Night of the Demon
(U.K. PRE-Certified VHS PAL)
(1980)
review by Krug Stillo

Not to be confused with the famous black and white horror by Jacques Tourneur in 1957 and definitely not to be mistaken for a seriously scary film. Like many of the titles that appeared on the British ‘Video Nasties’ list, this is a cheesy effort with excess gore. Surprisingly some have even suggested that this was influential in the making of The Blaire Witch Project. Let me tell you a little about this film and you might see the similarities…

A group of appalling actors, sorry, I meant dedicated anthropologists head off into the woods to solve the mystery of the Big Foot monster. Their investigation uncovers the story of a young girl, named Wanda, who was
reaped by a monster in the woods. Her religious father committed suicide after killing the deformed offspring. The aforementioned anthropologists locate Wanda’s cabin after many stops along their trek throughout the forestry to tell each other yeti ‘stories’. She tells them that she in fact burned her father to death for killing her ‘baby’. Suddenly the Big Foot beast bursts into the house and kills everyone in gory slow motion. The leader of the expedition, Professor Newgent is the sole survivor, but remains scarred for life after the beast held his face against a steaming hot oven.

The ‘stories’ I mentioned? It can get confusing at times considering that the gory set pieces are stories related by Professor Newgent to his colleagues and the entire film is actually his related story to the police; explaining how his colleagues disappeared. You still with me? Well these
stories concern the group sitting around a campfire and always start with the similar line - ‘It was nearby here that…’ or ‘It was in this very area where…’ This is where all the gore is displayed: a) a poor fellow in his sleeping back is impaled in a spiky branch; b) two girls are stabbed to death after wondering from their brownies’ group; c) a woodcutter is
dispatched with his own axe; d) a fisherman has his arm torn off and his blood fills the creatures footprint; e) a motorcyclist stops for wee and has his todger yanked off after accidentally pissing on the creature.

The film was re-released by Vipco in a cut version in the early nineties. Their current re-releasing of old treasures like ‘A Blade in the Dark’, ‘City of the Living Dead’ and ‘Zombie Creeping Flesh’ perhaps they’ll release Night of the Demon in its full gory glory. Keep those fingers crossed.