Night of the Demons 3 Reviews

This direct-to-video sequel strays only slightly from the formula laid down in the previous two DEMONS outings ... and then merely to cop elements from similar scare-fare. Halloween night. A cop (Larry Day) is killed by seductive demon Angela (Amelia Kinkade) at an abandoned funeral parlor called Hull House. Later, five troublesome teens led by Vinnie (Kris Holdenreid) and Lois (Tara Slone) stop to pick up cheerleader Holly (Stephanie Bauder) and her geeky friend Abbie (Patricia Rodriguez), who have broken down on the road. A stop at the local Quicky Mart results in a shootout in which Vinnie nearly kills a cop. With retiring detective Dewhurst (Vlasta Vrana) hot on their trail, the group holes up at Hull House. At once, Angela begins her demonic hijinx, slaying the teens and transforming them into demons one by one, until only Vinnie, Holly and Nick (Gregory Calpakis) remain alive. In preparing for the inevitable battle against Angela, Holly and Nick realize demons can be killed if they cross over water. Dewhurst arrives, kills Vinnie in a shootout and confronts Angela. She offers to spare the lives of Dewhurst and Nick in exchange for Holly's virginal soul. Holly agrees, but Dewhurst attempts to divert Angela and has his heart ripped out. Seeing their opportunity, Nick and Holly pull Angela across the water, killing her. Director Jimmy Kaufman tosses some cheap visceral thrills into the mix in this installment of the series, but few of them have much impact in what amounts to a slasher film disguised as a supernatural thriller. Borrowing from Sam Raimi's EVIL DEAD films as well as Lamberto Bava's grisly DEMONS (1986), Kaufman fails to move this already-weak series into new territory. Instead, saddled with a by-the-numbers script from original NIGHT OF THE DEMONS helmer Kevin S. Tenney, the film becomes instant direct-to-video fodder, of the kind that nearly killed the horror genre in the 1980s. The performances, however, are mostly passable and Walter Bal's camerawork is good, using numerous POV shots that call to mind the distinctive visual style introduced in THE EVIL DEAD (1983). The computer-animation effects are excessively artificial-looking, but the special makeup work from SOTA Effects is very solid, especially during Angela's meltdown scene. The comic highlight of the film is the scene in which Lois's arm transforms into a snake that sexually services her--a prosthetic effect that appears to be an attempt to pay homage to the infamous twig-molestation scene in THE EVIL DEAD. (Profanity, violence, sexual situations.)