Horror Movie Review: Night of the Demons 2 (1994)

It has been 6 years since the incident at Hull house in the first movie & all the bodies were recovered…except Angela’s.

At a local Catholic boarding school is Mellissa (Mouse), the younger sister of Angela. She is now an orphan as her parents committed suicide after receiving a Halloween card with Angela’s signature on it. Mouse lives in fear that Angela will return for her & has regular dreams about her sister…much to the annoyance of the girls who have to sleep in the same dorm as her.

Sister Gloria runs the female side of the school with a firm Christian belief constantly trying to keep the girls away from the boys across the road. She should probably try harder as these fella’s have a pair of binoculars that they use to spy on the girls undressing.

With the school Halloween dance coming up teenage hormones get the better of Shirley & Kurt at a tennis court & they get banned from attending the dance. Shirley is furious & decides to throw her own party at Hull house with the special guest being, Mouse.

You see Shirley is a bully & after stealing a book about demonic rituals from school nerd, Perry she plans to attempt a ritual that will involve the timid sister of Angela.

Shirley, her boyfriend, Rick & a group of fresh meat make their way to Hull house having tricked Mouse into coming with them. Once inside Angela awakens & promptly sets about tormenting the group.

From this point on you could be forgiven for thinking that the film just copies & pastes the first movie, it’s what I expected to happen so imagine my surprise when the group (minus one) escape from Hull house with half the movie to go.

They think their safe but one of them took a lipstick from the house (Who would pick up & use a lipstick that wasn’t their own?) & it takes on a life of its own, possessing Shirley. Now Angela is free to wreck havoc at the Catholic school all so she can sacrifice Mouse to the glory of the Devil.

A horror movie sequel should always take what made the first film good (Angela, demonic possession, cheesiness) & make it bigger & better. Night of the Demons 2 does a great job of not just repeating the same story from the first but upping the visual effects & black comedy.

The film takes it’s time to get going as it spends a serious amount of time getting us acquainted with the characters but it’s better for it. When the killing starts you care about who lives & dies, their plights are more important then just waiting for the next gory death…of which there are many.

The film was actually losing my attention when a demonic Shirley exposed her boobs & offered them to her boyfriend. He reaches out where-upon they become a pair of hands that crush his hand in a vice-like grip. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen in a horror movie before. I loved it…

Angela is full of one-liners & it does dampen her threat somewhat especially when she is having campy sex with one of her victims. The camp/cheesiness is ramped up for the ending that sees Sister Gloria go all ‘ass-kicking’ in Hull house alongside the kids using holy water balloons & water guns. It’s more fun then it sounds & does result in some amazing demonic melting effects but its not something I can say I loved.

What the movie fails to improve upon is the tension & scares…there are none present here & it lacks star characters to really make it standout. Sure, their all good actors but no-where as memorable as the first movies set. It was nice to see the same actor returning to play Angela again though.

A nice surprise as I expected a whole lot worse…on many levels it improves on the original but lets itself down by ramping up the cheesiness & dropping the scares. As characters go Angela is a good one, the demon bride with a seemingly infinite number of ways to make you suffer, it’s a pity that she just isn’t used to great effect here.