Gory flick originally intended to be called “The Revenge of Bigfoot”
Mostly shot in 1979, this indie only cost $70,000 at the time and borrows the set-up of “Shriek of the Mutilated” from seven years prior, which involves a professor taking several students out to the remote woods to find a particularly dangerous Sasquatch. The second half is altogether different, however, with elements reminiscent of several movies, including the farmhouse showdown of “Night of the Living Dead,” the ‘redneck’ bits of “Squirm,” the legalistic abuse of “Carrie” and the infamous guts sequence of “Dawn of the Living Dead.”
The movie is notorious for being listed as a “video nasty” by the BBFC and deserved it due the gore, nudity and rape scene. Yet the original version by James Wasson was rather tame. What happened is that Wasson’s original version was shown at a local film festival where it performed poorly, but piqued the interest of producer Jim Ball, who then shot a number of shocking gory sequences in Hollywood to insert into the film. Wasson had nothing to do with these additional scenes. Amazingly, the inserted parts don’t feel inorganic to the proceedings and worked to stir interest in the film.
Michael Cutt works well enough as the masculine professor and blonde Jodi Lazarus is a highlight on the feminine front as Linda, but the rest of the students and some peripherals are forgettable with relatively wooden readings of their lines, except for Crazy Wanda (Melanie Graham).
Despite some subpar acting, the story surprisingly maintains interest with a dated-but-eerie score adding to the mood. It helps that the creature is formidable when finally revealed, although critics say he looks too man-like as opposed to ape-ish.
The reason the title was changed to “Night of the Demon” is because Bigfoot flicks had lost their appeal by 1980. Of course, calling the creature a ‘demon’ is only fitting in a figurative sense.
It runs 1h 36m and was shot in Valencia, California, which is 36 miles northwest of Los Angeles, just north of Santa Clarita. The bits done in the studio were filmed back in the city.
GRADE: B-
