Night of the Demons 2

Plot:

The legend of Hull House has grown since that fateful Halloween night years ago.  Out of all the youngins’ who entered the damned abode, only two returned alive. The rest, mutilated beyond all imagining, posed quite a challenge for the neighborhood undertaker. Well that is save for Angela-Satan’s own concubine-who was spirited away to Hell incarnate.  (Or at least that’s what local folklore holds.)

Such tales tend to bother Melissa, (or “Mouse” as her bitchier companions call her) sister to the not-so-late Angela. Not only did she lose her only sibling, but was shuttled away to a religious boarding school following her parents suicide. (A tragedy attributed to Angela sending them a particularly nasty, and supposedly posthumous greeting card.) You’d think her classmates would cut her a break. But kids can be cruel. Cruel and stupid. And what could be a better example of both than dragging the poor girl to Hull house for another fate-tempting Halloween party?

Comments:

I originally hoped to get this review up shortly before Halloween, but I just couldn't find any semblance of the proper wordage needed to do this film justice. Hell, I still can't; this review will be much shorter than an amazing film like this warrants. Then again, what would be the point of my picking it apart level by level? It's not some insufferably "deep" arthouse piffle, just 96 minutes of pure kick-assery! Frankly, I don't want to ruin anything for you; you need to see this film for yourselves.

Our film begins with a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses cluelessly attempting to proselytize at the not-so-empty Hull house. It's amazing just closely they and Angela click as to the close proximity of Armageddon. Finding herself in chipper agreement with the newcomers, she then proceeds to hack them into goulash. A very cute first scene indeed, and one that gives the viewer just a small sampling of how much this series had grown since its conception. A change in director and the addition of James Penzi as co-writer might be credited with breathing fresh new life into this creaky old spam in a cabin premise. Whatever the cause, what cannot be denied is how much smarter this film is than its predecessor. The focus has been shifted in this outing from straight-up slasher malarkey to more tongue in cheek humor. Angela also thankfully takes more of a central role. (While she graced the original film's promotional art, she actually tended to play second fiddle to Linnea Quigley through the first half of the story. She became lead deadite by default, simply because it was her party.) In '2', Miss Kinkade is finally used to the fullest of her potential. The character of Angela has evolved from a simple bugaboo spouting a few bad puns to a witty, kickass, and dare I say lovable villain. Though remaining obscure, Ms. Franklin is more than worthy of enshrinement in the horror pantheon alongside such personalities as Freddy Krueger, or The Tall Man.
While Mimi may be a scene-stealer, the rest of cast are no slouches. I wish I could i.d. the lad who portrays the nerdy student with a penchant for tormenting his teachers by bombarding simple bible study classes with esoteric questions on demonology. (Needless to say, he's my identification stand-in. I'm sure some of my college instructors still wince when they remember me.) Jennifer Rhodes as Sister Gloria truly makes the film. While she initially appears to simply be the standard-issue tight-assed ruler packing bride o' Christ, when things get hairy, she gears up for spiritual combat like a hardened ex-marine, wielding her rosaries as nunchaku. Ninja nun! How awesome is that?! (MacFarland, Necco, whoever; we need some action figures made for these two and we need them now!)

At first blush, it might seem as if still some amount of laziness in the scripting department. There are still plenty of empty skulls present simply to serve as Purina demon-chow. I hope you'll be relieved to learn they never become anywhere remotely as noxious nor just as plain stupid as the cretins in the first film. Example; Deran Heames' Z-boy, while rather irritating by design, is nothing compared to 'Stooge'. (He also gets his pretty quick! Although frankly, I'm jealous of anyone humped to death by Amelia Kinkade.) Likewise Ms. Finnerty (Zoe Trilling) for all her cruel shallow bitchiness is obviously present to add a saucy bit of fun. The most satisfying meat punching bag for me was Rod McCarry as a cold, authoritative, modernistic priest. Needless to say, he gets his ass handed to him when faced with the genuine-y demons he spent his wasted life chirping were "symbolic".
(You know, it may seem like a ridiculous complement to make about a film featuring such a lovely abundance of the unclad female form, but I like to see a movie that treats traditional religious faith with some respect. Even Angela at her most powerful is no match for the deadly ninja-nun!)
Man, even the canon-fodder is enjoyable! The film gives one the perfect illustration of what I was talking about in my review of the first film. It shows just how incandescently neat the original could have been with a touch more thought behind it.

Now don't think that this newfound emphasis on wit gets in the way of the series' gonzo nature. '2' is just as sweetly exploitive as the original. There's still bosoms aplenty, not to mention all those neat lesbian overtones to the possessions. (What with Mimi tongue-kissing her costars and all. She also gets to show off more of that erotic bumping and grinding. I guess studying professional dance for all those years really yielded some fruits eh? Although oddly enough, Mimi never seems to list these films in her current pet-psychic resume, Hmmmm. J)
That infamous tube of lipstick from the first film also makes another appearance in this one, and it's got yet another blush-inducing trick up its sleeve.

Much of the humor and fun of the first film came from its splatter-show sensibilities. Twisted little bastards such as me' self will be happy to learn that this sequel well maintains the series excellent effects; there's enough oogy decapitation, gooey Freudian devil-worms, and impossible breast physics to keep any Savini-worshiping fanboy happy. (Not to mention how the possessed messily dissolve into gooey slush when exposed to holy water. Oh, for yummy!)
The capper is Mimi morphing into a gorgon-esque snake demon that puts to shame any piddling little cgi monstrosity made since.

This film makes it rule one to never bore the audience. (A rule that should be written in stone, or better yet, tattooed on the fool forehead of any lazy young auteur who attempts to foist his digital camcorder shot dtv rubbish on an unsuspecting marketplace. Yeah that's right, I'm talkin' to you, Conrad John!) And while this film never gets bogged down in padding or artless exposition, it-amazingly enough for an early 90's splatter vehicle-seems to be talking up to us.

'Night of the Demons 2' is not merely a vast improvement over the original, but a masterful example of kinetic and witty horror filmmaking. Energetic, titillating, tongue in cheek, and devilishly clever, it's everything a good splatter film could hope to be. Aside from some very slight instances of clichéd scripting (which seem to have been included as more of a winking, self-effacing touchstone to the original rather than out of laziness or ineptitude) this is quite honestly a perfect movie. The first 'NotD' was a slapdash work that sought to cash-in on the work of Sam Raimi by aping a few elements of his style; this flick just about matches Raimi's work on the old fun meter. One great crime against the film going public (hopefully soon to remedied) is that this flick not yet been released on region 1 dvd. If you are lucky enough to find an old vhs copy at your local video store, wipe the cobwebs off of your antediluvian Sony vcr and enjoy. If you are not lucky enough to find it for rent, go buy yourself a cheap copy. If you sold your cobwebby old vhs player at a yard sale (and shame on you if you did, you call yourself a hardcore movie nerd?) go procure another. Believe me, this film is worth the trouble.

Note from future Boggy; It's now out on dvd. See It! Don't make me smack you!

9.5

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