Why So Blu?

Night Of The Demons 2 – Collector’s Edition (Blu-ray Review)

For October this year, Scream Factory is unleashing its inner demons. The night of said demons to be specific. And three nights at that. Its cult staple Night of the Demons and its sequels. The original will be making its debut on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray and includes some new interviews, as the sequel is making its second Blu-ray appearance with a new transfer and extras and Night of the Demons 3 debuts to the format. There’s a load of excitement to be had with these as they are not only loved themselves, but will be getting some top notch love on the format. Released on October 3rd, you can order them now using links in these reviews. In this review, we’ll be looking at the Brian Trenchard-Smith directed sequel, Night of the Demons 2!

Film

It’s Halloween and the teenagers from St. Rita’s High School want to party at the neighborhood’s haunted house. For years, the Hull House has sat in eerie silence – tales of its haunted past have turned into gory jokes and no one really believes anything ever happened there. However, Angela (Amelia Kinkade), the hostess from hell, is summoning her army of teen demons to the blood-curdling contest between the school’s priests and herself, the princess of darkness. What was intended as an innocent evening of fun and games turns into a hell-raising, life-threatening ordeal … they wanted fun, now they’re in the trick-or-treat party of their lives!

Night of the Demons is such a unique little horror movie that following it up seems like something not to do or maybe might not have that magic anymore. Luckily, a man exists named Brian Trenchard-Smith. While not some esteemed name in the world of filmmaking, the man has quite a talent of understanding a perfect vibe for a project. And his Night of the Demons 2 understand and compliments the first one in ways you couldn’t imagine possible.

The film ramps up things that worked in the first one and also recognizes it by going for some cheesy tone and ridiculousness throughout. You get more sex, you get more bubbly women and dull as a board dudes. When people are attacked its a little meaner (in a fun way). And it also comes to everything with an angle. This time, the Catholic church serves as a catalyst for mythology, battle, setting, character and of course the target of some humor.

One of the key elements that helps Night of the Demons 2 succeed is a certain kind of consistency between the films. And that comes in the form of Steve Johnson, who did the effects on the original. In the sequel, he sets out to top himself. The demons looks a bit more grounded this time around. His effects bring some new elements to the table, like turning Angela into a full blown giant snake. but, he also plays with things that happened last time to different degrees. Johnson’s boobs gag from the first film is sorta reversed in a way here that looks just as impressive.

Brian Trenchard-Smith brings a sequel to Night of the Demons that is just as fun and pushes the right limits that would make the first film smile. They fit together quite well, the difference being that 2 looks modern gothic while the original has a more cartoonish vibe to it. This one also makes the decision that these films are Angela’s party and really let Amelia Kinkade run with it. While not quite surpassing the original, its still a terrific and fun follow up.

Video

Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Layers: BD-50

Clarity/Detail: Night of the Demons 2‘s sophomore journey to Blu-ray boasts a new 2023 film transfer from the interpositive. The results are pretty good. Stepping up from the previous Olive Films release is it having its original 1.85:1 framing. The image has some solid depth to it, thanks to having grain intact. Finer details show through good and the make-up effects prove even more impressive here in this new Scream Factory transfer.

Depth:  There is some nice pushback in scenes here and a surprisingly rich sense of scale on display that I wasn’t expecting. Movements are cinematic and smooth with no issues protruding from rapid action sequences causing a blur or a jitter.

Black Levels: Blacks are deep and plenty rich. Grain is a little heavier in the nighttime or darker room sequences. No information is lost and plenty of textures, patterns and fine information can be found on darker surfaces. No crushing witnessed.

Color Reproduction: Colors are pretty solid and rather bold here. Many a regular color gets a strong presence in this gothic palette.

Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural, if not just the tiniest hair colder. Facial textures and features like freckles, wrinkles, stubble, dried blood and many of the make-up effects are clear as day from any reasonable distance in the frame.

Noise/Artifacts: Clean

Audio

Audio Format(s): English 2.0 Stereo DTS-HD MA

Subtitles: English SDH

Dynamics: I’m fairly certain that Night of the Demons 2‘s stereo track is the same as the Olive release from many moons ago. And its a pretty good mix with nice balance and engagement through 2 channels. The low end sounds actually are pretty effective as well.

Height: N/A

Low Frequency Extension: N/A

Surround Sound Presentation: N/A

Dialogue Reproduction: Vocals are clear and crisp.

Extras

Night of the Demons 2 – Collector’s Edition is a 1-disc set.

Audio Commentary

• with Actors Cristi Harris, Jennifer Rhodes, Darin Heames and Johnny Moran
• with Director Brian Trenchard-Smith and Director of Photography David Lewis

A Tale Of Two Demons (HD, 1:10:02) – An Interview With Directors Kevin S. Tenney And Brian Trenchard-Smith. In actuality, this is these two sitting together and reminiscing together about the film. Sort of Tenney interviewing Trenchard-Smith. However, it tends to get very off topic and into the Leprechaun movies at more than one instance. However, Tenney is a fan of the film and a lot is revealed and relished in with this 70 minutes.

Trick Or Treat, Sucker (HD, 25:20) – Interview with actor Amelia Kinkade. She was grateful when offered the part and especially when she discovered she was the only person from the original they brought back. Kinkade talks about the fans of the second film and being stunned when she found out Quentin Tarantino was. Nothing but praise and a real understanding of what Brian Trenchard-Smith brings to a film as well as talking about shooting as the snake. There’s even a point where she starts reading from a book.

Red Curls And Screams (HD, 21:21) – Interview with actor Cristi Harris. She sees this film as a next step and good expansion on the first film. Originally went for the part of Teri she was asked on the same day to try for the lead. Harris talks about her experiences with people working on the film and then goes into a whole “looking back upon things as a time period” when going back to the film.

Monster Mayhem (HD, 48:29) – Interview with special effects artist Steve Johnson. “It was the wild west, everyone was trying to one-up the next one.” He credits Rick Baker’s work on An American Werewolf in London with “changing everything” for effects. This lengthy sit down with him basically goes over a lot of horror make-up history before leading us into his work on Night of the Demons 2.

A Sequel With Guts (HD, 12:54) – Interview with producer Jeff Geoffray. He says the delay of getting a sequel was merely the cycle of the original film’s lifeline (shooting, theatrical, home video, etc) before the studio said it was a “no-brainer” for a sequel. Geoffray says they were making independent films more expensive than most in the slasher genre which is why they stood out. He mentions having to choose between KNB and Steve Johnson on the film and decided on Steve for consistency. There was another film he was working on at this time called Evolver as well and he wasn’t as able to be as involved as he was with the original.

Night Of The Demons 2 Workprint (SD, 1:38:28) – VHS sourced.

Dailies (HD, 2:09:34) – VHS sourced.

Behind-The-Scenes Photo Gallery (HD, 5:58)

Trailer (HD, :45) – VHS sourced.

Summary

Night of the Demons 2 is a wonderful compliment to the original film and another rollicking party with Angela. While on Blu-ray before, Scream Factory has improved its presence in all facets, with a sweet new transfer and a full load of extras that include an alternate cut and over 2 hours of dailies footage. This is a must have for us horror junkies!

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