5.3 | / 10 |
Users | 3.2 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.1 |
A group of kids go to a Halloween party, only to have to face down a group of demons.
Starring: Shannon Elizabeth, Monica Keena, Edward Furlong, Bobbi Sue Luther, Linnea QuigleyHorror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
It’s almost Hallowe’en, and neighborhoods are already sporting cobwebs, cardboard skeletons and other accoutrements of this most spooky holiday. Little kids (and maybe some not so little kids) are consumed with ideas for fantastic costumes as well as fantasies of bags full of candy. It’s also the time for studios to release a glut of horror titles in the hopes some people stuck at home handing out chocolate will want to watch a frightfest as they wait for their doorbells to ring. Just in recent weeks, we’ve had a flood of horror titles make it to Blu-ray. I’ve reviewed more than a handful of these from a variety of studios, films like Feast, 2001 Maniacs, High Tension and The Blair Witch Project, and I still have several more, like Pulse and Prey, in my review queue. So perhaps I’m merely suffering from horror overload at this point. On the other hand, director Adam Gierasch states that his remake of 1988’s Night of the Demons is geared toward 17 year old boys, and I am certainly not in that demographic anymore. Yes, there are scares to be had in this Night of the Demons. And there are scantily clad women, always a plus for men 17 to 71. Director Gierasch has a good eye and he invests this re-do with several fun elements. But overall this feels like a tired rehash, a silly and predictable trip down the “haunted mansion filled with evil spirits” genre that, despite its punk-rock ambitions, is surprisingly rote and by the numbers.
Gierasch obviously didn't have much of a budget shooting this film, and it unfortunately shows in a low contrast, overly grainy presentation on Blu-ray, delivered via an AVC encode, in 1080p and 1.78:1. Most of this film is extremely dark, and unfortunately black levels are inconsistent and get both milky and green in various spots (note the inconsistency in the "tunnel" sequence). Detail is acceptably sharp, if never amazing, but the entire enterprise has the look of an upconverted DVD rather than a true hi-def image. Colors are nicely robust and well saturated, but they tend to get buried in the overall murkiness of the often dark image. When the film finally gets to daylight at the denouement, clarity and sharpness are noticeably better. One thing that looks great in this film are the sepia-toned, deliberately "damaged" silent film flashbacks.
Night of the Demons is stuffed to its evil gills with some great punk source music from bands like Concrete Blonde, and that nonstop barrage of rock sounds fantastic in this Blu-ray's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. There are also some very good sound effects filling the surrounds throughout this enterprise, and good attention paid to varying ambient sound and reverb levels and our human protagonists make their way from location to location within (and actually underneath) the huge mansion. Dialogue is generally crisp, though the noisy party scene does have some balance issues, which actually only plays well into the chaotic feel of that segment. Fidelity is excellent, especially with the throbbing music, which is virtually nonstop, and dynamic range is also very good. The frequent LFE blasts quite convincingly from the sub- woofer, and overall this is a bombastic, fun sound mix.
There's not a heck of a lot in the supplement material on Night of the Demons. The commentary with stars Monica Keena, Bobbi Sue Luther, John F. Beach and Gierasch and Anderson is fun and chatty, but doesn't impart much salient information. There's also a brief Gierasch Comic Con 2010 Intro (1080i; 1:07) and a pretty standard EPK making of featurette, Behind the Bloodbath (HD; 18:21).
Night of the Demons does provide some scares, no doubt about it. But they're all housed in a framework you've seen a thousand times before. If you're staying home on Hallowe'en, this might make an OK rental, especially if you're a 17 year old boy.
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