Night of the Demons (2009)

All Hell Is Going To Break Loose 

Over eighty years ago, six people disappeared from the Broussard Mansion. That same night the owner, Evangeline Broussard, hung herself. Now a group of party goers are off to a Halloween shin-dig hosted by their friend Angela. But the party is soon shut down by the police, and only Angela and a small group of her friends remain at the house.

They decide to stick around and make the most of the night. But as they explore the mansion further, they make a horrifying discovery; six dead bodies hidden in a closed off room in the house.They decide to leave the house, but find themselves locked inside the property and unable to find a way out.

Soon Angela begins to behave strangely and it turns out she has become possessed by a demon which jumped into her body from one of the corpses. Soon more and more of the group fall victim to possession and turn into hideous demons.

The survivors, including the obvious leader, Maddie, struggle to fend off their grotesque former friends until daylight in the hopes of survival and escape.

The premise of a remake of the Night of the Demons was pretty exciting initially. Unfortunately this so-called remake is not only a major flop, but is hardly a remake at all. What are the similarities between this film and Night of the Demons? A group of people are in a structure on Halloween and are being attacked by demons. Also the primary villains name is Angela. Other than that virtually every scene and several key aspects of the plot are completely different to the extent that calling this a remake is pretty much a farce. All of the classic scenes of the original film have been gutted except for the lip stick scene, but they butchered that too.

Ludicrous dialogue, a totally unnecessary sub-plot about drug gangs, and unimpressive acting performances didn't help much either. What is with all these remakes lately trying to slide in some kind of quasi-scientific sounding explanation for why these things happen? Also, rusted metal hurts demons because it is an ancient element, demons are made of ancient elements, and the metal is tainted by rust? Give me a break. It's a fictional story about fictional creatures and occurrences, there's no need to make lame-brained explanations about how it all works. The original didn't need it, neither should the "remake".

But that's the difference between these films when it all comes down to it. The original was campy, true. But it accepted its campyness. It thrived on it. It used it to its advantage and mixed it with a well measured concoction of horror and comedy to make a fantastic masterpiece of late 80's horror plus two sequels to follow it.  Whatever this film tried to do, it didn't work.

On the up side, some of the demons did look pretty cool... cool for a different movie because they looked nothing like the ones from Night of the Demons. The soundtrack includes one or two pretty cool songs as well. Lesson of the day, however, is if you're going to remake a classic then do it straight-up, or not at all.

1 skeleton bite out of 5
Rated R for bloody horror violence/gore and language throughout, some sexuality, nudity and drug use.

Watch the Night of the Demons trailer.

Let the Right One In (2008)

Eli is 12 years old. She's been 12 for over 200 years and, she just moved in next door. 

Oskar is a bullied 12 year old boy who dreams of exacting revenge on his tormentors at school. One day a peculiar girl, Eli, moves in next door. The two become close but Oskar soon finds out there is more than meets the eye to his new friend. After a string of grisly murders, it becomes clear that Eli is a vampire who needs human blood to survive. Oksar is left to decide between his new supernatural girlfriend, and the troubled life he will have to leave behind if he is to remain by her side.

Aside from the really cheesy over-dubbed English (the film is Swedish), watching Let the Right One In was great, even after having already seen the remake which was released earlier this year. The plot remained basically the same between the two films, with some storyline changes. For example the somewhat bizarre cat scene was cut out of the remake I noticed. What do you call a cat that drinks vampire blood?

The original was also not as gory as the remake, which is often the case when Hollywood remakes anything. But Let the Right One In definitely comes out full of atmosphere, and a bit more spooky. It's not surprising that this film was praised by critics and horror fans alike when it was released only two years ago. If you get remade within two years, you've probably done something right.

4.5 swimming pool "accidents" out of 5
Rated R for some bloody violence including disturbing images, brief nudity and language. 

Watch the Let the Right One In trailer. 

Night of the Living Dead 3D (2006)

An all new dimension of the horror classic.

Night of the Living Dead 3D is a "re-imaging" of the original 1968 George A. Romero classic Night of the Living Dead. Barbara and her brother, Johnny, arrive late to a funeral to find that the cemetery is infested with the flesh-starved undead. They seek refuge in a nearby farmhouse owned by the Cooper family who, in this version of the story, are a bunch of stoners who operate a grow-op. Also hiding out at the house is an eccentric mortician, Tovar, who arrives with information about how the corpses came to reanimate and seek out human flesh. The lot of them fight for survival as the farmhouse comes under siege from the zombie menace.

The original Night of the Living Dead was not only one of the best horror films of all time; it heralded the dawn of the modern era in zombie cinema. In 1990, a very decent re-make was released thanks to the fine work of Tom Savini. You'd think that would be enough, but unfortunately these guys took it upon themselves to bastardize this great film by releasing this nasty steamer.

For one thing, the plot isn't even the same except for that there are characters with the same names and they happen to be in a farmhouse surrounded by zombies. The fact that the farm has now become a grow-op is really stupid, doesn't make a lot of sense, and only makes the characters more annoying while providing dismal opportunities for failed comic relief. As for the 3D effects, let's just say it's no Avatar. The acting is terrible, the plot is overly campy, and the whole thing could have done without the addition of the new character "Tovar". Plus all of the underlying socio-political commentary has been gutted.

If you are looking for Night of the Living Dead, watch the original. Then watch the 1990 remake. Then skip right on to something else, because you'll never get the 80 minutes of your life back after you waste them on this.

0.5 shovels to the head out of 5
Rated R for horror violence and gore, language, sexual content, nudity and drug use.

Watch the Night of the Living Dead 3D trailer.

Let Me In (2010)

Innocence Dies. Abby Doesn't.

Owen has a lot to deal with in life; parents going through a divorce, a religious zealot mother, and vicious bullying at school. But he is about to make a new friend that will change his life forever. One night Owen sees a girl about his age moving into the apartment beside his mothers with an older man, which he presumes to be her father.

After a couple of unusual encounters with the new girl, Abby, Owen begins to form a close friendship with her against her initial advice. But things get a bit weird for Owen when he sorts out that Abby is actually a vampire and her "dad" is actually her keeper, who spends his time committing grisly murders in order to collect the blood she desperately needs to survive. To make matters worse, the police are hot on the trail of the murders, which they suspect are the work of a Satanic cult, and are closing in on Abby and her "father". Owen has some big questions to answer and some big decisions to make as he finds himself between his troubled life and his bloodthirsty girlfriend.

Let Me In is a compelling drama-horror about growing up, standing up for yourself, and, of course, violently killing people and sucking their veins dry. It may feel slow at times, but each time that it does something quickly happens to draw you back in. The vampire is much like those that recent vampire film viewers will remember from 30 Days of Night; fast, strong, and scary sounding. The movie is well done all around and while not incredibly scary, it does have its share of violence and the odd jump as well as some well played suspense.

The movie is also helped by captivating performances by Chloe Moretz (Abby) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (Owen), both of whom come off as very talented. This is definitely one of those horror films where the "bad guy" is also the "good guy", or at least the distinction is not so black and white. A great movie, well worth checking out. Watch for a review of the original Swedish film "Let the Right One In," coming soon.

4.5 dead bullies out of 5
Rated R for strong bloody horror violence, language and a brief sexual situation.

Watch the Let Me In trailer.