Anthropologist Bill Nugent awakens in a hospital bed, injured and mutilated via seemingly unknown means. An investigator and his own doctors question the professor as to the whereabouts of five of his most prestigious students, all of whom have been missing for days. Nugent begins to discuss how and why things have seemingly gone awry, and it all begins with female student Carla asking to accompany the instructor and his pupils on an expedition to Carlson's Landing, where she hopes that they will find the culprit behind her own father's murder: the folklore legend known only as "Bigfoot."
Boy, I sure know how to pick 'em sometimes. 1980's rather poor-looking Sasquatch massacre known as Night of the Demon (no relation whatsoever to the pluralized film released eight years later) is a really outlandish and all-around strange excess in violence and absurdity. It's received a few odd releases here and there, and can be most commonly found in one of those assorted horror movie collections on DVD stands everywhere. You all know which ones I'm talking about, since the titles usually resemble something like *insert random number* plus *insert random adjective* plus horror/terror. Surprisingly, it can also be found on streaming sites such as Amazon Prime, which is where I viewed it.
Like a few select films that I've discussed before, director James Wasson's splatter flick was classified as a "video nasty" upon its release, and subsequently banned until 1994. I guess the British Board of Film Classification are incredibly touchy people, and most likely fearful of how powerful of an influence motion pictures can have on the youth of England. Mind you, this idea is archaic and just plain idiotic, but I digress. That being said, it is far more believable that Night of the Demon was banned in the U.K. rather than something so poor such as Don't Go In The Woods. The gore and bloodshed is fairly detestable and outrageous, shocking you no matter when and where you shall decide to watch it. Without giving every possible type of kill away, there are scenes of emasculation, intestines being removed, and impalement. Of course, a majority of the film looks like it was made for about the cost of a three course meal, and Bigfoot himself resembles the protagonist from the Toho-produced Frankenstein Conquers the World, so if you're looking for Tom Savini or Rob Bottin-levels of artistry, then you may be slightly disappointed.
Accompanying this grotesqueness are some "fresh off of the street" actors and actresses. I don't recall many of them being given names outside of a female plot device introduced later on, and even then it doesn't matter a great deal since we all know what is coming after sitting through the first two minutes of the movie. Aside from these young meatbags, there is also the most bizarre and out-of-place soundtrack that I think I've ever heard in any horror film. Actually, scratch that. I'll state that it is the most out-of-place soundtrack that I've heard in ANY film. There's a heavy emphasis on wannabe psychedelic tunes (also felt in the way that it was shot) and TV theme songs that were likely thrown away and discovered by composer Dennis McCarthy, who would go on to score Star Trek: Generations and the movie iteration of McHale's Navy. I know of the old "you have to start somewhere" spiel, but I'm not 100% sure that those can accurately be called upgrades.
This is the furthest thing from a good, or even well-made picture. In fact, had it not been for the shocking moments of brutality and the random shots of nudity every now and then, it could have been featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 back in the day. If you even decided to remake the picture in today's day and age, I wouldn't object, since it would most likely be given an actual budget and the backing of a bigger studio. However, because of the latter observations, I can still warrant giving it a slight, albeit very cautious recommendation to fans of trashy, low-budget terror.
And no, it didn't convince me that Bigfoot is real. But it did convince me that he can somehow conceive children with human women.
Tomorrow, I forsake the title of my next screening and view The Town That Dreaded Sundown in the daylight!
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