“I've never heard so many disgusting stories in all my life.” — Judy Cassidy
In the pantheon of goofy, gory and trashy ’80s horror movies, 1988’s Night of the Demons is one of the best. Directed by Kevin Tenney, the movie chronicles the wacky and violent misadventures of a group of ill-begotten teens invited to a Halloween party at an abandoned house by their high school’s token goth weirdo, Angela (Amelia Kinkade). When the gang performs a séance, they accidentally summon a demon. As the hapless teens lose their souls one by one to this party beelzebub, it’s up to the token virgin and her date to try to survive until sunrise.
While Night of the Demons didn’t re-write the ’80s horror playbook, it has likely endured in the memories of horror fans due to some wacky and inventive touches, including a wild fireside possession dance set to Bauhaus and a scene involving a tube of lipstick that reaches John Waters-esque heights of perverse surrealism.
But the movie’s most distinguishing feature is its title sequence by animator Kathy Zielinski: a simple but beautifully atmospheric animated narrative following a clutch of ghosts and ghouls as they rise up black hills to a house to float and haunt and party, set to Dennis Michael Tenney’s ominously…
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