The Gory Legend of Hull House

There was a huge surge of horror movies starting with the slasher classic John Carpenter's Halloween in 1978 and continued throughout the '80s, though the popularity started to wind down towards the'90s. Once of the last classic horror films from that era was 1988's Night of the Demons (originally titled Halloween Party.) The film was directed by Kevin S. Tenney and starred William Gallo, Hal Havins, Amelia Kinkade, Cathy Podewell and Linnea Quigley. The film centered on a group of teenagers having a party on Hallowen Night at the so-called haunted Hull House. After their host Angela holds a séance, a demon possesses her and one by other demons possesses the other teens, except for a Judy, Sal and Roger, whom all are trying to find a way to escape Hull House alive.

My first encounter with Night of the Demons was when I was nine or ten and my mother had set a timer to record the movie on Showtime for my aunt, whom is only six-years older than me. The movie was on early in the morning and I woke up early that morning before school, got a bowl of cereal and turned on the television just in time to see Jill Terashita as Frannie pop out of a coffin topless. Let's just say I only watched a few minutes before I turned the television off in fear that I would get in trouble for watching it. Five or six years late, I recorded the movie late one night on Showtime, so I could finally see the movie. I completely forgot about the film until I came across it on Hulu last year. Then when I heard about the Shout! Factory Collector's Edition, I went ahead and ordered it.


Soon after, I ordered the Night of the Demons 2, Night of the Demons 3 and the Night of the Demons remake DVDs, which I have never seen any of them before. Despite being direct-to-DVD, Night of the Demons 2 is actually a decent horror film. Though it isn't as good as the first film, it is still entertaining. The third installment has dozens of problems, starting with the low-budget and the bad acting. While the 2009 remake has plenty of gore, there are too many plot-holes throughout the film that kept me from liking it. Still, the remake is still better than the third film.