over the past few years.)

Brian Trenchard-Smith is probably not a name that is overly familiar to even the biggest film buffs reading this review, and a quick perusal of his credits might indicate why: Trenchard-Smith is a director of lo-fi entertainments including a couple of films in the Leprechaun franchise as well as such deliciously named “masterpieces” as Atomic Dog, Tyrannosaurus Azteca and my personal favorite, Pimpin’ Pee Wee, which despite its title is not a documentary about Paul Reubens’ adventures in a porn theater. The good news in all of this is that Trenchard-Smith has a rather well developed sense of humor about his own oeuvre as well as the horror genre in general, and he brings a certain insouciance to Night of the Demons 2, a film which is otherwise a pretty standard offering with a gaggle of hormonal college students finding their amorous adventures repeatedly interrupted by nasty denizens of hell.

The film gets off to a rather funny start when two door to door missionaries show up at Hull House and are not exactly thrilled to discover Angela (Amelia Kinkade, reprising her role from the first Night of the Demons), replete with a Miss Havisham-esque cobweb covered wedding cake and a Dracula-esque coffin waiting in store. Angela of course does not take kindly to someone attempting to cheerfully spread the so-called Good News, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this “cold call” by the missionaries is going to end up with both of them very, very cold—as in stone cold dead.

That pre-credits sequence then segues into what director Brian Trenchard-Smith calls his “homage to Porky’s as we’re greeted to the sight of rather scantily clad jocks ogling completely undressed girls via a pair of binoculars. The girls turn out to be the major focus of this first part of the film, and we soon find ourselves ensconced at St. Rita’s High School, a parochial school which is run with an iron fist (and yard stick) by Sister Gloria (Jennifer Rhodes). The one non-bombshell in the group, Mouse (Merle Kennedy) ends up having a nightmare where Angela shows up and rips half of Mouse’s jaw off, devouring it with a fair degree of relish (as in enjoyment, not the condiment).

The gaggle of teens along with Sister Gloria (and St. Rita’s resident Priest) all end up at Hull House for a Halloween Party, which of course provides plenty of opportunities for various demonic shenanigans to unfold, quite often of course during the course of attempted romantic interludes between various couples. Trenchard-Smith and his special effects team craft a couple of quite funny sequences here, including a lipstick that houses a slithering snake like object which— er—enters a female and, later, Angela’s hand which pokes up between one of the guy’s legs as he’s “engaged” with his girlfriend in the backseat of a car. Let’s just say Angela “aids” in the manual stimulation of this gentleman, at least until he figures out there is one too many hands on his body.

In fact it’s the humor that runs rampant throughout Night of the Demons 2 that ultimately sets it apart from its lo-fi horror kin. Trenchard-Smith reads some pretty funny reviews on his commentary track taking the film to task for its supposed denigration of Catholicism, but that’s frankly part of the fun of this enterprise, at least for those who don’t mind laughing at some of the religious foibles of Mankind. Night of the Demons 2 is an undeniably cheesy outing, but the saving grace here is that everyone involved in the production only seems all too aware of that fact, giving the film a kind of breathless “in joke” vibe that ultimately makes some pretty tired material seem fresher than it probably would have otherwise.

Night of the Demons 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Night of the Demons 2 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a generally quite pleasing looking high definition presentation, one with very good fine detail in close-ups and a commendably consistent amount of sharpness on display in a variety of lighting situations. Cinematographer David Lewis repeatedly mentions that the film looks "too bright" for his taste in the commentary included on this Blu-ray, but aside from one kind of generic dig at unnamed "distributors", it's not clear whether Lewis is bemoaning his own lighting (which actually seems to be the case with regard to most of his complaints) or faulting this transfer (which in fact may be the case with the one isolated dig). What this boils down to is that for a horror film a lot of Night of the Demons 2 is in fact rather brightly lit, actually leading to better fine detail and sharpness, but perhaps making the film less shadowy and thus scary at the same time. As with most Olive releases, no digital tweaking seems to have been done to the elements, and a rather healthy layer of grain is quite evident throughout this presentation.

Night of the Demons 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Night of the Demons 2 features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix that ably supports both the dialogue as well as the glut of sound effects that are part of the sound design. Some of the special effects sequences probably would have benefited from a surround mix, but what's here is clearly prioritized and has no real issues to speak of, despite an obviously narrow soundfield. Dynamic range is fairly wide, especially in a couple of the more bombastic sequences, including at least one explosion which provides a little aural aggression.

Night of the Demons 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Brian Trenchard-Smith and Cinematographer David Lewis. This is in some ways actually more enjoyable than the film itself. Trenchard-Smith is a low key Aussie, and his understated humor runs rampant throughout this commentary. Lewis repeatedly complains about how bright the film looks and in fact the two of them take a rather unexpected swipe at "distributors" (could they be alluding to Olive?) who don't color time releases according to the creative team's wishes.

Note: This is the latest in what is turning out to be a long line of Olive Films releases with a strangely authored Main Menu. If you choose "Special Feature" on the Main Menu, nothing will happen, but if you actually play the film and then select the Audio Commentary as your audio option (with the Audio button on your remote), returning to the Main Menu then makes "Special Feature" clickable, where it shows the commentary being available. Very weird, but maybe the devil made their authoring house do it.

Night of the Demons 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Make no mistake about it, Night of the Demons 2 is not some undiscovered masterpiece. It is in fact a kind of cheesy and at times stupid horror film—but you know what? It knows it's a cheesy and at times stupid horror film, which puts it head and shoulders above countless others of its general ilk. This Blu-ray features good video and audio and the commentary is at least as enjoyable as the film itself. Recommended.