I originally saw Brian Trenchard-Smith’s “Night of the Demons 2” before ever seeing Kevin Tenney’s original 1988 classic. It was a late night viewing on Cinemax that still remains burned in to my brain. Brian Trenchard-Smith fills in with Kevin Tenney offering up a sequel that’s just as good as the original “Night of the Demons.” Hell, I wouldn’t argue if you even insisted the sequel is better.
Six years after the events of “Night of the Demons,” Hull house is still standing with Angela its primary resident. The once human Angela Franklin had a little sister nicknamed “Mouse” who is now an orphan attending a Christian school. Constantly picked on, her classmates decide to trick her in to venturing out in to Hull House for Halloween. With a local demonology student accidentally invoking the spirit of Angela, she crashes the school’s party and begins possessing the students through sexual contact.
In many ways “Night of the Demons 2” enhances what the original film was held back by. There are more set pieces, much more of a bigger scale, many more characters, and of course an expansion on the mythology of the demons. Angela remains a consistently terrifying villainess whose own evil persona as well as her personal life prior to becoming a demon are explored. Angela is revealed to have had a sister and was a very normal Goth girl whose younger sister, known as “Mouse,” was often bullied. Meanwhile, the ability to possess others is given more dimensions as the possession is carried over through sexual intercourse.
This allows for some bizarre titillating sequences; who knew demons had such huge tongues? Along the way there are some fun demonic sequences, a great climax inside a church, and some great dark humor. And while Linnea Quigley sadly sits this film out, the insanely sexy Zoe Trilling carries the torch. “Night of the Demons 2” is one of my favorite nineties horror outings. It’s a great Halloween based party film that delivers on more demonic mayhem and compliments Kevin Tenney’s original to near perfection.
For this new Blu-ray edition, Scream Factory offers a decent assortment of new bonuses for fans to enjoy. There’s a new Audio Commentary features actors Cristi Harris, Jennifer Rose, Darin Heames and Johnny Moran reminiscing and sharing anecdotes from the production. There’s an audio Commentary that is ported over from previous releases with director Brian Trenchard-Smith who chats with cinematographer David Lewis about the production. The new A Tale of Two Demons is a seventy minutes interview with the directors of the first two movies, Kevin S. Tenney and Brian Trenchard-Smith.
The new Monster Mayhem is a forty nine minutes interview with special effects artist Steve Johnson, Trick or Treat, Sucker is a new twenty five minutes interview with star Amelia Kinkade, Red Curls and Screams is a new twenty one minutes interview with actor Cristi Harris, and A Sequel with Guts is a new thirteen minutes interview with producer Jeff Geoffray. There’s the “Night of the Demons 2” work print, as well as over two hours of Dailies for the film. There’s also a photo gallery as well as the original trailer for the film.