As with all horror classics, it was only a matter of time before we got a Night of the Demons "re-imagining" -- another addition to the remake bandwagon that nobody asked for. Not surprisingly the movie fails to top the original, but still somehow managed to keep me somewhat entertained until the credits rolled.

Much like its predecessor, the film tells the tale of a popular girl named Angela, who throws a party at an old mansion with a horrid past. The night of boozing, dancing, and potential fornicating gets cut short when the police arrive and put a stop to the party, leaving poor Angela and a group of other stragglers left to clean up the mess. It's not long before they realize that they're locked in the gated property, with no cell signal and or a way out.

After some searching through the home they come across the basement, which houses several skeletal remains, one of which takes a nice little bite out of Angela's finger (that can't be good). Minutes later Angela goes through a change and starts spreading the demonic plague through the group, leaving the few to attempt to survive until the sun rises the next day.

The original Night of the Demons is far from a perfect film and left a lot of room for improvement (pacing issues for one), but it was and still remains to be a fun, cheesy 80's romp with some above-average practical demon effects. Not only that, but it also has a very creative and memorable scene involving lipstick... The remake attempts to improve and change some aspects where the original might've failed. The "lipstick trick" scene was changed a little and really didn't seem much better than it was in the original.

Another key factor is the additional backstory on the mansion that's home to the demons -- according to the film, a woman decades prior practiced all sorts of magic to force a man to fall in love with her. She ended up getting the bad end of the deal, and brought forth some demons by mistake, but kills herself before they can take over her body, sending the spirits back into the house. Naturally the ruckus from the party and nosey people cause them to awaken once again.

The effects for the demons are a slight improvement and they luckily stuck with practical means for everything, so no dodgy computer generated imagery here. Unfortunately, how these people turn into demons could have been handled much differently. For whatever reason they turn after spinning their head's really fast in a Jacob's Ladder-type effect (*rolls eyes*). This type of effect really got played out several years ago, and I'm surprised filmmakers are still trying to use it.

I haven't seen the original in years, so I can't remember how much gore was in it, but the trailers for this film made it seem like it'd be a pretty decent gorefest. Ehhh, not so much... There's a good amount of blood spraying about, but there really isn't much gore in it, at least not what you'd expect. What you see in the trailers is pretty much the extent of the gore you get from the flick. One thing worth noting is the film's throws some nods to the original, one namely being Linnea Quigley's brilliant cameo appearance early on.

The NotDemons remake doesn't really improve on the original as much as it could have and ends up with its own faults and room for improvement. Regardless, I was entertained and kept watching, despite it being incredibly clichéd and offering much of the genre's standard scare tactics, but I'd recommend just sticking to the original for a good watch this Halloween.