Sunday, November 18, 2012

Night Of The Demons 3/Demon House (1997)



(Sorry, but I couldn't find an English language trailer for NOTD 3)

The Story


Alone and bored, Officer Larry (or Unit 66) is patrolling Hull House on Halloween night. The night watch is quiet at first, but a strange noise catches Larry’s attention. Larry investigates, but once he enters Hull House, Angela suddenly appears. Larry tries to convince Angela to leave, but she refuses. Larry asserts his authority as a police officer, but Angela uses her powers to grab Larry’s badge. She catches it, turns it into a weapon, and Angela kills Larry with his own badge.

Meanwhile, Holly, the popular and successful cheerleader, and her geeky friend, Abbie are stranded on the side of the road. They’re on their way to the high school Halloween dance, but some unexpected car problems create a serious dilemma. Noticing the broken down car and two women, who need help, a group of friends on a joy ride in a van decide to help. Orson is the driver, Vince and his girlfriend, Lois are the troublemakers, Reggie sees an easy opportunity for a one-night stand, and Nick is trying to control his urges to punch Vince in the face. Holly is skeptical at first, but Abbie quickly accepts the offer for a free ride. Holly reluctantly joins Abbie for the ride, but a slight remark from Nick angers Holly.

Vince wants a pack of cigarettes, so the group stops at a gas station. Reggie tries to buy alcohol with a fake ID, but the clerk, Mr. Morris won’t accept the phony identification. Reggie reaches for his wallet, but Mr. Morris suspects something fishy, so he threatens Reggie with a shotgun. While Mr. Morris aims the shotgun at Reggie, Vince takes advantage of a lackadaisical mistake from Morris, and he snatches the shotgun. Vince turns the tables on Morris, but two armed policemen interrupt the tense situation. Vince panics, so he aims the shotgun towards the cops. During the standoff, Morris grabs Vince, the shotgun goes off, and Vince accidentally shoots one of the officers. The other cop returns fire, and during the shootout, Reggie suffers two gunshot wounds to the stomach. During the escape, Orson secretly steals a gun from one of the officers.

Armed with a shotgun, Vince declares himself the leader, but the group must face some serious problems. They’re losing fuel from a damaged gas tank, and Reggie is bleeding to death. Vince tries to figure out a solution, but he can’t think of a safe hideout….until Lois suggests Hull House. Vince forces the uncooperative witnesses (Abbie, Holly, Nick) inside Hull House, and everything is calm and quiet at first. Eventually, Angela shows up and Vince tries to secure another hostage, but Orson proudly flaunts his new gun, and he volunteers to keep a close eye on Angela.

Lieutenant Dewhurst is hours away from retirement, but he has one more case to solve before he turns in his badge for good. Dewhurst is assigned to the case of the gas station shoot out, but Angela begins to hatch another sneaky plan. The underground stream will protect the survivors from any demon attacks, but time is running out. Dewhurst will have to find Vince and the other witnesses quickly, or Angela will complete another Halloween massacre at Hull House.


Character Rundown

Angela Franklin (Amelia Kinkade)-
For the first time, Angela loses the black wedding dress. Instead, she wears a more provocative black dress. Still, Kinkade is devious and evil, and as usual, Kinkade provides an enjoyable performance for this character.

Holly (Stephanie Bauder)- She’s supposed to be the likeable, hot cheerleader, but Bauder’s performance is rigid and contrived. Bauder is an attractive woman, but her terrible performance kills any interest in this character.

Abbie (Patricia Rodriguez)-
Rodriguez is believable, as the shy and soft-spoken geek. Her character makes a few stupid mistakes, but there’s nothing wrong with her performance.

Vince (Kristen Holden-Ried)-
He’s a jackass. Vince tries to be this hip and cool bad boy, with a mean streak, but Holden-Ried’s performance isn’t convincing. His performances feels forced, and Vince is easily the most annoying character in this film.

Lois (Tara Slone)-
Lois continues the pattern of promiscuous women for this film series. But Slone can’t act to save her life, and she joins a pretty lengthy list of annoying characters here.

Nick (Gregory Calpakis)-
Nick is one of the good guys. He stands up to Vince, and Nick refuses to put up with his constant bullying. Nick and Vince develop a rivalry throughout this film, but Calpakis’ dull performance is painful to watch.

Reggie (Joel Gordon)- Reggie is supposed to be the “funny guy” in the group, but he’s a terrible comedian, and you’ll hear a bunch of lame jokes from this character. Fortunately, once Reggie suffers the gunshot wounds, you won’t hear too much dialogue from this character, and this IS a good thing.

Orson (Christian Tessier)- Orson is a nervous wimp, but when he steals the gun, Orson develops a dark side. Orson is pretty gullible and stupid, but Tessier’s performance pulls a few laughs out of me.

Lieutenant Dewhurst (Vlasta Vrana)- Dewhurst has a good sense of humor. He’s an easy-going veteran, and Dewhurst tries to lend a helping hand towards the end. Vrana delivers a solid performance, and the Dewhurst character has some funny moments here.

Mr. Morris (Ian McDonlad)- He’s a fat slob, who works at a gas station. Morris is the catalyst for the teen’s downward spiral, but McDonlad’s character is only shown in two scenes here.

Officer Larry/Unit 66 (Larry Day)- Well, Angela kills Larry in the opening scene, but he makes a return as a demon. In his demonized form, Larry becomes this hyper and obnoxious goofball. Day’s performance is too over the top, and most importantly, he’s NOT funny at all.


Who's Behind The Camera?

Jim Kaufman’s terrible directing really hurts this film. His style is bland and unappealing, and Kaufman is easily the worst director in this entire franchise. Plus, Night Of The Demons 3 isn’t scary at all, and any sort of tension is non-existent in this one.

My Overall Thoughts

Kevin Tenney returns to write the screenplay, and Joe Augustyn’s absence from the writing department is noticeable here. Augustyn provides some hilarious hokey humor for the first two films, but Tenney’s jokes are just awful. In Night Of The Demons 3, the comedy devolves into a painful barrage of unfunny “yo momma” jokes. But more importantly, there’s one too many unlikable and stupid characters here, and the ending is beyond silly.

Night Of The Demons 3 features more nudity and sex. The nude scenes feel so random, and the sex scenes are unnecessary. I guess they needed a few reasons to distract the audience from the horrible plot, but the extra nudity and sex doesn’t help Night Of The Demons 3, because this film has too many obvious flaws.

The story doesn’t maintain continuity. What happened to Melissa, Johnny, Bibi, and Sister Gloria? They actually survived Angela’s attacks, and there was a cliffhanger at the end of Night Of The Demons 2. During the opening scene, Larry alludes to the “kids from St. Rita’s Academy,” but still, they don’t provide a thorough explanation for their whereabouts. I don’t have a big problem with Bibi, Sister Gloria, and Johnny, but Melissa? Come on, she’s Angela’s sister! Night Of The Demons 3 feels like a stand-alone film most of the time, because a real connection to the previous films doesn’t exist.

The lack of continuity is annoying, and the shitty acting in this film is just dreadful. Kinkade, Vrana, and Rodriguez tried to save this one, but the bad performances outweigh the enjoyable ones here.

And they tried to recreate Angela’s dance scene from the first film AGAIN. The second attempt in Night Of The Demons 2 was embarrassing enough, but Angela’s third attempt is just pitiful. She does this slow and awkward sensual dance for Orson, and for some odd reason, Angela performs fellatio on Orson’s gun. Of course, Angela wanted Orson to lower his guard. She wanted to distract him, and it worked, because Angela uses her tongue to kill/demonize Orson (it’s similar to Stooge’s death in the “Angela’s Dance” clip). Still, the dance is just atrocious, but Angela’s third attempt is laughably bad.

What the fuck happened to Hull House? In the first two films, Hull House is a creepy, old funeral home. Hull House provides the perfect spooky atmosphere, but in Night Of The Demons 3, Hull House is actually clean and neat? Hull House ’97 is a perfect candidate for a home decorating magazine, and that’s a major problem. In the first two films, Hull House enhanced feelings of desperation and fear, but in Night of The Demons 3, Hull House becomes a future dream home for any happy family.

Oh, and I know I’m suppose to use suspension of disbelief for movies, but Reggie’s survival after the gunshot wounds is unbelievable. He takes multiple shots to the STOMACH, is bleeding profusely, and somehow he survives well past the halfway point of this film without medical attention? Please.

No tension, no real scares, and horrible writing. Night If The Demons 3 is an absolute travesty. Night Of The Demons 2 was a straight-to-video release, but it didn’t feel like a straight-to-video release. Well, Night Of The Demons 3 was a straight-to-video release…..and it feels like a straight-to-video film, a bottom of the barrel straight-to-video film. It’s not even worthy of Wal-Mart’s five dollar bin. Yeah, it’s that bad.

Two versions of this film exist, the R-rated version and the unrated version. Although, you won’t see a big difference between both versions. The unrated version is a little bit more gory, that’s all.

Sorry, I love Amelia Kinkade, but I can’t push myself to give this film a one rating. Besides a select few, the acting is shit, the production values are shit, the directing is shit, and the writing is shit. It’s a travesty, and Night Of The Demons 3 provides one of the most disappointing finales for any franchise.

Final Rating: 0/10

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